2016 - South Pacific Islands - Mystery Island Welcome
Next stop on the Sydney to Vancouver float on ms Noordam was Mystery Island.
Mystery Island is a tiny, uninhabited islet in Vanuatu’s Tafea Province. Other than an grass airstrip, built by United States Military personnel to serve the nearby island of Aneityum, Mystery Island only has a few huts for overnighters, modern amenities for cruise passengers and some trails that bisect the island.
Mystery Island is the most-southern in the 80-something Vanuatu’s island chain.
Officially it’s called Inyeug, but to day-tripper cruise ship passengers, and some hardy adventurers who actually go there for longer holidays in almost Robinson Crusoe fashion, its Mystery Island.
Population of the island - Zero.
No one lives on the island as it is considered taboo to do so (and hey, its really, really small). The locals come across from nearby Aneityum on the days when our ships call into the island. The population of Aneityum is approximately 1,200.
It's got no running water, electricity, roads, shops, phones, internet nor TV, and half of it is a grass airstrip that runs from the beach on one side to the beach on the other.
No one lives here, yet over 65,000 mostly-Australian tourists flock here every year, 99 per cent by cruise ship, finding they can walk around this uninhabited, remote and sunny South Pacific island in just 45-minutes.
In 1974 while Queen Elizabeth was on her way to Australia from Port Vila aboard the Royal Yacht Brittania as part of a Pacific tour, she made a unscheduled stop at Mystery Island for an impromptu royal beach picnic in paradise. And for the first time, she had no one to wave to…
2016 - South Pacific Islands - Mystery Island Welcome
Next stop on the Sydney to Vancouver float on ms Noordam was Mystery Island.
Mystery Island is a tiny, uninhabited islet in Vanuatu’s Tafea Province. Other than an grass airstrip, built by United States Military personnel to serve the nearby island of Aneityum, Mystery Island only has a few huts for overnighters, modern amenities for cruise passengers and some trails that bisect the island.
Mystery Island is the most-southern in the 80-something Vanuatu’s island chain.
Officially it’s called Inyeug, but to day-tripper cruise ship passengers, and some hardy adventurers who actually go there for longer holidays in almost Robinson Crusoe fashion, its Mystery Island.
Population of the island - Zero.
No one lives on the island as it is considered taboo to do so (and hey, its really, really small). The locals come across from nearby Aneityum on the days when our ships call into the island. The population of Aneityum is approximately 1,200.
It's got no running water, electricity, roads, shops, phones, internet nor TV, and half of it is a grass airstrip that runs from the beach on one side to the beach on the other.
No one lives here, yet over 65,000 mostly-Australian tourists flock here every year, 99 per cent by cruise ship, finding they can walk around this uninhabited, remote and sunny South Pacific island in just 45-minutes.
In 1974 while Queen Elizabeth was on her way to Australia from Port Vila aboard the Royal Yacht Brittania as part of a Pacific tour, she made a unscheduled stop at Mystery Island for an impromptu royal beach picnic in paradise. And for the first time, she had no one to wave to…