No one actually live on Mystery Island, formerly known by the locals as Inyeug. This island is said to be haunted by ghosts and are only visited by the inhabitants of the nearby Aneityum Island and Tanna Island further up north, when there’s a cruise in town.

Cue the docking of Carnival Spirit, and we arrived in thrones. From a distance I see a number of canoes and dingy making the trip across the small channel that separates Inyeug to the larger island, ferrying floral dresses, scarves, fridge magnets and coconut carvings across. We were obviously a major source of income to these otherwise simple islanders, whose lives are usually occupied with the land and the sea.

We hop off the tender boats onto Mystery Island. Just like it was on Isle of Pine, a welcoming party of locals from the nearby island had set up camp and sang a chorus of tribal music. We followed the sandy paths created by the previous rounds of visitors  to the various points of the island, we found ourselves a small hut to settle down. We once again pulled our masks and snorkels on and headed out to sea, in search of the underwater life that was promised to us by the ship’s activities desk.

Speaking of the sea, the waters that surrounded us were crystal blue, it is a notch above the experience we had at Isle of Pines the previous day. The visibility was around 20 or so meters, the water so clear that one doesn’t need snorkels to see what’s at the bottom of the shallows.

Unfortunately, we must have picked a bad spot. There was not much to be seen near where we were. The bottom of the sea seemed like a barren desert, dotted with the occasional rock that shelters the odd fish and sea snake. We did hear tales of great snorkelling once we got back on board the ship, next time I may have to re-assess my location.

Besides that, I enjoyed the island for the few hours we spent there, and I can see why the locals think it may be haunted. Most of the island is covered in Mangrove trees, whose roots deeply anchored in the sand which look like limbs of a tall creature. A few abandoned housing and a grass air strip when the allied forced used this island as a landing field during WWII make up the sightseeing opportunities there were available, but must be eerie at night for those looking across from the channels. We spend some time browsing the makeshift market before heading back to the ship, happy to have spent two perfect days on the beach and in the beautiful waters of South Pacific, where our next adventure was just another sleep away.