Outward Bound: Second Stop – Mystery Island, Vaunatu
02 January 2026
Mystery Island was our destination for our second shore day and the ship was sailing in to its anchorage as we awoke. Heading outside on to the cabin’s balcony I snapped a few photos of the ‘big island’ of Aneityum where the local population lives across the water from Mystery Island itself. They travel across for their own cultural reasons as well as on days when the cruise ships are visiting to set up markets, food stalls and massage stalls.
Known officially as Inyeug Island, it is located in Tafea Province of Vanuatu. It’s more widely known name of ‘Mystery Island’ originated after a visit by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip in 1974, the western name used to generate more sensationalism in the reports of the visit for western media at the time. The island does possess a rudimentary air field, little more than a grass strip and an out-building, to receive small plane flights twice a week from Port Vila via Tanna Island. Mystery Island is predominantly a tourist destination and its circumference is easily walked in 20-40 minutes depending on your physical ability and on how many times you stop to take in the views.
Today was going to be a no rush day for us, we didn’t have any excursion booked on the island and would venture to the shore when we were ready, avoiding the early rush for the tender boats that ferry cruise passengers to the jetty. First up was breakfast on the Lido Deck, meeting up with both Mum, Rachel & Maddi before deciding what time we’d grab a ‘tender ticket’ for the ride across to Mystery Island.
Arriving on the Island we decided that we would have a walk through the markets first before heading to the beach which was already crowded with people enjoying the sand and water on a very warm day. However as we were making our way down towards the markets Soph & Maddi spotted a hair braiding stall and as it wasn’t busy we decided to let them get their hair done. Jo and Rachel had theirs done as well whilst the rest of us waited, torturous for young Harry though especially as his hair was too short to have anything done to it.
We then went on to check out the market stalls, the girls looking for bracelets and necklaces whilst I was looking for ornamental sea turtles to add to my new project in my studio. Already possessing fridge magnets from our destinations, I was planning to stick these sea turtles on a wall with one for each island however I found two I liked here so was one up. This would turn out to be a good decision before the end of our shore days as I couldn’t find one on Lifou.
Souveniring done we made our way to stake a spot out on the beach. Once set up, the kids went in the water whilst Mum went exploring on her own and Jo & Rachel headed off for a relaxing massage. I kept an eye on the kids from the water, splashing with Harry whilst Soph & Maddi tried their best to keep their freshly braided hair above water. This meant NO SNORKELING!
With Jo & Rachel having completed their massages and returned to the beach, I decided to go for a walk around the island on my own, taking snapshots along the way. Much of the foliage is home to the island’s spiders and their webs are quite intricate. The spiders don’t shy away from people walking by and are often seen at the centre of their webs, some building more strands as you pass by. Thankfully the webs are very visible and not strung along the pathways. Offshoot pathways from the main one take you down to the beaches where this is also an option to walk. Dotted along the pathway is the occasional toilet block of the ‘long drop’ variety if you feel in desperate need to relieve yourself.
You can also walk the length of the grass air strip as long as there is no plane coming in, one did arrive and leave whilst we were there, but there are attendants there who know when to clear the field of the human obstacles.
Having completed my circumnavigation of the island by foot I made my way back to our group on the beach and nestled myself in to watch the kids playing in the water. Despite keeping their heads above water, Jo and Rachel’s braids had come loose, more likely from the massage though whilst Soph and Maddi’s efforts to do the same had been in vain. I was surprised to find out that both Soph and Maddi had tried the fresh coconut water on offer, an acquired taste so it wasn’t surprising that neither finish them. Yet I was proud of Soph for trying something new instead of rejecting the idea straight out as she has been want to do.
With a solid dose of the sun under our belts, with the day waning and the line up to return back to the Carnival Splendor already burgeoning, we decided to pack up and make our way towards the jetty for the tender ride back. Passing the spot where they had their braids originally done, Jo noticed that there wasn’t a lot of people getting any done so she asked if they would fix up all their braids. They were happy to and wouldn’t have charged but as a show of gratitude they paid again for them to be fixed up.
Despite the lengthy queue for the tenders to leave this slice of paradise, it didn’t take all that long to return to the ship with two of the tenders operating in concert. Once back on the ship though it was straight to the showers to rinse off and of course this is where Towel Animal number four made its appearance in our cabin. This time around it was an elephant.
For lunch it was up to the Lido Deck and I availed myself of Guy’s Burger Joint for two burgers as I had worked up quite an appetite and felt I deserved them. The Lido Marketplace and the Pizza Bar was used by the others and we sat up on Deck 10 to eat. Soph and Maddi still wanted more water time so they played in the pool whilst I relaxed with some drinks and my book, keeping an eye on them whilst Jo and Rachel went off to do their own thing. Harry stayed with me on Deck 10 as he was a bit tired and just wanted to sit and watch some downloaded shows on his iPad. Mum would also join us a bit later before being rejoined by Jo and Rachel.
After dinner we went to the Spectacular Spectacular theatre for the second viewing of the programmed ‘Playlist Productions’ show – “Dear Future Husband”, this production having replaced the “88 Keys” of our previous cruise on the Carnival Splendor. Unfortunately one of the performers injured their leg in the opening song. As they have no understudies and they couldn’t pivot the production to another performer on the fly, the remainder of the show was cancelled. It was unfortunate for us as well as this show was the only one on the itinerary we hadn’t seen yet with all the others having been performed on our previous cruises. However, we understood the performer’s health was far more important so it was a case of ‘so-be-it’.
To fill in the time we headed down to the Red Frog Bar to get some drinks and watch a bit of live music but we could tell that all three kids were wrecked from the day’s activities. Maddi had a bit of a dance with Jo on the dancefloor, thankfully nothing too strenuous for Jo’s knees, then it was off to bed for us all to get some good rest before our third and final shore day.
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