Family Festivities on Mystery island

No one lives on Mystery Island because ghosts are believed to wander the island at night. When a cruise ship arrives it seems that everyone and his family arrive to join the festivities.

Mystery Island Tours

The cruise ships provide a lot of income to the local economy. Carnival Spirit usually offers structured tours and activities at each port but on this half square mile island you are in the hands of the locals, although Carnival did set up bars and cafes on the island as an added attraction.

Rockin' on Mystery Island

While on the island we were entertained by the Nasitpu String Band made up of locals between the ages of 50 to 65 "to sing you sweet island melody songs to welcome you all to the Mystery Island." I was fascinated by the drummer playing the drums with flip flops (thongs in Australian).

The Mystery of Mystery Island

The actual name of Mystery Island is Inyyeug Island (I have no idea how to pronounce this)! When the first cruise ship the Fairstar came to the island in the 1980s they renamed the island Mystery island because it was a mystery whether or not the weather would cooperate to let you land tourists on the beach. We were safely "tendered" ashore in the ship's life boats, to be greeted by natives from the neighboring island of Aneityum. They canoe over to sell their wares and entertain whenever the cruise ships come.

Mystery Island: True South Pacific Paradise

My favorite port of call for the entire cruise was Mystery Island - a very small island with no people, roads. stores, running water, internet, electricity, TV, shops, or tourism (except when tour ships land nearby). Sounds heavenly doesn't it? No one lives here and yet 65,000 mostly Australian tourists flock here every year, 99% by cruise ship. In 1974 Queen Elizabeth made an unscheduled stop here for an impromptu "royal beach picnic in paradise. And for the first time, she had no one to wave to..."