More than 35 years after a failed attempt to visit Mystery Island, I finally made it – only to find it’s not so mysterious.
When I was a child growing up in the 1980s, I dreamt of tropical islands and wide oceans.Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe, Moby DickSo when I set sail, aged 10, with my parents aboard P&O’s Fairstar , one place on our Pacific itinerary stood out: Mystery Island, off Vanuatu.“Mystery Island”? What mysteries could this place hold for a 10-year-old boy? Buried treasure? Pirates? Castaways? I didn’t know.
It appears tantalisingly off our starboard side, visible from our balcony as we eat a room-service breakfast.From here, it lives up to my expectations. A narrow strip of sand, just 70 metres wide at its thinnest but about 900 metres long, with palm trees lined up along the edge of the beach. If a bedraggled Tom Hanks wandered out from the treeline waving a rag to get our attention, I wouldn’t be surprised.As it happens, Mystery Island is not so remote or so mysterious.
The kids who have watched too many episodes of nautical adventure series Octonauts on the ABC, are convinced pirates will be on the island. There’s no real disappointment when they find out there are none, because they discover something better – real life tropical coconuts lying on the beach.
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