Luganville Vanuato

This island is occupied by Melanesian people who made our day here most welcoming. The island was discovered by a Portuguese explorer and named "Espiritu Santo" meaning Holy Spirit, however the area is now still heavily impacted by the Americans who had a huge base here dring WW11. Patsy, my travelling companion and I joined a WW11 War Relics tour where we were shown the remains of equipment, buildings, roads and the site of the ship wreck SS President Coolidge. Lastly we enjoyed a tropical fruit punch in one of the towns' resort.

We travelled overnight from Champagne Bay, an hour drive from Luganville on the other side of the island. The weather today was overcast and reasonally warm. During the last part of our tour whe we were under the cover of the resort's outdoor entertaining area, when we experienced our first tropicical downpour.

The small town has an airport with a runway built by the Americans during WW11 Today it services domestic and some international flights, some from Brisbane and even Melbourne! Many of the buildings now used are built on the concrete slabs left when the Americans removed their buildings after the war. Not only destroying all usable buildings but vehicals and equipment were dumped in the sea in the site now named Million Dollar Point. Now it is a popular dive site full of bulldozers, cranes, forklifts and marine life. The first site we visited was the somber reminder of a jail which held the Japanese crew of two patrol boats sank off the coast. We visited the site of the troop carrying SS President Coolidge which had struck a mine in the harbour and sank after being beached and later sliding back into the deep waters, again a popular dive site for visitors around the world. When the ship was beached all but the captain managed to get ashore and survived the tragedy.

               Remainder of the jail which housed the Japanese Patrol Boat Crew

              View of the harbour and islands around the town

            Divers walking out from a dive on the SS President Coolidge

           Photo of the ship when it was beached before sliding back into the deep water

           American soldiers and sailors abandoning ship

                Remainders of the dumped materials at Million Dollar Point

                      Banyon Tree. Where the first Bunging Jumping started, though not this                           particular tree

                     Enjoying a tropical punch while it poured outside.