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Mele Bay There's little at Mele Bay above water level, so if you're not into diving keep on driving. Underwater, the attractions just keep on coming; coral heads, shipwrecks and an undulating topography to keep you on the edge of your flippers. More sites are being discovered all the time, but Black Sand Reef is one of the most popular sites around, replete with coral caves, tunnels and outcrops. Gotham City is an extravagantly colourful reef named for the large resident population of batfish. One of the best dives, with a spectacular array of tunnels and underwater holes, is at The Cathedral, and Tuki Tuki has excellent visibility and enormous chasms that divers can swim through. Semle Feders and MV Konanda are two accessible wrecks scuttled in 1985 and 1987, for the not-so-serious and the very-serious diver respectively. Mele Bay is 4km (2.5mi) north-west of Port Vila, and you can reach it on foot or by taxi. Erromango Island The population of Erromango, once estimated at 10,000, is now around 1500. Some locals say the depopulation - caused by introduced disease and blackbirding - was in retribution for missionaries killed last century. The Martyrs' Church at Dillon's Bay has small tablets in memory of the preachers welcomed with open mouths by locals yet to kick their boutique meat habit. Sandalwood first brought Erromango to the attention of Europeans, and the forests on this mountainous island are still a fine reason to visit. Many people come to trek independently along myriad paths that cross the island, but you need to hire a guide for some of the more rugged walks. Huge kauri reserves, sheltered estuaries with white sandy beaches, caves full of bleached and mineralised skulls, and tropical rainforests with diverse flora are highlights. Erromango is just over 100km (60mi) south of Efate, and Vanair has return flights from Vila. Pentecost Island Pentecost is home to the spectacularly frightening naghol, as land diving is known there, and under the maxim that you should fall before you can walk many boys are primed for land diving from an early age. Despite a flimsy overlay of Christianity many islanders live traditional lifestyles and adhere strictly to indigenous beliefs. If you aren't interested in watching the land dive you can do your own underwater diving at Laone or visit hot springs at Hotwata. Melsisi is a fine place to see kava and cocoa plantations, and from south-west Pentecost you get splendid views of Ambrym and its actively puffing volcanoes. 2 of 4 Pentecost is 190km (118mi) due north of Vila, and there are return flights from both Vila and Luganville. Luganville Luganville is a messy collection of corroded, corrugated iron WWII huts, ugly concrete slabs and rusting steel sea walls, with no decent beaches unless you like walking on coral the consistency of broken glass. Dining out is limited, although the market is reasonable for the budgetconscious. There's no night-life to speak of other than numerous nakamals (kava bars), and they'll become very attractive if you have to spend too much time here. Nevertheless Luganville is a good base for trips to the northern islands, such as Pentecost, Maewo and the Torres group. Down the road from town is Million Dollar Point, where the US military dumped tons of equipment - including canned food, bulldozers, trucks, jeeps and crates of Coca Cola - at the end of the war. Most of that is now encrusted by coral, making for great diving in the still, shallow water. More good diving is to be had 10km (6mi) across the Segond Channel from Luganville on Bokissa Island, which has a resort, restaurant, bar and swimming pool. Luganville is the capital of Espiritu Santo Island, 260km (160mi) north-west of Port Vila. There are daily flights from Vila to Pekoa Airport, 6km (3.7mi) outside Luganville. Off the Beaten Track Torres Islands When the South-East Trade Winds are blowing in the far north of the archipelago the surf is up in the Torres Islands, and even if it's not, the brilliant white beaches are still worth a laze. Only four of the six main islands are populated, and the Polynesian influence is at its strongest here. They get so few visitors this way that the shops are not geared up to tourists, so you'd be wise to bring some of your own supplies. Coconut crabs, elsewhere a delicacy, constitute an important part of the local diet and you can pick them up cheaply. On Toga Island, children as young as seven smoke tobacco, using coconut crab claws as pipes. Hand stencils are visible on the walls at Yeyenwu Caves on Hiu Island, the northernmost island in the group, and they will keep stalactite and stalacmite buffs entertained for hours. You can see Vanikolo in the Solomons from Mt Wonvaraon on Hiu. Flights leave from Luganville for Linua, and from there you can get around in outrigger canoes or speedboats. Gaua Island
Dominated by Mt Garet, which puffs steam, ash, sulphur and smoke into the air, Gaua Island is renowned for its natural beauty. Lake Letas lies on an ash plain at the top of the mountain, and the lake's extraordinary ability to carry the reflection of passing ships hundreds of metres below has earned it the more prosaic name of Lake Reflection. At 7km (4.3mi) long, it is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the South Pacific, although volcanic sulphur has stained the waters orange-brown. Thousands of birds come here to feed, and incubator birds lay their eggs close by, abandoning them to incubate in the warm mud. De Quiros estimated that 200,000 people lived on Gaua, most likely a gross exaggeration to impress the Spanish king, but dozens of stone ruins and dry stone walls reclaimed by forest attest to a time when Gaua supported a larger population than the 1300 it does today. Trekking on Gaua is strenuous, but the lake and Siri Falls are worth it. The falls drop away into dense forest shrouded in mist. The Banks Group, of which Gaua is the second largest, is serviced by air from Luganville, and speedboats ply between the islands. Small trading ships also service it from Luganville. Maewo Island volcanoes, Mt Inrerow Atahein and Mt Tahentchai. Accessible reefs, such as Port Patrick and Inmal Reef, are ideal for diving and hot springs at Umetch, Itchepthav Bay and Anwunupol offer a rewarding soak at the end of a long day. The locals at Anawamet have created an offshore marine sanctuary to protect the numerous turtles that feed there, whereas they are hunted for food elsewhere on the island. Vanair links Aneityum to Vila. History Some of the islands have been populated continuously for thousands of years and others are still uninhabited today. The earliest known settlement was on Malo Island, where pottery at least 4000 years old has been unearthed. Prehistoric cultures in Vanuatu were plagued by inter-tribal warfare. The tribes' rich spiritual life attributed all natural and human-induced bad luck or calamities to sorcery, and they staged lavish festivals to appease the gods. The elaborate burial chamber of a nobleman buried in AD1265 was excavated on Eretoka Island, off the coast of Efate, and bears evidence of human sacrifice. A needle-thin chunk of land on the maps, Maewo's central mountainous ridge draws more than 4000mm (that's 4m, or 13ft) of rain annually. Not surprisingly, the rivers run fast and the jungle grows thick. A magnificent waterfall surrounded by deep waterholes lies near the airstrip. Two coral monoliths at the village of Kerembai represent people turned to stone in the island's mythic past. Sorcery, secret societies and a rich mythology flourish on the island despite, or perhaps because of, its tragic history. About 90% of Maewo's population was wiped out by disease and blackbirding during the 19th century. Avoid Maewo during the mid-year yam harvest, when the mid-year hurters, masked men wearing sacks and banana leaves chase and beat people with thorny sticks. Hot springs at Lolarouk and Gaiofo, and cascades at Naone make Maewo worth more than a flying visit, and you can dive on a wrecked blackbirding vessel at Talise. Reach Maewo by air from Luganville or on the Aloara, that sails from Vila and Luganville. Aneityum Island The southernmost of Vanuatu's islands, Aneityum arguably has the most pleasant climate. Tropical fruits and vegetables grow luxuriantly and a walking track that loops around the island makes trekking an attractive prospect. It is harder work in the interior, but worth it for the magnificent mountain scenery punctuated by massive kauri pines and ancient waterfalls. Three mountains dominate the interior, two of them extinct 3 of 4 Explorer Pedro Fernandez de Quiros laid eyes on the islands in 1606, naming the first one he sighted Nuestra Señora de Austrialia del Espiritu Santo, known today simply as Santo. His lofty - if quixotic - ideal was to found New Jerusalem in the Pacific on the banks of a river he called the Jordan. But the locals didn't really want to be saved and the prevailing south-easterlies continually hindered the Spanish landings. De Quiros wandered off into the Pacific not long after he arrived, presumably believing his failure had condemned the unsuspecting ni-Vanuatu to burn for eternity. Among the Spanish, Portuguese and French explorers who followed was Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who wrote that he had been 'transported to the garden of Eden'. The Englishman Captain James Cook was perhaps less starry-eyed in 1774 when he wrote that the traditional manner of preparing kava 'is as simple as it is disgusting'. Vanuatu's more recent history brims with a panoply of pulpit-pounding priests, scurrilous slavers and fumbling colonial bureaucrats. Hot on the heels of the explorers came the adventurers to harvest whales and sandalwood and the missionaries to harvest souls. The Europeans brought epidemics of influenza and measles, venereal disease and the slave trade, and the populations of some islands, particularly in the north, have never recovered. The English and French, often at war with each other last century, settled uneasily next to each other in the New Hebrides, as the archipelago was known until independence, and formed probably the strangest
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