While we were in Vanuatu, we made the journey to Hideaway Island. This is a cool place to explore, it’s very sheltered from the wind and you can go snorkelling to the only underwater mailbox in the world. You take a ferry, and then pay to get onto the island for a day pass when you get there. It wasn’t too much, if I remember correctly it was $5 each.
We posted a postcard (they make them on waterproof paper) to Kirsten’s mom in Canada and she received it about 8 weeks later. Hideaway Island is a reserve, so the schools of fish were amazing and plentiful.
We found the mailbox a relatively close distance from shore. We went at low tide by chance, and it was a good thing we did, because the mailbox was a couple metres down and the salt water was surprisingly buoyant. At high tide, the mailbox can be up to 4-5m underwater we heard from our tour guide.
After delivering the letter we did a bit more exploring and found giant schools of fish nearby, including some adorable little fish coloured a dazzling electric blue. It was a really cool experience swimming through them and having them part around you. Unfortunately most of the coral seemed fairly dead and not too colourful, so that was a bit of a disappointment, but the plentiful fish certainly made up for it.
It was definitely worthwhile visiting Hideaway Island to see the underwater mailbox, and I think it was worth the 5 bucks for the waterproof postcard. It was a really cool adventure and it was a great way to wrap up our trip to Vanuatu.