September 2008: South Pacific
Luganville, Espirito Santo, Vanuatu pt 10 (S 15.30.905 E 167.11.027)
Aore Island, Vanuatu (S 15.32.252 E167.10.810)
Before we started the tour we had specific destinations in mind that we wanted to see. One was the village and the other was an airplane wreck. It’s a wonder that they even found this wreck. We left the main road that was paved by the military years ago and took a short ride on a dirt road that ended at the trees as you see above. We walked inside the tree canopy and there it was strewn all over the place. The guide was very attentive and stayed with us the entire time and I am sure to stop souvenir takers. This site brought home the eeriness of the wreck and that this was an event in the war. Albeit, a small event but nonetheless something that happened. Strange as it is, it occurred to me that here were 3 Americans being driven thru the jungle 60+ years after a war to see an American plane wreck.
Literally not far from the plane wreck was Million Dollar Beach. After the war there was a tremendous amount of equipment and supplies that were no longer needed. They were offered to the local government and when they did not reply the stuff was dumped in the channel. This is a very popular scuba diving site because at depth you can see and recognize items. We walked along the shore and realized it was littered with polished broken glass. Most of the glass was from Coke bottles. There was quite a lot of steel that had washed up, too such as, engine blocks, car frame, tractor scoop, etc. embedded in the deformed and decomposing steel was also broken glass. From the looks of it the storms will keep bringing this stuff up on shore until it is all gone.
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