Million Dollar Point

Million Dollar Point sits on the southern tip of Espiritu Santo, and the name alone tells you something unusual is waiting beneath the surface. At the end of World War II, the US military dumped an extraordinary quantity of equipment — trucks, bulldozers, forklifts, ammunition cases — directly into the shallows rather than sell it back to local authorities at reduced prices.

Decades later, that act of bureaucratic spite has become one of the Pacific's most genuinely distinctive dive sites.

The machinery starts in less than two metres of water and cascades down a gentle slope to around 30 metres, which makes this accessible to virtually every certification level, including open-water beginners. Visibility typically runs 15–25 metres, and currents are mild enough that you can pick your way slowly through the wreckage without being swept off.

The coral encrustation is impressive — hard corals and sponges have colonised cab interiors and engine blocks thoroughly — though some sections show bleaching stress consistent with regional warming events. It is reef life built on industrial wreckage, which gives it a strange beauty rather than a pristine one.

Green and hawksbill turtles move unhurried through the site, genuinely unbothered by divers. Schools of batfish, surgeonfish, and lionfish tuck into rusted machinery cavities, and the shallower sections reward snorkellers who are happy drifting over bulldozers in bright afternoon light.

Luganville, about four kilometres north, is well serviced by day-boat operators, several of whom run two-tank trips that pair Million Dollar Point with the SS President Coolidge wreck nearby. Liveaboards occasionally include Espiritu Santo, but day boats are the standard approach. April through October offers the most stable conditions and best underwater visibility.