Post Haste Direct Mailing Services: Weird and Unique Post Office Locations

The US Postal Service has been in the news a lot lately, because it wants to close a bunch of its locations. People are upset because they don't want their neighborhood Post Office to be too out of the way. That got me thinking. What qualifies as "out of the way"? Here's what I found:

Vanuatu's underwater Post Office

1. The next time you're diving in Vanuatu, be sure to stop by the world's first underwater Post Office. Situated within a marine sanctuary near Port Vila, the PO is about 165 feet offshore, and nearly 10 feet deep. It's staffed for one hour a day by one employee, and the waterproof cards mailed there are hand-cancelled underwater with an embossed frank.

Source: Vanuatu Post

2. In Antarctica, visitors can assure friends they're having a great time by mailing a card at Port Lockroy. Founded in 1902, Port Lockroy has been used for whaling, British military operations, and research. Today Port Lockroy is a combination Post Office and museum.

Source: Amusing Planet

3. China opened a new Post Office Nov. 3, 2011 with a street address that is 213 miles above the earth. The "China Post Space Office" opened for business on the ground in Beijing Aerospace City and virtually on board the newly established Tiangong-1 space lab module. The office will process letters and emails, making it possible for the public to write Chinese astronauts on the ground and in space.

Source: CollectSpace

You can mail a card from base camp on Mt. Everest

4. The world's highest post office that is still on land is located in a tent at the North Everest Base Camp, Tibet, China. It's at 17,090 feet.

Source: wiki.answers.com

5. Michigan is the only place in the world with a floating Post Office - the J.W. Westcott II. It delivers mail to ships while they are still underway, and has been operating for 125 years.

Source: J.W. Westcott

The Galapagos Post Office

6. In the brush on Galapagos, just a few yards off the beach, is perhaps the world's strangest Post Office. It's a collection of boxes, crates and barrels filled with postcards. Visitors (mostly tourists on eco-cruises) sort through the stacks, looking for addresses within delivery distance of their homes. They also drop their own messages into the receptacle, adding another link to the chain of mail.

Source: Multiple Travel Websites

7. The first underwater mail box was opened August 16, 1939 in the Bahamas by US photographer John Ernest Williamson. "Sea Floor" closed some two years later.

Source: Philatelic Database

8. The deepest underwater mailbox is off the coast of Susami, Japan. It's 32.8 feet deep, and gets up to 200 pieces of mail per day.

Source: Wikipedia.org