Yes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site!
12 October 2018 | Ilot Mato, Southern Lagoon, New Caledonia
Photo: The turquoise waters of Baie de Kuto (Tregoning 4th from right) seen from the highest point on Ile des Pins
In just 10 days we have become firm fans of the Southern Lagoon of New Caledonia and can completely understand why it is one of the nation's UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Of course, that means that we have been busy exploring and not writing... Also 10 days without internet access makes it easier to totally immerse ourselves in our surroundings, but does not allow us to remain good communicators. Hopefully, we can catch-up with our correspondence over the weekend, once we are back in Noumea.
In brief, we left Noumea and sailed southeast to spend one night at Baie Iré, on the north side of Ile Ouen. I had hoped that we might start our great New Caledonian snorkeling experience there but the water was deeply colored with red mud that had run-off the eroded red soils of the little- inhabited island. The following day we had a good sail to the Ile des Pins (Isle of Pines) towards the southeast corner of the Southern Lagoon and found quite a few other boats in Baie de Kuto on the island's southwestern corner. As described, the water here is a dazzling, Bahamian turquoise and the anchorage and surrounding area are beautiful. We climbed the nearby highest point of the island, Pic N'ga (262 m or 860 ft) early one morning and were duly impressed by the stunning views of islets, reefs, and the whole palette of blues in the water around us.
We discovered, however, that the presence of the fine, white-sand beaches and several thousand cruise-ship visitors did not equate to good snorkeling conditions. Unlike the Bahamas, where turquoise water is usually very clear and shallow over sand, here the water was cloudy, presumably from the stirred-up fine white sand. In fact, the best snorkeling conditions were at La Piscine Naturelle (the natural swimming pool) on the northeast side of the island. We reached this site on a long bicycle ride around the island with Hannes and Sabine (SV Cayenne) and Herman (SV Pacifico). It was a slightly more taxing ride (lots of ups and downs) than we had perhaps expected (over 36 km or 23 miles) but we enjoyed the views, visiting a cave, and even cycling in the rain. During our stay at Baie de Kuto, we had a great time with our Austrian and German friends including a couple of dinners together.
Ile des Pins was a very attractive island and deserved a longer visit but we were also keen to see some of the reefs and clear-water for which the lagoon is famous. This brought us back north to Ilot Mato which is a tiny island (but high enough to have amazing views) which is surrounded by fabulous coral reef, both shallow and deep. For the last four days, we have been snorkeling fools, trying several different reefs and finding many species of fish that are new to us. A few white tip reef sharks, which indicate that the reefs are healthy, a few black and white sea kraits (sea snakes including one quite high on the island trail), and quite a few crown-of-thorns starfish (not such good news as they can eat large amounts of coral).
The water is very clear and we have been so glad that our final few days in the South Pacific, before we return to Noumea and prepare to head to Australia, have been such an underwater treat. That we could share a couple evenings here with friends from Whangarei, Renate and Martin (SVs Renahara/Tystie) and also reconnected with Mark and Marjo on SV Osprey (to whom we delivered a Kindle in Fiji), was just icing on the cake. We expect to catch-up with a few other cruising buddies when we return to Noumea and then we look forward to seeing our Australian friends over the coming months. Somehow between all of that socializing and sightseeing, I will have to find the time to fill-in all the gaps and photos for the blog. However, it will be good to reminisce over our busy and wonderful cruising season.