Isle of Pines was dramatically formed by a series of volcanic upheavals and is truly beautiful. We both headed up on board to watch us get closer as the ship anchored. The day started off as a bit grey and gloomy and not as tropical as one would hope but we were still keen to get off and step onto the beautiful white sand beaches Isle of Pines had to offer.
We arrived around 10am via tender boat and were greeted by a French Polynesian song and dance by the locals. The first thing we spotted was the stand where you could get your passport stamped for $2 AUD or $200 French Pacific Franc. It was a must do for us.
Carrying on to explore what the island had to offer, we browsed past most of the stalls and headed over to the best spot for snorkeling, we found a rare vacancy in the bank to leave our stuff and headed straight for the water. The water took us by surprise with being a little chiller than first thought and was extremely salty, which worked to my benefit as it helped me to bob along and not having to worry about sinking while snorkeling. We snorkeled around the “island rock” got some great photos while in the water and some beautiful underwater shots too. I got half way around the island rock, Kurt was a bit ahead of me and I was left alone in a quiet spot on the far side of the rock thinking to myself how beautiful this was.... with the distance of hearing others swim but felt very alone I then realised they had sea snakes in New Caledonia and wasn’t too keen to be swimming without others around. I very quickly caught up to Kurt and others swimming in the same area so I wasn’t alone. I kindly got out of the water to take a photo of a family who was enjoying the sun and snorkeling for the day to then be told “oh by the way there is a sea snake on the rock off your right shoulder”. A few extra words came out of the mouth and once I had relaxed I enjoyed watching this beautiful black and brown snake work its way down into the water and swam off.
Our only disappointment was on the other side of the bay we wanted to go paddle boating and found that the water sports equipment stand where you could hire them was closed. Bizarre considering there was a cruise ship in town so you would have thought they would have been keen to make a few extra dollars. So we just stood back, relaxed and watched the day close in and a storm head our way. Things were a little expensive as we really couldn’t work out the currency exchange difference and handing over $550 (French Pacific Franc) for a beer seemed just a little weird. We worked it out and that is approximately AUD7 which isn’t too bad apart from it was a small can of local beer. You also need to make sure you take some small change if you want to use the toilet it is about 200 French Pacific Franc.
Overall we had a wonderful experience for our first day snorkeling and loved Isle of Pines. If you are looking at travelling to New Caledonia then I definitely recommend putting Isle of Pines on your itinerary. Isle of Pines can be accessed by cruise itinerary or a short flight from Noumea.