Snorkelling Pléiades du Nord

Ouvéa, often referred to as the ‘island closest to paradise’, is a beautiful atoll in the Pacific. Snorkelling Pléiades du Nord (Northern Pleiades) – one of two islets (the other Pléiades du Sud) – revealed crystal emerald waters, vibrant coral reefs and an abundance of underwater life.

On this page:

• About Ouvéa
• Getting there
• Our snorkelling guide
• Snorkelling the reefs of Pléiades du Nord
• Would we return?

 

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About Ouvéa 

Ouvéa is one of many islands in the archipelago of New Caledonia – a French territory located in the Pacific Ocean. The island is around 50 km long and 7 km wide, although it is only 40 metres wide in some places. Around 3,000 people live on Ouvéa. The languages spoken are Melanesian Iaai, Polynesian Faga Uvea and french. Spoken english is limited in most places.

The lagoon of Ouvéa is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Exposure to the trade winds is opposite of what is found in the Southern Pleiades – the inner reefs are exposed and the outer reefs are sheltered.

Ouvéa Island and it’s lagoon. November 1990. Courtesy of NASA.

Why did we choose Ouvéa

The real reason we chose New Caledonia was that it was just on the tail end of the Covid-19 pandemic and we couldn’t get to Vanuatu (flights in and out weren’t operating) so we thought we’d give New Caledonia a try. To try and escape the general population, and we also did a fair bit of research on the Ile de Pins (Isle of Pines) and decided to leave the sea snakes and mosquitos for another day, the island of Ouvéa seemed a good alternative especially since it had the World Heritage lagoon which is a feeding ground for turtles and large fish. Aside that from that, Ouvéa is ‘the island closest to paradise’ and who wouldn’t want to try that!

Unfortunately for us, the lagoon seemed to have an algae bloom (algae bloom in salt water was new to me!) so it to swim in the lagoon (no snorkelling allowed) meant you had to wade through the algae to get to clearer water. We kinda gave it a miss and just concentrated on snorkelling spots instead.

The beach on the lagoon of Ouvéa (south of the island) with algae.

Getting there

We took the plane from Noumea, New Caledonia, to Ouvéa with Air Calédonie. It wasn’t overly cheap and they are tight with baggage weight. 

Getting around Ouvea is not easy. If you can afford it, hire a car and make sure you organise that before you get to the island. The car hire is only available at the airport. The cars are small but that’s all you need. The alternatives are getting picked up by your hotel or bus (we never saw a bus) or taxi (and taxi’s aren’t that cheap)

Pléiades de Sud’s snorkelling guide

At our hotel’s suggestion, we chose to snorkel the north of the island with local snorkelling guide and boat operator Jean-Baptiste (sorry there is no link for Jean-Baptiste, but any accommodation on Ouvéa would know how to get in touch with him).

Our hotel was at the south of the island in Lekiny, past the Pont de Mouly (the Mouli bridge). The Pont de Mouly is a common snorkelling spot but it was being replaced with a new bridge while we were there so we couldn’t explore it.

Driving to the north, where Jean-Baptiste launched his boat, was about a 40 minute drive, located just south of the Eglise de Saint Joseph (Saint Joseph Church).

Jean-Baptiste had two men accompany us on our snorkelling trip.

The day included the boat trip over the lagoon to the north islands (Pleiades du Nord), stopping half way where Jean-Baptiste’s sidekicks hopped overboard and spear fished a few very large fish for lunch later on. We snorkelled twice before lunch, then lunched on a mosquito infested island where it seemed to be a more of a social gathering for the local snorkelling guides, and a snorkel after lunch before returning back to the boat launch on the mainland of Ouvéa.

Snorkelling Pléiades du Nord

Snorkelling spots 1, 2 and 3

After travelling over the lagoon (about an hour to include Jean-Baptiste’s support crew to catch (spear fish) lunch – which wasn’t so good that day because it was rough on the lagoon – he steered us to the west of the Pleiades du Nord islands.

Jean-Baptiste and his crew didn’t speak english. This was one of my first experiences (Mel) doing some serious snorkelling and I did try to tell Jean-Baptiste in french (thanks to Google translator) that I was a bit anxious about sharks. He called out to his crew and repeated what I had said which gave them cause for a few laughs. From their reaction, I was’t sure what to expect.

We pulled up in the middle of nowhere (the islands were a distance away) and Jean-Baptiste threw his anchor to latch on – sadly – some reef. Then before we were instructed to jump overboard, and through some friendly snorkellers who kindly translated for us, Jean-Baptiste told us to always swim in between the snorkelling guides (sentries), one at the front and the one at the back. Both wore, what seemed to be, camouflaged wetsuits and were armed with flimsy spear guns.

One of the sentries. Image courtesy of Alexa Fernandez, our friendly snorkelling companion.

The conditions

We travelled to Ouvéa in September 2022. The weather ranged from cool to sunny (but not hot) and the water temperature was about 20 degrees celsius or more (sorry, can’t be exact on that one). We took our spring suits to New Caledonia so it meant we were comfortable. This particular day was cool and windy and a little rain.

The reef

The reef ranged between 10 and 20 metres deep of undulating white volcanic outcrops, with acute ascents to sharks below.

Despite the recent rains, the first thing we noticed was how crystal the water was. Super clear. We could easily see past the reef to the eight sharks at the bottom. At this stage I had a mini heart attack – at this stage snorkelling was new to me and so were sharks – so I felt I could practically run on water back to Jean-Baptiste who – when I looked up at him – was slouched on his seat with his legs up on the steering wheel on his mobile phone.

Jean-Baptiste smiling for the camera!

It was only through some calming interventions from Gerard that I managed my anxiety and moved back towards the reef where it was only two metres from surface and all the while trying to keep in formation with the sentries at the front and back.

It would have been ok, I think, if one of the seven sharks didn’t have a head as wide as a car bonnet. He was quietly nosing around at bottom of the shark circles but I felt a little better getting closer to the reef. We had a bit of a laugh later because the dudes with the spearguns wouldn’t have been a match for any angry shark.

Fish and coral

As you can see from the pics below, lovely hard corals on volcanic reef were not as dense as what we would have liked. 

Plenty of beautiful tropical fish, although I would have expected more. Perhaps this is a reflection of the exposure to the trade winds. This reef suited the bigger fish, with lots of black and white tip sharks of all sizes. As mentioned above, the water visibility was spectacular so I didn’t feel the need to dive down for a closer look. It was the viz that was the best part of this snorkel.

A small but important detail for us – we felt we were hurried on by the sentries so there was no time for just sitting and observing, which was a little disappointing.

Images courtesy of Alexa Fernandez, our friendly snorkelling companion.

Other tidbits

Snorkelling spots two and three were pretty similar to number one. But they seemed to have less sharks. 

Would we snorkel Pléiades du Nord again?

Well, the million dollar question.

No, we wouldn’t go back but it doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy it. It was absolutely worth the sharks, crystal waters, reef formation, fish, sentries and just the experience of snorkelling somewhere in the world.

But if Jean-Baptiste had taken a little more interest in his snorkellers, then it might have been more favourable. We also snorkelled the Pleiades du Sud with Pierre and Jean. Now that was worth doing – much more pleasurable.

Our recommendation

If this snorkel is up your alley, you need to be a good swimmer and feel comfortable swimming in the middle of nowhere, with land at a distance and the boat sometimes distant as well.

You need to feel comfortable around big fish and sharks. And if you don’t speak french, make sure google translate is on your mobile. That way, you can get the low down on what you’re expected to do (and not do) for the snorkelling.

Our recommendation is based on a comparison with other sites we’ve visited, the snorkelling guide, the abundance of corals and fish life as well as environmental factors such as damage to corals by tourists. Our recommendation can be up to five snorkels.

We’d give this snorkel 2 out 5!