Snorkelling Pléiades du Sud

This post is part of a series called New Caledonia

Snorkelling Pléiades du Nord
Snorkelling Pléiades du Sud
Exploring the underwater trail of Île aux Canards

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

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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 spans about 25 km of gorgeous white soft sandy beaches. The island is around 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 Northern Pléiades – the inner reefs are sheltered and the outer reefs are exposed.

Image: 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 du Sud’s snorkelling guide

We had already snorkelled with Jean-Baptiste in the north of Ouvéa and wanted to give the Pleaides du Sud a try.

Our hotel put us in touch with Pierre and his friendly companion Jean. Pierre spoke very good english and Jean spoke french (no english). We were accompanied by some terrific people who were from France and Noumea so language wasn’t a barrier for us that day. Besides, Google Translate is a trusty tool but we always tried to speak french first before relying on our own language.

Our hotel was at the south of the island in Lekiny, past the Pont de Mouly (the Mouli bridge). Under 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. Meeting Pierre and Jean was only a five minute drive to the east side of the island, where the boat launched and navigated to the South of Ouvéa to our first snorkelling spot.

The day included the boat trip to the South of Ouvéa to Point de Mouly and to some wonderful cavernous snorkelling near the Pleaides du Sud and lunch near one of the islands.We attempted snorkelling a third spot but unfortunately for us the currents weren’t in our favour. Either way, the two snorkels we had made up for missing out on the third. We had a terrific day!

We thoroughly recommend Pierre and Jean.

Jean (Pierre’s offsider) in the background (we thought he was very cool). And this is where we launched our boat. Check out the colour of the water and the sun was divine! Image courtesy of Trecy (far left), one of our friendly snorkelling companions for the day.

Snorkelling Point de Mouly

We gathered at Pierre’s dive center on the south-east of the island. In his dive boat, he took us to the southern tip of the island called Point de Mouly (only a ten minute boat ride) – it’s a snorkelling spot you can access via the beach if the waters are calm but we were taken a little further out.

Pierre led our small group (there were five of us) and Jean stayed at the back to make sure we stayed together.

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 for us it was a comfortable snorkelling day. One of the other snorkellers gave up after lunch (they didn’t have wet suits) although they were offered one by Pierre, our snorkelling guide, at his dive centre.

The reef

The mid-morning and low tide and superb water visibility made the reef structures pop. There was a mix of bommies and shelves that steep from the surface to 10 metres or more, allowing for all types of snorkellers. For us, we love getting close to the soft and hard corals and to see the micro elements but other members of the group who liked to duck dive and check out the depths also had plenty to see.

Fish and coral

There was an abundance of fish at different depths, but their size ranged from both ends of the spectrum – lots of little fish hugging the coral and loads of big fish mooching around on the bottom. There were plenty of black tip and white tip sharks around the 3-4 metre drop offs, and we were delighted by the range of hard corals.

A beautiful large cuttle fish, virtually motionless, wasn’t bothered by us at all. Jean borrowed the go-pro and took a few close up shots for us.

Video courtesy of one of our snorkelling companions, Trecy.

Other tidbits

Pierre felt he had to continually free dive to up to 10 metres and show us some tricky things, like blowing bubbles that looked like smoke rings, but to be honest we didn’t give him much attention as we preferred to look at the beauty around us instead. I’m sure there are other snorkellers who enjoy his entertainment.

Overall, the snorkel was about 40 minutes.

Pierre and Jean hosted a lunch on the boat next to another island (I have no idea of it’s name – sorry), protecting us from any winds. And the lunch was delicious!

Snorkelling NW Point de Mouly

Our second snorkelling spot was about a 20 minute boat ride north west Point du Mouly. It was magical, my favourite of all the snorkelling we did in New Caledonia.

To get to it, we passed over some pretty deep water within the lagoon and pulled up to a reef which sat about three metres deep from the water surface.

The reef

The reef was a series of bommie canals wide enough for us to swim through, formations left over from rivulets of lava from the volcano in a previous life. With the water depth only about three metres, there always seemed to be another bend around the corner – a maze you could easily get lost in. In saying that, Pierre and Jean knew exactly where we were.

Fish and coral

A wonderful array of soft and hard corals lined the bommies (see the pics below) and the variety and numbers of fish of small to medium size were vast.

It was a sensational experience and we would have loved to stayed there the whole day as there is so much to see.

Other tidbits

The second snorkel was about 30 minutes. This last snorkel was a great way to finish the day.

Would snorkel Pléiadesdu Sud again?

Because Pierre and Jean are wonderful guides. We felt we were well looked after and have no hesitation in suggesting you’ll be looked after as well. So even though you need to feel comfortable in deeper water and swimming where land is at a distance, as well as being around big fish and sharks, you will enjoy this snorkelling trip.

Pierre speaks english but you might consider using Google translate (on the boat of course) with his offsiders.

Our recommendation

Our recommendation is based on a comparison with other sites we’ve visited, the snorkelling guide, the abundance of corals and fish life. It also includes environmental factors such as damage to corals by tourists.

We’d give this snorkel 4 out of 5!