South Pacific Snorkeling

I thought our second stop at Lifou, Loyalty Island (a French territory of New Caledonia) was going to kind of be a bust also. All three of these ports were pretty much nothing compared to those of stopping in Cozumel, the Bahamas or other usual Caribbean ports with their shops galore and people trying to grab you as you come off the ship to take part in their tour. Getting off in Lifou, you encounter village people selling their wares from huts and open air markets. You don't even need transportation because you can pretty much walk the whole island, or at least the parts where there was anything to see. So first we walked to one end of the island....

OK. Quaint.

BUT THEN we went to the other side of the island, a mere 10 minute walk to a place where everybody said to snorkel. Let me tell you that in a time where we have just about given up snorkeling in the Caribbean because we feel it has deteriorated (you know, global warming, coral destruction, etc etc), we snorkeled here in the South Pacific and were in total awe. It was beautiful! As I look through our pics to decide which ones to post, I see that none capture the true beauty of what we saw. It's one of those.....ya had to be there. I'll give you a few of the highlights though.

I was amazed to see the state fish of Hawaii, the humahumanukunukuapua, (try saying that 3 times fast!) because I'm not sure we'd ever seen one while in the water. They're so interesting!

I watched two of these clown fish playing in the coral for a while.

See the giant clam below the fish?

Let's just say that it was better than anything we'd seen in the Caribbean for a very long time. Enjoy!