Snorkelling Noumea and Fiji

Hi my myself husband and 15 yr are cruising to Noumea Lautoka and Suva on Voyager of the Seas leaving Sydney on 27th February 2014 just wondering if anyone can give us some ideas where the best places are to snorkel at these ports and the best way to get to any of these snorkelling spots from where ship docks. We will be in Noumea on a Sunday and the other ports on weekdays.

Thanks for any help you can offer, very new to CC.

Regards Lozz

Hi Lozz

I will be in Noumea in December. I plan to snorkel with my teens. I will give you some feedback re snorkelling on our return (late December). So far, from CC, I gather the best snorkelling in Noumea is at Duck Island (if you go by yourself) or Amedee Island (ship tour) or with Aquanature (private tour).

We are not going to Suva or Lautoka so I cannot help with those sorry. I surprised no-one else has responded to your post.

Thank you, I look forward to hearing from you :-)

Hi Lozz

I will be in Noumea in December. I plan to snorkel with my teens. I will give you some feedback re snorkelling on our return (late December). So far, from CC, I gather the best snorkelling in Noumea is at Duck Island (if you go by yourself) or Amedee Island (ship tour) or with Aquanature (private tour).

 

We are not going to Suva or Lautoka so I cannot help with those sorry. I surprised no-one else has responded to your post.

Hi

How did you go snorkelling in Noumea.

Hi

 

How did you go snorkelling in Noumea.

Hi Lozz

Noumea: the private snorkelling tour with Aquanature looked great, was reasonably priced and had great reviews on Trip Advisor. However, once I made an enquiry and got the meeting times from them - 8.45am, I felt that we would be cutting it fine to get off the boat and meet them on time. As it turned out, we were 2 hours late into Noumea, so I was glad I made the decision not to book the private tour.

Instead, we booked the ships tour to Amedee Lighthouse Island. This place is picture postcard beautiful. It is quite pricey as teenagers are classed as adults. We hadn't snorkelled before and this was our first port on our first cruise so it was perfect for us. We had a beautiful sunny day, the water was crystal clear and there were lots of fish (not much coral). We could walk straight into the water from the beach and start snorkelling and it wasnt deep. We spent all morning snorkelling. Had a delicious buffet lunch. Did the glass bottom boat tour (teens loved) and climbed the lighthouse. Didnt do much snorkelling in the afternoon as the tide had gone out and you needed to walk out further to snorkel. This is a great day trip for first time snorkellers.

Our next port was Lifou where we snorkelled at Jinek Bay. This was much deeper with alot more coral and fish. There was also a strong swell on the day we were there. My teen son loved it here and said the snorkelling was much better than Amedee. However, we all spent alot more time in the water on Amedee snorkelling because it was much calmer and shallower.

I know you are not going to Lifou but I thought I would add it as a comparison as I am not sure how much snorkelling you have done.

Hope this helps. Have a great cruise. We certainly did.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated, aussielozzie, sounds like you had a great cruise :-)

Amadee Island is reported to be spectacular but when we were there the weather did not allow the excursion to happen. Due to our arrival time I could not book that privately, I had to use the ships excursion (it was cancelled). We then went to Duck Island. No need to arrange in advance. When you get off the ship at the dock there are a handful of tables with tour operators selling the excursion. It should be about $25 per person which includes a bus ride to the small dock where a taxi boat takes you the 5 minutes to Duck Island. The return is included.

Small charge on the island to rent a chair and umbrella. The shore is broken coral so some type of water shoes are really needed.

Hi thanks for this info, did you need Pacific Franc to buy water taxi tickets etc in Noumea or did they take Aussie $, also how was the snorkelling on Duck Island was it worth the trip over, do you know if there was any snorkelling just off the beach. Is the location of water taxi and the Anse Vata Beach within walking distance from ship terminal? Thanks Lozz

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Hi Lozz

Did you end up snorkelling in Fiji? How was it?

We are now booked on the Voyager for NYE - stopping at Suva & Lautoka. Interested to hear how you went.