My Island Home.

Wednesday 20^th June 2012.   Isle of Pines.

The hands down winner in the beauty stakes – Isle of Pines or Ile des Pins. From where the tenders drop you, it’s a short stroll along the road to the left of the wharf hugging the bay to a typical tropical island beach. White powder sand and turquoise water, with a mid-calf shore break. This is Kuto Bay.

Kuto Bay

 Across a small peninsula of land is Kanumera Bay, another lovely beach good for snorkelling with a huge rock outcrop which is sacred to the locals and therefore forbidden to climb.

Kanumera Bay

  
The snorkelling here is good, but not as good as Lifou. Reef shoes were handy here as well, once you got into the water. This is where a lot of the passengers swam and snorkelled and the coral was suffering from heavy use, so I think there are probably better spots if you can go a bit further afield.

We tried to walk to a place where there were ruins of a French penal settlement, but we got distracted by trying to find the way up to a lookout, and although we got close, we’d had enough walking and were ready for a swim.

The local food stalls included a grilled lobster plate for $20. Both halves of a small lobster cooked over charcoal, combined with some rice and papaya salad, delish. Again for $2AU you could get your passport stamped.

worst part of any tender port day!

If given the choice to pick one place to come back to, this would be it.

why wouldn't you?

AU accepted here again, $1AU = 100CPF.