Vanuatu and New Caledonia

[timetraveler]

My buddy and I will be taking a cruise in November that has ports in Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The ship offers dive excursions in two ports: Port Vila, Vanuatu and Luganville, Vanuatu. We will also have port calls in Mare, New Caledonia; Mystery Island, Vanuatu; Champagne Bay, Vanuatu; and Lifou, New Caledonia. Has anyone dived these islands? Can you tell me whether you would recommend diving there or what conditions I might expect to find?

 

[Anthony A.]

I did port villa 5 years ago. Beautiful dive.... did a 100' wreck dive. Vis was perfect. I heard the island got slaughtered a while ago with a hurricane so not sure of its current state.

Mare remains one of my favorite unspoiled island I have ever been to. Secluded and little human intervention. I loved it there. Only freedived the water was as clear as a glass of drinking water.

 

[Wingy]

Mystery Island is leased by cruise ships so no dive shops there AFAIK. Luganville you have the SS Coolidge and Million Dollar point along with a few shallow and a few deeper reefs. Check who your cruise ship is using as a provider to dive the Coolidge if you want to penetrate but with only the standard 24 hours in port you may not get to the propellers (55m) and the Lady - but either way my recommendation would be to dive with AbsoluteAdventure/Coral Quays. If you are a techie they have He and Doubles if not they are very very safety conscious which is not the case with all the ops doing the Coolidge.
Port Vila - Big Blue were good. I did the Star of Russia wreck, flying boat wreck and a couple of others along with a couple of ''coral garden' reef sites which were nice enough but the fish life is more on par with melbourne than Raja Ampat. Theres a fair few nudis around Vila if you have a look, possibility of dugongs more freediving on islands like Malakeula and Mare and Tanna.
If your cruise ship offers an extension to Tanna island - do the Volcano tour - you wont regret it....but dont dive there. There is a sea container set up as a diving centre but my personal experience would be ''the island is not ready for diving yet''....read into that what you will

 

[FindingMenno]

@Wingy is right on the money.

Diving in Vanuatu is ok-ish, but nothing like you would find in Indo/PNG. There are a few decent reefs around, but these are a bit off the beaten path and probably not on the itinerary.

The wreck in Vila harbour are cool (Star of Russia, flying boat) although vis can be hit and miss. Luganville is indeed all about the Coolidge and Million Dollar Point. Coolidge is going to be pretty deep, as I recall the ship starts at 25 mtr depth and goes down from there.
Didn't do Mystery Island as going by the description it didn't really appeal to us.

Vanuatu is otherwise an amazing country, I had a great time when I was cruising there for a few months! Tanna and Ambrym have great volcanos to visit.

 

[timetraveler]

Thank you Wingy and FindingMenno. We are leaning toward using our onboard credit to do cruise ship dive excursions in Port Vila and Luganville. They call the dive in Port Vila "Twin Bommies". In Luganville it's the Coolidge. The Princess Cruises phone reps never know what dive operators they use. For some reason the morning dive on the Coolidge is $20 less expensive than the afternoon dive. Princess is not telling why. They guess it's supply and demand, but I'm wondering whether there's another reason. Maybe the dive op is charging less in the morning because of - morning rain? poor viability in the AM? rough seas? more crowded dive site in the morning than in the afternoon?

 

[Wingy]

I'd say more to do with cruise ship docking and excursion times being a factor in the morning dive being cheaper. I've never been on a cruise ship but I've been on docks when they've pulled in and there appears to be a lot of sorting into groups and loading into vehicles etc.
I did my Coolidge morning dives at 10am viz wasnt noticeably different on any of the 6 dives I did morning or afternoon - if anything afternoon viz at M$P was very..beige. Given multi deep dives I stayed out of the water last day in Luganville and went to Rhi Rhi blue holes which are spectacular.
I'd say you may be right with you're thinking crowds - I've never seen any crowds other than in Vila when a cruise ship was in and all the diving centres were booked up.
Twin Bombies was a good enough site - assuming we did the right Bombies - bit of conjecture there between the two groups - but I was impressed to see hang tanks on Star of Russia. (Coolidge I used the op I did as their guide always has twins and a pony and guides gear was all brand new - I bring my own). Vila harbour is a very benign area to dive in so you should have fun as long as no dumbass cyclone comes alone and stirs things up again
Enjoy yourself. Van is the most bizarre hilarious country - I hope you get to see a traffic jam - someone decided to turn so everyone stopped and chatted about it - your children might get declared 'Rubis Picanninies' (Rubbish kids) by a chief who later gives you some land - strange magic happens on Vanuatu

 

[FindingMenno]

Haven't done Twin Bommies, but there is a good description on Michael McFadyen's excellent site: Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving Web Site (warning, opening that site is going to suck up all your time and planned vacation budget!)

Reason the AM dives might be cheaper is as they are deep dives, most people do a morning dive and sit out the PM dives. So smaller PM groups, need to charge more to make the economics work...
Did both AM and PM dives, condition wise not much difference.
Some footage of when I was there: . Coolidge is later in this video made by a friend.

 

[FindingMenno]

BTW my favorite reef dive in Vanuatu was Aniwa island. Cooks reef is also supposed to be good, but couldn't make it as waves made anchoring there not possible.

 

[Wingy]

Ok..how come you got flat sol wota? Lol great clip...I seem to get breakers every time I go near the Coolidge

 

[CarcharodonCarcharias]

Vanatu and New Caledonia sound interesting. What kind of budget is usually required for the trip? I've heard that NC is barely touched and the reef is about as pristine as one can find nowadays.