Isle of Pines New Caledonia
New Caledonia
9
Cruises availables
At departure or passage at this port
Crystal Cruises (8 Cruises)
Crystal Symphony
8 Cruises
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The barrier reef makes docking impossible: ships anchor offshore and passengers reach Kuto Bay by tender. In rough seas the call can be cancelled — the standing risk of any tender port.
At the Kuto Bay jetty, metres from a crescent of white sand about a kilometre and a half long. A cafe and a craft market sit beside the landing.
Plenty of passengers put a towel down at Kuto and never move again, and no one blames them. Otherwise: three minutes' walk to Kanumera Bay for snorkelling, twenty minutes to the penal colony ruins, or a taxi to Vao village.
Yes. The coral around the Kanumera rock is among the best snorkelling reachable straight from the beach: mask and snorkel are enough to see butterflyfish, damselfish and blue-lipped giant clams.
No. The rock is sacred to the Kunié people and visitors are expressly asked not to climb it. Swim around it instead — which is the better view anyway.
The remains of a nineteenth-century prison where France deported, among others, prisoners of the Paris Commune from 1872. About twenty minutes' walk inland: stone walls eaten by roots, cells open to the sky, and beyond them the deportees' cemetery.
Through a ship excursion, on the far side of the island from Kuto, followed by a twenty-minute forest trail. Bring water shoes and your own snorkelling gear. Spaces go quickly — book at embarkation.
The Pacific franc, and French — New Caledonia is a French territory. Bring small bills in cash: card terminals are scarce on the island.
Taxis wait near the landing and reach it in about ten minutes. Kunié's main village is built around the church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption; from the nearby hill you look out over Saint-Joseph Bay and its outrigger canoes.
No, and it is better to know that going in: Kunié has no famous monument and no museum. What it offers is the Pacific distilled — sand, coral, forest and memory — and that is exactly why so many passengers rank it among their favourite calls.
