Hey Snorvich,
Sorry to be late responding to you. We spent 23 days on the Naia, diving both Vanuatu and New Caledonia. It was our second trip to Vanuatu, one of the only places where I've seen Nautilus on a night dive.
This was a special exploratory trip for the boat to New Caledonia. They received special permission to bring the boat in and once we cleared customs, the diving over the next 11 days were great!
We started at Lifou, using one of the local dive guides from the island. The diving was good with lots of fish life, including good peleagics. We proceeded to Ouvea, where the diving was similar. Great reef healthy reef formations and very knowledgeable local dive guides from the island.
Both of these small islands offer day dives through the local shops, They cater to French and Japanese tourists. generally. English is spoken, but French is predominant.
From there we proceeded to the northern part of New Caledonia, moving up the east coast past Belep Island and basically doing exploratory dives. To say that it was some of the best diving I've done in the last decade would be an understatement.
As we ventured north, we would dive the reef walls that run parallel to each other at the top of the country. There are no local dive shops here and it's basically reef flat and channels into the lagoon formed by the parallel reef walls.
We would look for a channel, anchor in the lagoon and take the dingys out to the outer walls. After checking current (which ran 3-4 knots at times) we'd get in on the outer wall and let the current take us through the channel and into the lagoon. It was a hell of a ride.
We continued to the northernmost reef and then came down the west side of the island, eventually stopping in Noumea where we disembarked and headed to Sydney for a return trip home to the US. The best diving is on the east coast and the eastern and northern fringing reefs. The west coast offered some pretty sites, but the water was much more turbid. Currents tended to blow everything out the channels into the ocean on the west.
If Naia ever gets permission to return, which is doubtful, I will be the first in line. The only other boats we saw while diving the northern reefs were surfing boats. And even then we only had two encounters. It is truly wild, unexplored, fabulously healthy reefs at their best.
-Rob
