Isla De Amedee

Aka, Amedee Island.

We decided to go on a field trip today to Amedee Island. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world to arrange, especially since we didn't even start trying until last night. Mary D is the only "official" way to get there and they weren't taking people out on Monday. Plus they are expensive and include lots of other activities that we didn't need. So we found another blog which mentioned a fellow named Dimitri (phone number +687 77.27.16) who would take you to the island for a smaller fee. We were actually able to reach him on Sunday night and he agreed to take us Monday morning, so we were really thankful that he was flexible for the last-minute planning. "Meet me at the taxi hut on Anse Vata at 8am" he said. He was 40 minutes late but he did show up in his 7-seater boat. He charged us a bit more since he hadn't planned on taking anyone out that day and we were the only two; 10,000 XPF/person instead of the quoted 6,500/person we saw on the blog, but that's still significantly cheaper than Mary D's so we were happy with it. Plus since Mary D wasn't operating that day we basically had the island to ourselves which was really cool. We were able to sit in the beach chairs wherever we wanted without paying. We were able to snorkel all day, as Dimitri had lent us snorkels/masks. We brought our own food since Dimitri doesn't provide that (Mary D has food/drinks included). The only bummer was that the Amedee Lighthouse wasn't open since the big groups weren't there. 

He told us to meet him at Anse Vata beach at 8am but he didn't get there until 40 minutes later. In his defense, he did try to call but I didn't have my phone on me. But anyway, he got there and a 20 minute boat ride later and we could see the famous Amedee Lighthouse.

Before taking us to the island he took us out to the reef and explained to us how the reef around New Caledonia is the second-longest coral reef in the world. It's the world's largest lagoon and it surrounds the entire nation and is the reason why there are so few waves on the beaches. It's a UNESCO world heritage site since 2008. He also explained a bit how the coral reef forms which was quite interesting (although I had a hard time catching all of it due to his thick French accent).

Anyway, we got to the island and he told us to meet him back at the boat at 4pm. He also told us that the island would be mostly empty today since the bigger touring companies weren't working that day but that there was some sort of local function being held there that he was attending. Which meant that we were some of the very few tourists on the island for the day which was really cool. We had our pick of all of the lawn chairs (which normally cost money to rent but wasn't being enforced today), we had no interference from other people while snorkeling; we basically had our run of the island. The only thing we weren't able to do since we were practically the only ones there was go up into the famous Amedee lighthouse, since it was closed. But we got to see it from the outside and take pictures so that was okay.

So we set up for the day at the best lawnchairs we could find then took a stroll around the island to check things out. Almost immediately Matt spotted a sea turtle swimming in the water about 5 feet from shore! Here is a picture:

Only a couple of minutes after that I found a (in)famous Amedee Island water snake, slithering out from the grass and into the water. It was amazing how fast he took off once he reached the water! You don't even need to ask if I was thinking about that while I was snorkeling...

After walking around the island as far as we could go each way (part of it was blocked off to prevent people from interfering with the mating of a rare seagull) we decided to check out the snorkeling. Dimitri had lent us the mask and snorkel so we were free to go as long as we wanted. Apart from eating, I spent most of the day snorkeling. So much so that I ended up getting a sunburn on my back and bum, even though I know better. I just did this in October in Hawaii and it hurt so bad I can't believe I let it happen again. I don't think it's quite as bad this time.

While snorkeling I found three other sea turtles! I was hanging out with two of them at a time for awhile! It was really cool. The first time I was out there I ended up hanging out with one of them for like 30 minutes. She was just doing her thing: eating grass, swimming around, getting air periodically. I was only a couple of feet away from her for most of the time. It was great, and I got some great videos, but more about that later.

The next time I was out and found another turtle and I was hanging out with and another one showed up! They each had fish that were sucked on to them catching a free ride. I hung out with them for about twenty minutes as well. Here's a video! It's a little hard to see the first turtle; he's only in the frame for the first few seconds.

I also saw lots of other interesting fish as well: some big unicorn-looking fish with a big horn on it's forehead, some big purple looking ones, some big blue ones that kind of looked like really big Dory fish. I also saw one big long fish that might've been a barracuda but I couldn't swear to it; it didn't look quite as creepy as the one I saw when scuba diving at the GBR. A couple of times I also ran into these brightly colored fish who seemed very territorial; they weren't very big but every time I came around they started charging at me until I left. I just did a quick google search and I'm pretty sure they were Titan triggerfish, who live in lagoons and are notoriously territorial. I'm glad I didn't realize they had teeth or I would've been a lot more frightened!

By the time we left my final count was 4 sea turtles and 4 snakes, although I never saw the snakes in the water. thankfully.

We got back to the main island no problem and then wandered around looking for a crepe. Matt had read that the best ones in town weren't far away so we went searching for those. Google took us on a very indirect, long route and by the time we got there it was closed so that was a bummer. But we stopped at the same place we went yesterday and got another one, even though the service was terrible there.

We walked back to our airbnb and hung out here for the evening. We made spaghetti for dinner again and did a lot of Japan planning. We also did laundry since we're not sure when the next chance will be. This is our last night in New Caledonia!

About the videos/pictures: I took about 50 pictures and videos while snorkeling but then my underwater camera failed again. This time instead of mysteriously corrupting all of my files it just decided to overwrite all of the previously taken media with the last two videos I took. So those two videos are all I have! :( But at least I do have one (crappy) video of me and the sea turtles. I did have a lot better ones, but they are now erased. You get what you pay for I guess! (don't ever buy the SJCAM cameras, just splurge and get the GoPro.)