March 20, 2025

Another day and another island with beautiful water and nice beaches where the only thing to do is snorkeling or sun bathing. Lifou is surrounded by a large coral reef that was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2008. The island is known for their large cliffs which are made up of compressed coral that has formed over millions of years. It is also known for vanilla plantations.

The cliffs of Jokin with the church of Notre Dame at the top.

The beach was waiting for us.

We ordered room service breakfast and then took the tender in around 10am. The Captain was on the tender with us and turns out this is the Nautica’s first visit to Lifou so the locals did a welcoming ceremony for the ship.

The island had a great breeze and the open air pavilions protected you from the sun. We decided to take a walk up to the cliffs and the church before we went to the beach.

Kathy at a road side stand. You can see how narrow the island is with the beach on the right and a marine preserve on the left which is currently closed to tourists to protect the reef.

Our ship in the cove and the back of the church.

The tall tree on the right of the ship is a type of evergreen. They were all over the island.

The walk up to the church was not long but it was hot. The beach down below.

Our ship from the beach. Kathy found a nice shaded area to read while I went snorkeling. They had an area marked off for where you could snorkel but most of the good snorkeling was outside the marked off area. I managed to find more clown fish which amused me for quite awhile.

Kathy’s shaded spot to read. The end of the beach.

We loved the water color.

We thought this was an interesting sign since the island is French.

After 4 hours and lots of snorkeling we headed back to the ship. We had early reservations in the steak house tonight which was why we did breakfast and no lunch.

Next port is Noumea, New Caledonia tomorrow.