If the reputation of Ouvéa rest foremost upon its huge beach of white sand stretching over nearly 25 km, there is no need leaving the atoll without visiting the mythical Hanawa Blue Hole and the turtle hole!
Hanawa, located just after the bewildering "pass", has the particularity to be the place where the island of Ouvéa is narrower. There, less than 50 meters separate the two coasts. The location of the Blue Hole, on the side of the road, is therefore rather easy to find.
From Blue Hole to turtle hole
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![Hanawa Blue Hole in Ouvéa the Loyalty Islands]()
The unique blue
As you approach, you will discover a cavity that is filled with sea water via small cracks in the coral on the ocean side. Many colorful fish (small because they should be able to cross the cracks in both directions!) stay there regularly, providing the strange sight of a kind of giant aquarium. The temptation is too great to go join them to share the fun of this quite troubling, almost gelatinous blue water. However, it is preferable to resist it. Not that the waters themselves have the slightest danger but, if it is relatively easy to jump or dive into the Blue Hole, to come out from it is a different thing entirely! The young people of the region, accustomed to the places, get there easily. To imitate them from there is a risk that only more adventurous people will accept to run.
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![The turtle hole in Ouvéa the Loyalty Islands]()
An underwater drift
Hidden under the trees in a place that appears to be out of this world, the hole is worth the visit. Very deep, combining fresh water and salt water, the hole owes its reputation to the turtles who are in the habit of taking the underwater drift that link it to the ocean. Still, Kanak children do not hesitate to dive into it, using a rope to climb up again, which is a very complex exercise as the wall is steep and high. And then, a local legend did not say that come in the evening, a giant octopus living at the bottom of the hole, wakes up!
