Finding a great dive spot isn't easy. Even in the great south lagoon of New Caledonia where there are lots of nice living coral reefs you'll discover that the truly lovely places are uncommon and usually limited in size. As in "Wow, this is fantastic" might apply to an area roughly the size of a swimming pool. Then you can snorkel for a half an hour before finding another beautiful little spot. Of course there are micro-spots, too, which might only be as large as you are that are just plain stunning to look at. But when taking sphere images you need to be able to see something beautiful in every direction, no matter where you look. Even straight down.

When we go looking for a good dive spot from our dinghy we normally find ourselves squinting through the waves, trying to judge by the colors and shapes below if the coral is alive or dead and what the dive site might look like. But once in a great while it is flat calm and you can see everything from the dinghy, even little tiny fish, as if there was no water at all. This is a truly magical delight - kind of like dreaming you are flying. It was wonderfully calm on the day I took this sphere image of the fringing coral reef on the western side of the little lagoon islet of Ua, in New Caledonia's great southern lagoon. We found a whole bunch of truly lovely little spots, micro and macro. You can see all of them combined in this one magic over/underwater sphere image. The whole place just knocks your fins off and makes you swim around in little circles wowing through your snorkel and calling to your dive buddies to come see.

You can come see it yourself - download a copy of the cruising guide to New Caledonia and the tourism guide to New Caledonia to get yourself into the bubble.