November 1, 2012
Aside from the Coral Gardens, there is another big snorkeling attraction near anchorage #16: the Coral Wonder. It, too, was rumored to be spectacular and featured more of the large “plate” coral. It’s on the south side of the “C,” and like the Coral Gardens, you have to swim over a large coral shelf to get there. The good news: the waves are smaller and gentler; so while it’s actually a much longer swim, it’s easier to get to overall.
To get to the Coral Wonder, we needed to motor our dinghy out of the bay and around to what is called “the Day Anchorage.” This is an anchorage between southern tip of the C and an small island just off of it: Langito’o Island. The anchorage looks exposed, but it’s actually protected by a reef between the two islands. It’s beautiful, and while the Moorings people have deemed it a day anchorage (meaning you should move your boat someplace more secure at night), everyone who anchors there stays put. It is one of the most popular anchorages in Vava’u.
Luckily for us (as our dinghy doesn’t have a big engine), there is a small beach where we could put our dinghy and then walk over to the south side of the island. When we emerged at the south side, I was amazed at the beautiful beach there! With all we’ve heard about the Coral Wonder, no one had mentioned this beach–I suppose it gets overlooked as it falls into the “something nice on the way to somewhere else” category. In fact, we didn’t spend much time there ourselves as we wanted to get out to the Coral Wonder while conditions looked very calm.
We made our way to the end of the beach, put on our gear, then made our way into the water. Soon, we were swimming through some small waves, then over a large coral shelf – about an eighth of a mile to the Coral Wonder. -Cyndi
