Imagine: 6000 kilometers of coast, bordered by some 1200 islands, most of which are uninhabited, and all this in a warm sea tinged with turquoise. Yet here you aren’t in a lagoon on the other side ...

A little more than 100 miles northwest of New Caledonia, the long d’Entrecasteaux Reef reveals three motus: islets of coral sand. The Surprise atoll owes its name to the navigator-explorer Antoine ...