Ninepin Islands

Hexagonal columns, archways, tunnels, corals, clean water, a white sand beach. Near perfect coasteering destination but for the logistics and swim distance.

Beauty/fun: 9.5/10. Impressive cliffs and rock formations, several sea arches, a nice water beach and coral area.
Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 10/10 Remote, very exposed to waves, long swims, high cliffs to scramble on, very long day if trying to do all the group in one go.
The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)

See full screen and the Garmin track

There is no ferry going to the island group. Therefore you will need to rent a Kaito or speedboat. In our case, we arranged with Mr Shek – 85295283501. He only speaks Cantonese though.

Early morning meet with a group of climbers under Colin’s lead, that would share the boat with us. 30 minutes ride and land on the North Island pier.

There was one of the climbers, Nelly, that wanted to join us. So we started coasteering clockwise.

Soon we encountered the first cliff jumping spot.

Several ups and downs.

Before arriving at Big Stove Arch.

Impressive formation with a double connected corridor tricky to cross with a significant swell (video 0:37). Here the same place seen from above. Tyler in the previous was accessing through the left side.

If you want to explore it all in front you have the tiny island of Hok Tsai Chau/Pai. We were a bit in a rush and therefore continued towards the start

with the most impressive columns. Similar structures to the East Dam‘s, not as high.

Cross the water corridor and see the canons.

I was using a new backpack and a new phone case. Not a good idea for a tricky route like this. So after a couple of leaks, I needed to leave the phone in the waterproof bags. So video by Tyler with the rest of the eastern shore and the start of the South Island (1:43 to 3:26)

The latter is full of caves, tunnels, and water corridors. It reminded me more Basalt Island.

While taking a short lunch break, I was able to retrieve my old phone and start taking some pics.

The island is big and without knowing the difficulties that we would encounter and the time constrains (boat pick up time at 17:00, we should have asked later) we decided to cut it half. Conveniently it has a huge sea arch for doing so.

With >0.5m swell already “fun” to cross with the waves moving back and forth against the rocks. Coming out the opposite side.

There used to be a really nice white sand beach on this side. After the 2018 typhoon part of the sand disappeared but you have some still and then pebbles up till the water in low tide.

Little chat with a kayaker friend of Tyler and some drone footage (video 3:50) before swimming back to the North Island. A longer swim than the previous one. The Western shore is not as interesting, but nevertheless we encountered more passageways.