New Caledonia

1^st October 2010

22 16 S 166 44 E

We had the perfect sail south to New Caledonia, it was only a couple of days and the wind was perfect. What a pleasant change!!

At first sight the islands do look like Scotland and it is easy to see why Captain Cook named it so. Unlike neighbouring Vanuatu the hills are bare and brown with deep scars of erosion. New Caledonia is the third largest producer of nickel in the world and the economy centres around mining and metallurgy.

We arrived at Noumea, the main town, after spending a night at one of the outer anchorages on the way. Noumea reminds us of Tahiti with its profusion of French boats who arrived and never left. There are several large marinas and the main anchorage has been taken over by mooring buoys so it is difficult to find anywhere to lay the hook.

The town is drab and run down and there are beggars and down and outs at every turn. Local custom has been firmly placed in the museum and cultural centre except for when a cruise liner arrives, then a fresh box of locals is opened up to perform the traditional welcome!

That is a very negative view and I must say that the officials have been friendly and helpful. The market and supermarket are very good and the cheese and French bread excellent! But it’s amazing that with Australia and New Zealand both about 800 miles away half of the imported goods here come from France!!!! Is that economic sense or environmentally sound?

We did have a very nice trip out to the cultural centre, a modern building designed by the same architect who did the Pompidou Centre in Paris. It is about 10 kilometres outside town and set in eight hectares of peaceful woodland. It was a good chance to see how the Kanak people used to live on the islands and learn about some of their myths and legends. It was also very interesting to see photos of some of their fellow Melanesian tribes on other islands; most notably our friends from the festival in Ambrym!

We took off for a few days to explore anchorages away from the town. We had a great hike over the hills one day but as we returned to the beach a Frenchman was waiting to tell us that all the land is private and we were not allowed to walk there. It seems that, like Tahiti, the French own the land and it is off limits to everyone else.

We returned to Noumea to chase our Australian visas, which unfortunately took more than three weeks, and prepare to leave. Perhaps we didn’t give New Cal a chance, I am sure that there are happy people living a more traditional lifestyle away from the town and that there are some beautiful areas to see and lovely people to meet. But we missed the warm smiles of Vanuatu and Fiji and were keen to move on.