.: We're in Noumea, New Caledonia

This blog posting is written in loving memory of my Dad,
who died of cancer twelve years ago on August 4, 2001.

Although this crossing from Vanautu to New Caledonia was fairly benign, I was still very grateful to say “land ho” to New Caledonia.

The traditional hoisting of the new country flag (and quarantine flag)

Okay, I need some help from my girlfriends (especially Lesly). I am probably the least likely candidate to talk about fashion, (okay dear friends quit killing yourselves laughing) so I need your opinion. I keep bugging Peter about his habit of matching patterns with other patterns….note the mix of orange flowered shorts with a patterned yellow Mickey Mouse shirt. Luckily he only wears these when we are on the boat, but when I was kidding him during our viewing of the pictures, he said “I think it looks great – I’m going to wear these out”. So come on Les – what do you think???

We arrived at the offshore island of Lifou which was approximately 200 nautical miles (36 hours) from Vanuatu. It has a teeny-tiny marina which is where you can stay and check in to the country. The only problem was when we arrived; no one answered our radio call – neither customs, harbour control nor the marina. After repeated calls, we decided to just go in the marina and find out what was going on.

However, there was NO room at the inn.

The following morning, we took the dinghy in to customs (about a 10 minute ride) only to find out that the Customs officer wasn’t in. His assistant said to come back after 1:00 so we spent a leisurely morning walking in to the town of We (about 2 kilometres). It is a delightful little town, with predominantly Kanak people (indigenous Melanesian). They were all friendly and dressed similar to the local Vanuatu women in their shapeless “Mother Hubbard” dresses.

View from the village out over the bay we were anchored in.

You can barely see QuickStar in the background

Cemetery

Local lady hanging her laundry. Note, most homes have a traditional round

bure in their yard

One of four churches in this small village

We don’t normally go out for lunch, but since we had some time to kill we ate at a local restaurant right on the ocean. Prices here are more like Canada, New Zealand or Australia…no more “emerging nation” bargains. Our meal was over $30.00, but it was excellent.

A small malecon with sidewalks into the main centre of town.

A closer view of these local huts

Turned out that the customs officer didn’t return, so we were told to come back tomorrow. Keep in mind that we haven’t even checked in to the country yet and are wandering around. Luckily the next morning, we were able to get checked in and all the paperwork taken care of.

We carried on to the weekly market which was quite different from other markets in the South Pacific. New Caledonia is a rich country (due to the nickel mines) and this is reflected in the variety and extensiveness of what was on offer in the market.

Surprisingly, there was little “local fruit and veggies” as they import a lot from N.Z. and Australia – but there was a new twist with French pastries and local taste treats for sale.

Peter trying to decide between the great choices

Local coconut handicrafts were in evidence

The Bay that we are in is incredible. It is a huge open beach with a
long, white sandy beach.

While we were onboard QuickStar on our final afternoon we had the added bonus of a humpback whale swimming in the harbour. We only got one "sighting", but it was still pretty cool to be in the same place, at

This is a shot of QuickStar in the background. Note, that we have

the whole bay to ourselves.

We did have to take care of some business, but we don’t have internet on the boat. There is one cyber café that is available. I am enjoying not being “digitally connected”, and I’m going to make sure I limit my time online when I get home.

We spent three nights in Lifou and then we left at 6:00 a.m. to the next Loyalty Island of Mare. We had a rough passage with the wind dead on the nose, so we had to motor the whole way. There is a little tiny harbour that we were able to anchor in after 3 attempts due to the poor holding. We had planned on leaving at 2:00 a.m. to get to the next island, but the wind godesses were not cooperating, so we spent a further day in Mare to enjoy another sunset.

We have now arrived in the big city of Noumea, New Caledonia where we will spend a few nights getting caught up with emails, taking care of things and stocking up again before we head out to Illes of Pine for the next two weeks.

On a very sad note, I’m sending our deepest condolences to my sister Debbie, who lost her 11 year old granddaughter Rosie this week to heart failure. It is beyond tragic and another terrible reminder that we must live every day to the fullest.