Noumea, New Caledonia

Hi Guys,

Noumea – Pacific Ocean 25 February 2011

(Longitude: 22 32’West   Longitude: 167 34’East)

(Time +11 GMT)

Noumea is the capital of a ho-hum and very expensive French island. At 80 (Central Pacific Francs) CPF/US$ one would have thought that items might have been reasonably priced but our visit to MacDonald’s for 10 Macnuggets, a bag of chips and a coffee, a shared meal, was CPF1440 or about US$20.00. For any item that we considered buying, money seemed to evaporate.

Lemon Bay

Susan on the fantail, Noumea

Noumea Harbor

Welcome to Noumea

We took an unsuccessful P & O excursion to Lemon Beach. The coach dropped us off at the end of the beach where there was a railing and a 4 ft drop to the high tide. We decided to cross the promontory to another beach which was gorgeous and we all started getting ourselves ready for a swim. Well, those people who were in the water were quickly turned out by flock of policemen who politely told us that the beach was polluted from industrial waste. As I had only paddled, I checked that my feet were still attached. We took a pleasant walk around the promontory to the drop off point and then went in the correct direction to Lemon Beach. We were promised umbrellas and chairs but all we found was roots and large boulders. We decided to return to Noumea on the bus. Well, we were a little unhappy to find that the single bus fare was CPF210 (£1.75) while our return coach fare we had paid was £20 each. We did quite well on this bus journey as we had sterling, dollars, Australian dollars, but we had run out of CPF. A Spaniard, who was using the bus, took pity on us and paid our fares.

Unfortunately, we do not have .too many positive things to say about this quite large island.

Noumea is the capital of New Caledonia, approximately 400 kms (275 miles) long, a French overseas territory in the southwestern Pacific Ocean has a population of 97,500, New Caledonia consisits of Grande Terre (the mainland), the Loyalty and Belep Islands, the Isle of Pines and some scattered, uninhabited islands. The capital is located in the south of Grande Terre, overlooking a sheltered harbor. There are many Norfolk pines on the island.

The first Melanesians probably arrived here about 3,000 years ago although little is known about them until the late 18^th century. In 1774 Captain Cook landed at Balade on the northeast coast of Grande Terre. The mountains reminded him of the Scottish Highlands and hence the name New Caledonia. In 1853 Admiral Febvrier-Depointes claimed Nouvelle Caledonie for France. In 1864 Grande Terre became a penal for some 20,000 convicts during the next four decades. At the same time, nickel was discovered and Noumea grew rapidly.

The Kanak people felt badly treated when the French seized their land and serious rebellions against French rule took place in 1878 and again in 1917.During WWII the USA taught them much about freedom of thought and speech. Following violence and chaos Independence has been postponed until at least 2014  We set sail for Australia which is 2 sea days away..