24th November 2007 - Noumea, New Caledonia
Arrived in Noumea early in the morning following an Australian theme night party. Some of us dressed up - thanks to having found a pound shop in Cairns, but there was limited scope for anything other than Bruce and Sheila, the outback bush rangers or the painted 'Abo' with associated croc/didgeridoo. Still, it was fun (picture attached).
Noumea was pretty much as we expected, having previously visited French colonies, and far nicer than portrayed in the guides. Spacious and fairly modern, the city extended over a large area on an protruding peninsular in the south east of New Caledonia, one of the few places we 'discovered' and let go to the French.
We spent the morning on a hiking tour on Mount Koghis which lies just behind Noumea and travelled up there on a small bus to about 1,000 metres. On the way we passed the 'industrial suburbs' which are, in fact neat, modern and tidy and dominated by a large nickel plant, the mainstay of the local economy. Inevitably, there was some pollution; there must be if 30% of the world's nickel comes from one small island, but only when the plant is processing. Beyond the suburbs was the hill station where the 'well healed' have their weekend houses. As in India and Malaysia they aim high to get away from the stifling heat. More interesting was the contrast in style of the properties. Each with multi car garages or car ports, most were semi or full prefabs, but in a multitude of styles ranging from Mediterranean to Balinese to Swiss Chalet to 'modernista'. We soon ran out of residential zones and were up in the nature area which was a mixture of semi wild and eco-developed. The latter comprised a series of tree walks at three levels - up to 18m high - for the kids. We took off on the paths and met a number of runners and weekend strollers including indigenous Kanaks, a largely Melanesian people who make up around half the population (most of the remainder being Europeans or descendents including French Civil Servants on 2 to 4 year contracts).
Our walk took us for about a couple of miles over fairly rough terrain which was, in parts, extremely exhilarating with good, if hazy views over the city some 15 kms distant. We enjoyed the walk which was fine given the early morning time and the height; it might otherwise have been sweaty. We did a full circle and returned to our bus, but not before having a couple of pics taken in the rain forest. Interestingly, the walk took us out of the rain forest and into the savannah for a part where eucalyptus replaced the forest trees which were similar to, but different species from, those we saw in Daintree.
We returned to the ship and had lunch before going out into the town. Like Cairns, we were moored about 5 mins from the centre, but unlike Cairns all the shops were closed for two and a half hours for Saturday lunch, many not to open in the afternoon. We soon learned that Noumea is very expensive and had originally planned to eat lunch out. However, with Salad Nicoise running at 12 euros for a single course we gave that idea a miss. We hit town after the shops re-opened to find that things we expected to be expensive - M's art supplies - were a reasonable price, but things we expected to be cheap - Christmas and birthday cards - were incredibly expensive, more so than at home.
After shopping we took the tourist walk through town, which no-one else seemed to be doing. There was a brilliant bright red tree in Coconut Square - which M says originates in Madagascar - which required a pic and as part of the original Mairie (town hall) several incredibly tall palm trees. Although we took a pic of this, the one included was taken towards the end of our city tour to include some of the paradoxes of Noumea. Essentially, very French - including Paris prices in the up-market boutiques - there were elements of the city that seemed to be from a different culture. Walking along one street towards the square we saw a huge advert for Coca Cola with a classic art deco building across the street which framed the high palms of the old Mairie next to which was a high rise. Apart from the writing in French which can be just read, this scene could have been taken straight from Miami Beach. Two blocks to the south, all was Chinese for half a block as we came closest to NC pound shops!
Returning to the ship, we had a demo of local singing and dancing from a Kanak troupe on the dockside (note the quality of the cruise terminal building in the photo). This was truly impressive and we took videos of what seemed to be the real thing; NC is not particularly big on tourism as it's too far from anywhere really. However, there is considerable scope in this regard - if they can get prices down. It's significantly more expensive than Oz and although as sophisticated in some respects, not populous enough to have the full range of facilities. However, unlike Oz the ATMs worked with our cards, as you'd expect of French banks. There were also plenty of recognisable stores for those in the know, such as Casino, Carrefour, M Bricolage etc. Our parting pic gives a good shot of part of Noumea with a resort island showing the tourist potential. A very enjoyable place and not one most Brits are ever likely to visit.
And as for the sunsets in this part of the world; our picture speaks a thousand words. So beautiful we took about a dozen overall.
Lastly, just in case we don't get to another internet cafe before we cross the Pacific Ocean, Happy Birthday Popsy on 12th December - have a great day love M and D XX
