Noumea Hotels
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French beauty
Entry 10 of 57 | show all | print this entry |
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After 5 days and 4 nights of sailing and motoring, where we had a brief period where the GPS failed, and some trouble with one engine, we made landfall in Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia.
Sailing around the southern tip there were very beautiful views of pine covered hills and numerous uninhabited small islands. We pulled into Noumea and were lucky enough to get a berth at the marina, and I have spent today walking around the city and taking in the sights. There are numerous beaches and a lot of leads on potential kiteboarding spots on this island so I am hoping that will work out- but since New Caledonia belongs to France there is a bit of a language barrier. We plan on staying either here or continuing up the coast for about 2 weeks before heading to Australia.
On Friday (Oct. 12) spent the day doing chores on the boat and relaxing after the voyage. John, Susan, and I with Tom and Susie (a couple from another boat named 'Priscilla'- Tom's a former Navy diver) went to a very good Vietnamese restaurant and after walked around the center city.
The central park was busy a lot of people playing a French game kind of a cross between shuffleboard and horsehoes, with metal balls- maybe bachi ball? Did I spell that right? I am not sure what it is called or the rules but it looks pretty simple. Also watched a public play that was pretty strange- 4 'actors' carried music stands and were either reading from them or using them as props while dressed all in black. Of course I couldn't understand a word but it was still baffling.
Saturday afternoon was a bit breezy so I decided to explore the beach areas where I had been told there was a lot of kitesurfing and to investigate the bar locations. I set out on a long walk down to the next marina then on to the first beach, which although not very big was attractive and a nice swim, and was lined with the main club / bar area. Continued on to the next beach where I saw a lot of windsurfing equipment and some beginners lessons going on which was encouraging. Took the bus back to the marina and decided to head out that night after dinner. Went first to the town center and a bar where there was some live island music but an older crowd so after one drink grabbed a taxi down to the beach bar area I had explored that day.
Eventually ran into another sailor from the catamaran next to ours who I had met the previous day, who introduced me to some people he had just met, Frank, Caroline, and a couple of others. Started talking, drinking, and dancing with them until we closed that bar down. We decided to head to another and after scaring Susan out of bed by going onboard to grab a better pair of shoes, drank and danced until we closed that bar down as well. It turned into a great night- didn't make it back to the boat until around dawn but had made some great friends and started picking up on some French.
Spent Sunday recovering and doing some boat chores. Being in a marina was nice since the showers were not only warm but also could last as long as I wanted without worrying about using up all the fresh water. And I didn't have to rely on a dinghy or swimming skills to get to and from Silkie. I had dinner with Caroline and learned more about New Caledonia and helped her prepare for an upcoming English exam. Noumea is a good size city, about 200,000 people, but is by far the largest on the island and is home to about 60% (I think) of the population. It has a lot of upscale shops and is pretty expensive- most of the ads for apartments were single rooms for around $1000 a month. It is very multicultural and has a mix of local Melanesians, French immigrants, and other immigrants from various countries. The people are very friendly and although I haven't been to France it seems like a better place to visit- and Frank agreed, since he is from France but doesn't want to go back. I definitely have not had the kind of rudeness that I have heard is common in France at least around Paris.
So I've taken a while to update this, and since the above was quick I left out a bunch... and I know it's a bit out of order... but please read on I know it's long!
I found this to demonstrate the size of the giant clam we saw while snorkeling in Fiji:
Towards the end of my walk on Saturday I went to the aquarium, which was awesome. I probably took about 40 pictures of the life on display, which focused on coral reefs.
It is amazing the variety and abundance of life that a reef supports, and the ways in which that life has adapted. There were spiked starfish with wild coloring, tiny, delicate seahorses, bright fish, coral that glows with phosphorescence, giant clams, and intricate sea anemones.
They had a tank full of Nautilus (or should that be Nautili?) on display, whose shells are familiar to most people but the actual creature is a throwback to prehistoric times and just fascinating. I had no idea that they swim around and don't chill on the sea floor like most shell inhabiting life.
There was a crab that actually attaches other coral and reef creatures to itself to blend in, I didn't even realize it was a crab at first glance. Another interesting fact I learned is that coral is so similar to the structure of bone that it can be used in reconstructive surgery to replace parts of our skeleton! How cool is that?!
They also had a giant clam on exhibit but it was much smaller than the one we saw in the wild. I did read that they are protected now which is good.
On Saturday morning a boat had pulled up next to us and the boat owner, Ronan, mentioned going kiting- so I mentioned that I was looking to go too and had brought my gear with me. We started talking again on Sunday and when he found out I was also involved with aviation we got to talking even more over some beers on his boat. We traded aviation stories for about an hour- turns out he has this very nice boat (around 58 feet monohull) and the sole purpose of his trip is to go around the Pacific and go kiteboarding at great spots- tiny atolls, sandy beaches, deserted islands. Wow, I'm jealous. He had a couple of crew on board to help as well. What a life! He's also a pilot and has his own Hawker jet. He showed me some amazing airshow pictures and we had a good time talking about kiteboarding and flying.
Monday morning I packed all the necessary kiting gear into a single backpack with the board strapped on and headed out to locate other kiteboarders and hopefully go kiting if the conditions were right. So as I am walking out of the marina, lucky for me Ronan spots me and my immense backpack and board, runs over, and says that they are headed out in the dinghy to go kiteboarding, and would I like to come along? Hell yes beats riding a bus to an unknown beach while not speaking the language. So we head to his boat that was now anchored out, picked up his gear, and headed to the local kiting spot. Turns out it is a small spit of beach, surrounded by rocks, with a bunch of very good kiters going in and out and staying upwind of even nastier rocks. Risky area to say the least. After finally getting my lines set, I launch- keep in mind it has been over a year since I kited- so of course I make the idiot mistake of launching fully powered, barely holding on to the kite, getting dragged into and thankfully over another guy's lines and into the water toward the rocks where I finally get the kite under control and de-powered. Embarassing start. Ronan suggests crossing to an island out a ways to get away from the crowd and after getting a few runs back and forth I was ready. We head out into this channel and although it was rolling, kind of rough water, it was good to be out of the traffic and away from the rocks.
As we approached the island we carefully crossed the large reef surrounding it, where we had very flat, calm water with steady winds, mostly about waist deep and a mix of sand, seaweed, and some coral. Awesome! Turns out the channel we kited across was about 2.5 miles which is probably the farthest I've gone on one run, and wasn't stressful since we had the dinghy shadowing us. We set up on the island and kited all afternoon, although I did get scraped up pretty badly by some encounters with coral on my hands, the underside of my forearm, right above my butt, and the top of both feet. But it was great to be back on the water and I also found I was able to stay and go upwind. After resting up on his boat, got a ride back direct to Silkie and they took off saying they would be back the next day around 11.
The next day Ronan motored up around 12:30 ready for another day and I was all set- we grabbed the gear and went direct to the island, set up, and had a blast. The wind had picked up and I was having some trouble with my turns since I was tired and banged up but was able to stay well upwind and had good control. I had wised up that morning and bought some booties so I avoided making my feet worse.
We had planned to explore New Caledonia via rental car the next day so I told Ronan I wasn't available- but that moved to Thursday and luckily for me he came by the boat anyway. It was a great day- wind was a bit lighter, I felt pretty good, so I tried my first jumps! (at least on purpose) AND even landed a couple. Had one where I kept accidentally powering up after getting airborne and must have been 6-8 feet high (although it felt like 20- and maybe it was) and belly-flopped onto my face, but no injuries. It was awesome. Three straight days of great kiteboarding with many improvements to my still basic kiteboarding skills. But all that sun exposure had finally burned the crap out of my arms and legs.
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