Noumea Hotels
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Part deux
Entry 11 of 57 | show all | print this entry |
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So you may have guessed, but we decided to stay put in Noumea until the next leg.
Today, with me feeling sore, sunburnt, and worn out, John, Susan, Tom, Susie and I rented a car to explore a little bit of New Caledonia. We went north along the only highway, on our way to the east coast, about an hour north. We then headed across at the first opportunity- the land was very rugged and sparsely populated.
A 45 minute portion of the road was one way traffic on odd hours, the other way on even hours, since it was a very narrow single lane dirt road with steep drop-offs. A lot like Guatemala except you didn't have other crazy truck drivers passing on the outside of blind turns. The main industry there is nickel mining, and we went to the mining museum in the first town we came to on the east coast- interesting, but it was evident how much damage to the woods and hills was done by that type of mining. We continued pressing north since the 'highway' to the south ended after about twenty miles. Tried to get lunch around Canalas, but the only place to eat was a school cafeteria that would only sell us cheese sandwiches, so we had to get peanut butter and bread at a supermarket and eat on the roadside. This was a surprise, since the city size (as assumed by the size of the map font) was the same as Noumea. In fact most of the towns were like this. But it was very small town- I mean not even a Mikey D's?- just kidding I think there are only 2 and they are in Noumea- as were all of the others that we saw.
We headed back over the inland mountains and saw a lot of beautiful mountains, rolling valleys, tall waterfalls and rivers. Stopped on the way back down the west coast on a fairly nice beach where the wind was blowing- would have made a nicely sheltered kiting spot. Some great camping sites right on the beach, and no other buildings in sight. Overall not much to report about the countryside- it was very pretty and completely undeveloped for the most part. We returned around 4 to my relief, since the various coral cuts, muscle soreness, and my sunburned arms had started to be bothersome-every touch of sunlight on my arms made them sting.
Friday we stocked up on some supplies, and I went to the town museum for Noumea- small but turns out New Caledonia played an interesting role for the U.S. in World War II- it was the headquarters of the Allied Command in the Pacific and still had functioning buildings from that time period. Noumea is very multicultural, the original settlers being the Melanesians, briefly settled by the English (and named "New Caledonia" by Captain Cook because it reminded him of Scotland), later colonized by the French, who encouraged immigration of miners and other workers from neighboring countries. It is still a French territory, speaks French, and the citizens have French citizenship. But at least they drive on the right side of the road!
Friday night went out drinking a bit and helped Caroline with her English in preparation for her exam the next day. Hopefully she did well and I was able to help her.
I spent Saturday exploring some more of Noumea, and was invited out with Caroline and her other friends Saturday night. One of them- and I'm not kidding- looked exactly like Jet Li. Started off by playing some Texas Hold'em poker, and on one hand I rivered a straight flush! Unfortunately we were only playing for drinks and all it did was cause the loser to drink a whole beer.
We all then went out drinking and dancing and besides helping to head off a fight, which was no problem since we had Jet Li with us, it was a great night.
The next day had a nice brunch, then went to the Tjibaou Cultural Center, erected recently as a center for the study and display of local Kanak culture as well as other Pacific island cultures.
We explored the exhibits, unique buildings, and the grounds which were all very nicely presented and laid out, with a great mix of older artifacts and newer art originating from Noumea and other Pacific islands. The neatest and most striking aspect was the architecture of the buildings which were modern representaitons of the traditional Kanak huts. There was also some very interesting sculpture...
Since we were in Noumea I wasn't able to catch any of the Red Sox games- surprise no live baseball in a French territory - I mean I watched the Red Sox beat the Yankees in 2004 from a London hotel room, so why can't the French get on board?- so anyway I missed another amazing comeback from 3 games to 1 but fortunately was kept up to date by two fans on another boat who were getting local Fenway updates. Go Red Sox! I hoped to catch Game 4 the day we got in to Australia but at least I did hear about each game shortly after they finished.
We were planning on leaving the next day, Monday, but since other boats reported rough seas, large waves, wind gusts up to 40 knots, and other boats were turning back, John decided to spend another day and leave the next. We played Mexican dominoes all afternoon while it rained- I kicked John's butt- and mainly took it easy. I went out with Caroline and Frank that night, had some drinks, tapas, then sushi, and a very relaxing, nice night. We left on Tuesday, Oct. 24th, to sunshine and moderate winds and seas. Overall my time in Noumea was awesome and I was a bit reluctant to go. I picked up some French- it was fun to learn some of another language and often the Spanish words were similar enough to allow for some quicker learning- made some great friends, went out almost every night, learned a lot about the island, and had three great days of kiteboarding. I would definitely visit again since the reef, outlying islands, and northern part of the island are all supposed to be beautiful. Perhaps someday!
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