Salut Bateaublog® fans,
As you may have guessed, we are back in the French South Pacific, this time at Nouvelle Caledonie, or as you probably know it, New Caledonia. It looked pretty idyllic when we arrived, even though there were big waves and 4 knots of current against us when we went through the pass.
Fiji and Vanuatu were both fantastic in their different ways, but we have to say it is great to be able to have a Carrefour and some fabulous French restaurants.
Here at the Boatblog® we don’t normally post pictures of our lunch as to be honest we think it’s a bit naff, but it has been so long since we had a fillet steak we decided to make an exception. Bon appetit!
Unfortunately the day we arrived was a Bank Holiday Monday. Actually, that’s not strictly true. We arrived on a Friday. The Bank Holiday was actually on the Tuesday – November 1st. So of course that meant that the Monday had to be made into a Bridging Holiday so that no one went back to work for just one day. And because there was a holiday on the Tuesday, that meant you had to stop work at 11am on the Friday otherwise it wouldn’t have been much different from a normal weekend. So having arrived in New Caledonia at first light on Friday, we had a frantic dash round to Immigration, then Customs, then Bio-security before they all shut – and we’d have had to stayed on the boat until they all opened up again on the Wednesday. Glad to say we made it all just in time.
C’est la vie.
Noumea, which is the capital city, is very like Pape’ete in Tahiti, except with a lot more money,
…which comes from the nickel mine that they have on the island – apparently 40% of the world’s nickel comes from here. You see a lot of Porsches and the like, which it is fair to say was not true in Fiji or Vanuatu – or even French Polynesia.
But here there is enough money to be able to observe the trickle down effect in action.
You can’t come to New Caledonia without going to the world famous…
…Iles des Pins. Which doesn’t mean the Islands of Pins, but the Islands of Pines. And you can see why.
Pines everywhere you look.
We went on the tourist bus on a trip around the island.
A bit clapped out, but we went to all the best places.
We picked coconuts,
…which were super fresh.
Saw the war memorial…
And generally had a very nice time.
Of course, we can’t come to a Pacific Paradise without doing a bit of diving,
…where you could even catch your own lunch.
We shall spare you the photos of the wall of sharks and the grouper and the eels because here at the Boatblog® we never want to repeat ourselves and you’ve seen all that already in the episodes from Polynesia.
So that just leaves us time for the Arty Farty Competition and this time there is just one entry from Lyn.
We can’t actually remember what it is so it doesn’t have a title – it’s either the ceiling or the floor – but as the only entry we declare Lyn the winner.
A number of our fans have asked us about how the blog is put together. Obviously there is a huge team behind such a prestigious project, and it takes a considerable amount of hours and expertise to come up with such an international product. Nevertheless, in the style of Blue Planet and others, we are prepared to give you a quick peak just some of the work that goes on behind the scenes.
That’s all for now as we need to get ready to set sail for Australia, and the water is so clear here that seems like a good time to go and give the the hull a scrape.
They won’t let you into the land down under with barnacles on your bottom (ooh missus!)
So it’s au revoir for now, and g’day next time we speak.
Ju & Lyn
(What – no sunset? Ed)
Oh, go on then.
Domini 