Blogs from Noumea, South Province, New Caledonia, Oceania

Noumea, the capital city of New Caledonia was our first stop. It is located on Grand Terre, the main island, known for beaches and its blend of French and native Kanak influences. Not the most interesting city but I was intrigued as all New Caledonians speak French (it is a French Territory). Citizens get to vote for the President of France! The French used New Caledonia as the location to send prisoners (in particular political prisoners) after they annexed the islands in 1853. Napolean III made it a penal colony and sent around 5,000 Communard deportees to these islands. The islands were first discovered by James Cook in 1774 and named New Caledonia because the mountainous scenery reminded him of his native Scotland. We booked a hop on, hop off bus for the day and circled ... read more

Day 1 - Departure from Sydney Harbour We travelled via the bus to Sydney and then a taxi to the Overseas Terminal. Checked in to the boat which was easy and smooth. We had managed to get a suite for this cruise. Our bags took a while to arrive so we went to have lunch at the Windjammer buffet and treated ourselves to a glass of bubbles. That evening we had our first sampling of the Concierge Club which we could access due to our suite booking. It is open 4.30 - 8 for free drinks and hot/cold nibbles. We had dinner in the Cascade restaurant and then returned to the club lounge. Day 2 - At Sea A light breakfast as we had been invited to brunch today. We sat at a table at the ... read more

Something I remember from my childhood and the many family sailing holidays we had is that things often go wrong and when they do the best thing to do is laugh about it and then fix it. We seemed to do a lot of laughing at certain times in the past few days … When everything was going well, we just kept on seeing amazing sea life up close and personal as well as idyllic sand fringed palm tree studded islets at every turn. Sometimes the weather could have been better, but we were warm enough to go swimming with the tropical fish and enjoy being outdoors. Ile des Pins is a large island compared to the others. It must be about 20 km across, so we wanted to hire a car to see it for ... read more

Après la visite de l'aquarium et un pic nic sur la plage, dernière soirée à Nouméa. Retrouvailles au bar La Barca sur la baie des citrons avec les amis rencontrés sur la grande terre et aux Loyauté. Sympathique soirée country animée par Marcel Canel and his band "Jolène".... read more

Nouméa, ses arbres emblématiques, ses vieilles maisons coloniales, ses pick-up, son centre culturel...... read more