Blogs from Noumea, South Province, New Caledonia, Oceania - page 7

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 Today is another sea day as we are about half way to Noumea. The calendar of events is packed. We began our day by attending the lecture on Noumea. Now know what to do, and not do; what to see, and not see. After the Noumea lecture we had the next Explorations Speakers Series lecture. This time it was by a Colonel David Horner - Australia’s military historian. He has an incredible resume as a student, professor, veteran, author/editor (26 books), and consultant to TV programs. His talk was titled, “War Comes to Paradise Japan Strikes!” Basically his talk was on the planning to attack Pearl Harbor. From this talk I went to play the game “Lost at Sea” where you are in the lifeboat and have 15 things and you must ... read more

The Nobregas are off to sea ... a new experience to add to our travel adventures!!! A 10 day cruise on the "Pacific Dawn" sailing to 4 ports of call around the south pacific region. Anticipation was high, we've heard a lot about it! Couldn't wait to get into that mile of food... As you all know on any cruise, anything and everything is available in on stop shop! and we weren't disappointed in that aspect...! A brouchure tells a million stories though, as we know things don't always go to plan as in our case. 2 days into it, captain makes an official annoucement that we are sailing into a fierce cyclone....! Itenerary out the window and our adventure became a "mystery cruise'... We didn't know where we wer going to end up everyday, weather ... read more

We arrived in Nouméa 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 native with associated croc/didgeridoo. Still, it was fun (picture attached). Nouméa is the largest city in the French Special Collectivity of New Caledonia. It is located on a peninsula in the south of New Caledonia's main island which is called Grande Terre. The population of the island consists of European, Polynesian, Indonesians and Vietnamese as well as many Melanesians who find work in Nouméa which is one of the South Pacific's most industrialized cities. It lies on a protected deep water harbour that forms the chief port of ... read more

2 blogs in 2 weeks I hear you say! Well nearly at the end of our 2 weeks here and where has that time gone. Once we landed in New Caledonia we were greated by Ben, Nathalie and Sam who took us back to Noumea a 50km drive. Once we arrived we were welcome into their apartment where we made ourself at home for the next two weeks. After a couple of days rest we decided to head south to and Island called the Isle of Pines known as 'the closest island to paradise'. We took a catamaran to the island which took 2.5hrs and you could say it was a little bit rough. We camped on the isle of pines at a place called Nataiwatch for 2 nights. While on the Isle of Pines we ... read more

Day 28 - February 12, 2007, Monday, Noumea, New Caledonia Time: 6:58 am, Monday (1:58 pm, Sunday CST) Latitude: 22 degrees 16.51 minutes S Longitude: 166 degrees 25.86 minutes E Speed: 0 - At Anchor Seas: Smooth Wind: Calm Distance traveled from FLL: 10,084 nautical miles Weather: 80 degrees / 75% humidity, Sunny Noumea is the beautiful capital city of the French territory of New Caledonia. As we arrived the sun was shining! We were happy to see that! The French established a settlement here in 1854. The area first served as a prison colony from 1864 to 1904, and then as a center for the nickel and gold that was mined nearby. Later it served as the headquarters of the U.S. military in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, the U.S. military ... read more