Friday, February 7th—Our 34th Cruise Day—Noumea, New Caledonia

Friday, February 7^th—Our 34^th Cruise Day—Noumea, New Caledonia

Our ship departed Lautoka, Fiji, about 5:00 PM on Wednesday, February 5^th, again heading west. We would have just one full “sea day” before our next port of call on Friday, February 7^th—our 8^th South Pacific Island, Noumea, New Caledonia.

We would have two stops in New Caledonia—on the first (Feb 7^th) we would be docked at the city of Noumea on the island of “Grand Terre”, and the second (Feb 8^th) would be a tender port off the island of Ils des Pins (Island of Pines)—a small island off the southern tip of Grand Terre.

Like Fiji, New Caledonia is part of Melanesia. South Pacific islands are divided into three main groups based on the ethnic origin of the indigenous people:  Polynesia (of which Easter Island, Pitcairn Island, Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and American Samoa are a part), Melanesia (of which Fiji, New Caledonia, and Papua New Guinea—which we would visit on February 20^th and 21^st—are a part), and Micronesia (of which the Yap Island Group—which we would visit on February 24^th—is a part.)

New Caledonia is about 750 miles east of Australia, and consists of many islands—including Grand Terre (by far the largest island where most of the population is located), the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, Beleb Archipelago, Ils des Pins, and a few remote islets. New Caledonia has a land area of about 7,000 square miles and a population of about 256,000—consisting of a mix of Kanak (indigenous New Caledonians), white Europeans, Polynesians, and Southeast Asians. The capital of New Caledonia is Noumea, which is located on Grand Terre. 

The first British contact with New Caledonia was by Captain James Cook in 1774, but there was little European contact after that until 1840, when sandalwood began being exported. During the mid-1800’s, many of the indigenous Kanak were captured and sold as slaves to work in the sugar cane fields of Polynesia, and France took possession of New Caledonia in 1853. During World War II, the United Stated fleet—which turned back the Japanese Navy in May 1942 at the Battle of the Coral Sea—was based in Noumea, New Caledonia. Today, New Caledonia is a “Non Self-Governing Territory” of France, so once again the “French Pacific Franc (XPF)” is the currency used.

For our visit to Noumea on February 7^th, we decided to take a Holland America sponsored tour titled: “Zodiac Ride and Ile aux Canards Beach Break.” Our ship arrived at Noumea at 10:00 AM with “all aboard” at 6:30 PM and since this was a three hour tour starting at 10:00 AM, we hoped to have a few hours after the tour was over to see the town of Noumea--and hopefully get to the beach “Anse Vata”, a 20 minute drive south of Noumea. In fact, we made tentative plans to meet up with our friends Al and Erica Wehrle at at Anse Vata beach sometime in the afternoon after our tour. (NOTE: Cell phone communication between friends who have U.S. based phone service isn’t practical on a remote islands. Therefore meeting places need to be established ahead of time, and we all hope for the best that we will be able to find each other!)

As we arrived at the pier, we were entertained by traditional music and dancing of the indigenous people. It is particularly nice when we dock on the port side—as in this case—since we can easily see any welcoming ceremonies, such as this one, from the balcony of our room (Our room is on the port—or left—side of the ship.) In addition the docking and undocking activities are always interesting—which is one of Pat’s favorite things to watch from our balcony. And from our balcony we could see “Le Petite Train”—a small train with cars for passengers that will drive around the city on roads (not train tracks!) to show tourists the highlights. And right across the road from our port was the Casino Supermarche’ where we could pick up some sundry items. After over a month into our journey, there were some things we needed to get that were not available onboard, so a supermarket was a welcome sight!

We left our ship shortly after 10:00 AM, and met with our tour group shore side. This tour seemed like a good compromise—Bill could go swimming and snorkeling while Pat could find a lounge chair and read her book on the beach. But it should be noted that Pat was not all that excited about the prospect of taking a Zodiac ride to get to the island—she is not a good swimmer and really doesn’t like any boat that is smaller than the ms Amsterdam. The Zodiac started off, and it really was “a thrillingly fast ride,” as advertised. Pat was able to endure the trip (enjoy was too much to hope for!) and after about 20 minutes we were out of the harbor, into “Baie de Dumbea” (Bay of Dumbea) and had reached the island of Canards for our beach break. We had to wade ashore from the Zodiac, but soon found lounge chairs on the beach, and Bill was able to cheer Pat up a bit with a beer and some food from the concession hut!

Canards Island is interesting. In addition to lounge chairs on the beach, the island has bizarre art sculptures and of course great snorkeling. In fact, a sign on the island shows a “snorkeling trail” along white buoys which, when you follow the buoys, has underwater informational signs. So we relaxed on the beach, had some food and beers and Bill went snorkeling while Pat read her Kindle.

And then we saw the yellow “Water Taxi” pull up onto the beach! Pat was more than a little annoyed that we paid good money for a Zodiac ride she didn’t want to take when we could have taken a water taxi with a gentler ride and for far less money—and reached the same island! In any case, Bill walked all the way around the island, and soon it was time to return to Noumea via the Zodiac, which had returned to pick us up.

But we did not notice that the Zodiac had returned, and it had loaded up passengers and began its departure without us! When we finally saw that it was leaving, Bill ran down to the beach and began yelling, waving his arms and jumping up and down (as best he could!) to get the attention of someone on board. Fortunately someone on board did see us, and the Zodiac returned for us, but we found it incredible that no one seemed to notice we were missing—after all, there were only about 10 people on board. How much trouble would it have been to count to make sure everyone was there? Of course if we had been left, we could have taken a water taxi back—which Pat would not have minded at all!

Back in Noumea, we decided to catch a taxi to Anse Vata beach and see if we could meet up with our friends Al and Erica. Unlike other ports we have visited, taxi stands in Noumea seemed to be in just one place—Place des Cocotiers—a park in the center of the city. So we walked the few blocks and soon found a taxi. We have found it best to agree on a price for the taxi before we commit since taxi meters are rarely reliable. In this case, the driver quoted us a reasonable price, and off we went to the beach—about a 20 minute drive.

But as we reached the beach, we realized that the chances of finding Al and Erica were close to zero. Many of the beaches we have gone to on this trip have been small, with only one or two restaurants or bars. Not the case in Anse Vata which had about two miles of restaurants, bars and shops. We picked one that seemed to be attractive—the “Malecon Café” on Promenade Rue Laroque—paid our taxi driver and went inside. Of course Al and Erica weren’t there, but we ordered beer and food anyway, and the café turned out to be a charming French Restaurant on the waterfront.

We were at the café for a little over an hour, and then decided to make our way back to the ship—Pat wanted to do some shopping at Casino Supermarche and we were starting to get close to the all aboard time of 6:30 PM. Our waitress called a taxi for us, but we started to get a little worried when she said the taxi wouldn’t arrive for a half hour. And that was “New Caledonia time”—so who knows when or if it would show up! We went out onto the road to see if we could hail a taxi ourselves, and soon a tour bus came by with passengers and staff from our ship. People on the bus persuaded the driver to stop for us, so we climbed in and were back to our ship in about 20 minutes. Whew! We even had time for Pat to do her Casino Supermarche shopping, and we were back onboard with 10 minutes to spare. (NOTE: If passengers are not on a Holland America sponsored tour and miss the ship, it is their responsibility to get to the ship’s next port of call at their own expense—which most likely means an airplane ticket and overnight accommodations!)

We departed Noumea, New Caledonia, about 7:00 PM and of course there was a “sail away” party to celebrate the occasion. But we wouldn’t travel far. By 8:00 AM the next morning we would be anchored off Ile des Pins (Isle of Pines)—our second port of call in New Caledonia. Ile des Pins is a small island off the southern tip of Grand Terre, and this would be a tender port.