La Tour

We did finally get off our derrières and rented a car for le weekend. We packed a picnic lunch and drove around the south part of the island. So, now a quick geography lesson.

New Caledonia is made up of the large island (Grand Terre) which is the fourth largest island in the Pacific after New Guinea and the North and South islands of New Zealand; and then several other island groups to the East and South.

It is said the large island rifted from Australia 65 million years ago and as such is a bit like the Galapagos in that much of the plants and wildlife are endemic. The island is made from the earth's mantle and is rich in mineral deposits such as nickel, whereas the outer islands are coral reefs or volcanic in origin.

As we traveled around the southern part of New Cal, we passed one of the several active nickel mines. The terrain is quite mountainous with some beautiful views. We stopped for lunch at a nice waterfall, explored the large man made lake and the damn and then made our way back to Noumea.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving which we celebrated with two Canadian couples. We had a great dinner finished with a fantastic homemade pumpkin pie courtesy of Sarah.

We're pretty much done with our visit and ready to sail to Brisbane today. We will do the clearing out process by visiting first the immigration office, then the customs office and lastly the port captain. This should take us about three hours since all the offices are about a 30 minute walk from the marina. Then we will top up fuel and be on our way!! Brissy ... here we come!

New Caledonia ... Oui Oui

C'est merveilleux n'est pas? Ici ont parle français. Ok, you get the idea. We are where the French are more French than the French. The baguettes and the croissants are yummy and the selection of cheese rivals the best cheese shops in France I am sure. And the wine is reasonably priced. The grocery store in Noumea has plenty of selection and variety. So what more can you ask for.

We are taking it easy. Being a bit lazy about exploring this island. The weather is interesting. It gets very hot at midday but once the sun is gone it quickly cools down to 15°c. We are having to use a blanket on our bed these days (thanks Antje...our knitted wooly blanket is coming in very handy right now).

We discovered Gunnar and Eva on Kohiba in the anchorage on our first day here. And then Sarah and Will on Hydraquest came by to say hello. So we had everyone over for a dinner to eat up the rest of our fruits, veggies and meat that we couldn't have on board before our visit from the quarantine officer the next morning. It turned out to be a really fun evening with everyone sharing their sailing adventures since we haven't seen Kohiba since Bora Bora and Hydraquest since Tonga.

We discovered that we are all pretty much done with our cruising for this season and aren't overly enthusiastic about exploring more islands. It looks like New Caledonia is just a convenient mid way point for cruisers heading to Australia. Mind you, we have seen several cruise ships come into the port here, so there must be some points of interest to see. Maybe we have become a bit travel weary and are just plain ready to head home for a bit.

We took a slip at Port Moselle Marina. It makes it so much more convenient to get out and about and also provides for some very calm nights. Now we really must get off our butts and do some sightseeing!