Île des pins

So after our road trip to explore Grande Terre we were ready to get on our flight to île des pins (pine island). We had bought an airpass with Air Calédonie that allowed us to use 4 domestic flights of our choice so we had decided for île des pins and Lifou, one of the Loyalty Islands. As we only had a luggage allowance of 12kg and we did not want to pay excess baggage - though it only cost 2€ per kg - we had been looking for options to store some of our stuff. So at this point we would first of all like to thank Christine from Zurich who had given us the contact details of an old school colleague of hers that is now living in New Caledonia, Fabien. And secondly yet a bigger thank you to Fabien and his wife Keisha who gave us pretty much unlimited access to their house for leaving some luggage behind and staying with them afterwards to explore southern Grand Terre and Nouméa itself. Thanks a lot! Such a pleasure to meet you guys!

So before heading to the airport we met Fabien at their house in Nouméa, dropped off some stuff and then got on the 20min leap to île des pins. The flight alone was already quite an experience with beautiful views of the lagoon and all the different colours around tiny islands and coral barrier reefs. Our pre-arranged transport (yes, in New Caledonia you cannot just show up, you need make old-fashioned phone calls to pre-book accomodation, transportation and tours) dropped us off at Atchu campground. We were staying around Kanuméra Bay for 3 nights and exploring the area by walk or organized tours. On that first evening we met and dined with two French guys that had been fishing a really big surgeon fish (while sport fishing with a harpoon in the lagoon). They managed to grill the fish and bake some bread with almost nothing but firewood, that was impressive. As they could not eat all the fish themselves they kindly invited us to join them for dinner. Both of them had quite interesting backgrounds and stories as they had been travelling the world on sailing boats. Cool, no? Maybe a next project :) - just joking, mum!

The first day we went for the pretty much full-day tour to see THE main attraction of the island: la piscine naturelle (the natural swimming pool). You could either drive up there or - and that is what we did - sail up in a traditional pirogue. The "kanaks" used this wooden sailing boats to go out fishing. That day we were sailing with Henry, a local kanak, and his self-made pirogue. These days all boats are equiped with engines as well in case there is not enough wind, but we were lucky and 85% of the time the boat was sailing calmly through the waters of St. Joseph bay and Upi Bay without the disturbing sound of an engine. Every now and then we saw a big splash on the water when rays were jumping out to get rid of their parasites. And we were not at all aware of how many varieties of the colour turquoise exist, but we knew after this 1,5h hours cruise on the stunning lagoon. It is just incredible and probably best looked at on our pictures.

The pirogue dropped us off at the northern end of Upi Bay from where it was a good hour hike through the jungle to reach "la piscine", the famous pool. Partly we had to walk knee deep through a crystal clear stream of sea water to reach the pool. And there our jaws dropped... "La piscine" was a protected natural inlet of sea water, a big lagoon with colours that really looked like a swimming pool. Perfect white sand, crystal clear water and the most intense turquoise colour ever seen. And in the background the trees that gave the island its name: massive "pins colonnaires", about 40m high, very slim and aligned pine trees. What a view!! We immediately took our snorkelling equipment and went swimming to see some of the corals and fish in the lagoon.

After about an hour and despite the beauty of the place we decided to move on and go all the way up to Oro Bay. We followed the so-called "sandy river" (la rivière de sable) and arrived at yet another breathtaking beach with perfect sand and water. We still couldn't believe it! What a magical island! We strolled along this amazing beach and stopped at a small beach restaurant to have lunch with a view next to a small decorated Christmas pine tree. After yummy papaya salad, chicken and fresh prawns and another fresh papaya for dessert it was time to make our way back to the meeting point where our transfer would pick us up. We used the rest of the afternoon to check out Kuto Bay, the main beach on the island. A bit "busier" and still: such a beautiful and calm bay. On the way to our campground we relaxed at Kanuméra bay and enjoyed the late afternoon sun.

The next day was our walking day to explore some other sites of the island. We walked along the road and were by that time already used to the fact that everybody on the street was greeting everybody: cars greet cars, cars greet cyclists, pedestrians greet cars and vice versa. Even the local policemen waved back to us when we lifted our hands to signalize "hello" them. We turned off the main road and followed a gravel path up to Pic N'Ga, with 262m the highest point on the island. Sounds easy? Try to climb it at 10:30am when the sun is already full on and burning down on you :). But from the top you get a spectacular 360 degrees view of the whole island, all the beautiful bays and colours around.

To cool off afterwards we walked down to yet another beautiful beach (are you already getting bored?!), baie des rouleaux. As it was private property of a local tribe we had to pay a small entrance fee. This is quite common in New Caledonia and we were often advised to be careful when accessing any lonesome beaches or land because it possibly belongs to a kanak tribe and they can get quite angry finding any intruders on their property. Understandable, we would also not be happy finding a tourist walking into our garden and sunbathing his belly there...

So we had the whole bay to ourselves, except for a female dog and her two very curious and cheeky pups. While the puppies realized quite quickly that we were just boring tourists lazing around and not doing anything exciting they left us alone while mama dog stayed with us and relaxed under palm trees. From the bay we had perfect view on... an Australian cruise ship. Île des pins is usually quite calm and chilled except for the days where cruise ships are around. Then everybody is busy and you can usually not book any transfer, hire a driver or similar because they are all reserved for the cruisaders ;). Later on we made our way back, snorkelled in Kanuméra bay (Moni saw a turtle ❤️) and watched the sunset at Kuto bay.

And the next day it was already time to leave this paradise island, fly back to Nouméa and then to yet another paradise island: Lifou. So if you can still bear beach stories and some more pictures of breathtaking bays, then please wait for the next article.

Sunny greetz from Kununurra (stuck here for at least the next 4 days, but wait for the Australia articles to know why). Have a great spring time and talk to you soon.

Alex & Moni