Lifou

Upon our return from Île des pins we had to spend the night in Nouméa as our flight to Lifou was only scheduled for the next day. We spent the afternoon shopping, blogging and repacking for the next island excursion at Fabien's & Keisha's place. In the evening we cooked dinner for the four of us to thank them for their generosity. And the next day we went to Magenta, the domestic airport in Nouméa again to take our Air Cal flight to one of the 4 Loyalty Islands (îles loyauté): Lifou. Lifou was said to be a good combination of its two neighboring islands Maré - with apparently spectacular cliffs and caves - and Ouvéa - a 26km stretch of sand and beautiful beaches. The fourth island is Tiga, but it is super tiny and not inhabited so people usually mean the 3 other islands when talking about the Loyalties.

We received our car at the airport and made our way south to our campground. Our journey was made magical by the sight of millions of butterflies flying around the road. It was sooo beautiful. Arriving in Hukekep, we realised that we were very lucky foxes to camp on a shady site just next to one of the most beautiful beaches on the island: Luengoni beach. The campground was well equipped with a good kitchen and a fridge (good, cause we needed to cool our wine ;)). We set up our tent and Alex' hammock with a view on the white sandy beach and turquoise water and spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach.

Southern Lifou is known for some nice caves to visit, the most popular one was just a couple 100m away from where we stayed: "Les Joyaux de Luengoni". We intended to go there on a tour the next day, but then started a conversation with a French couple on the campground that has been living in New Caledonia for some years. They got an insider tip to visit another even bigger and more impressive cave directly in the main town (we as well got it advised by Jeremy, our host on the first night). This cave was nowhere advertised nor did any guide book or visitor brochure talk about it, so it was just by word-of-mouth recommendation that people got to know about it. It was located on the property of the head of a local kanak tribe and the French couple had arranged a visit for the next day. They did not mind calling again and asking if we could join as well which was not an issue.

So the next morning we went to Wé, the main town of Lifou, to visit "la grotte de Qago". The guy had given the others a description of how to get to the cave, but it was not too precise and there were absolutely no signposts or similar so we had to call again and have somebody come to the main road to show us where to go. Josh, the chief's son, was our guide for the 2 - 2.5h tour and we headed off through a little jungle at the back of the property to reach the entrance of the cave. We had to wear our swim suits and good shoes (no flip flops) that could get wet and bring a headlamp with us. At the entrance of the cave we took off our clothes and had to leave our backpacks behind because we needed to swim through a dark blue and ice cold pond to reach the main cave. Bikini/swim shorts, trekking sandals, headlamps on the front and Go Pro in the hand we went into the crystal clear, chilly water (was alright once you were in) and followed Josh through a deep but narrow tunnel into the main cavern.

From there we could exit the water and continue by walk. It was an amazingly big cave system with tremendous stalactites and stalagmites, some of them thin like needles and shining in bright white colours from the calcium in the water. We sneaked through small tunnels and stood in massive domes to admire the glittering stalactites everywhere. We could even see the roots of a big Banyan tree that used a small crack in the cave ceiling to grow its root through and we were about 5m below the ground. Really impressive! Josh also told us that his tribe keeps the water at the entrance of the cave very clean because should there ever be a water shortage they would have clean drinking water for a while. We definitely did not regret that we had chosen to visit this particular cave. It was really special!

For the afternoon we had arranged a visit to a vanilla plantation in the south of Lifou. Like in other parts of the south Pacific (e.g. Tahiti) the conditions are perfect for growing vanilla and there are several plantations around the island. Vanilla was introduced to the island by missionaires. Luez, a retired and humorous grandpa, showed us around his plantation and told us everything there is to know about growing, pollinating, harvesting, treating, drying and using vanilla! At the end we of course bought some vanilla pods and we look forward to using them back home :).

In the evening we teamed up with some of the other youngsters around the campground to go to a local "kermesse", a Christian introduced fair held once a year by the kanaky tribes with live music and traditional food. Alex was hesitating whether or not to try THE local speciality, "rousette", a bat favoured by locals, that was babecued. However, as they are officially protected and not to be hunted or killed he decided against it and we went for some chicken prepared local style. There was some live music, the vibes were good and the kanakes looked at us very curiously, but in a friendly way.

The next day we set off to explore the western and northern part of Lifou. Our first stop was Peng beach, a deserted little heaven. Palm trees, crystal clear swimmingpool style water in a small bay between limestone rocks and the whitest sand ever. When we arrived, there was an elderly couple at the beach which is already considered as "the beach is packed" in New Caledonia, but they left soon after and we had the whole bay to ourselves. With blue sky and sunshine the colours were similar to what we had seen on île des pins. Magical! Alex went to do some artistic jumps from the rocks into the sea, we were swimming and lazing around the shallow water for quite a while.

However, we had some more program to do, so we left this little paradise behind and went to Jinek Bay which had the nickname "natural aquarium" because of all the corals and fish around. It was the most popular snorkelling place on the island so we took our masks and snorkels and checked out what the aquarium had to offer. There were plenty of nice corals and colourful fish around in the clear and shallow water so we discovered the whole area for a good 45-60 min. Definitely worth a stop!

Last attraction were the "falaises de Jonkin", the Jonkin cliffs in the far north. On the way up there it started raining so we had a bit of clouds around when we arrived. At least it had stopped pouring down so we could walk down the stairs to the viewpoint to see the steep cliffs and the dark blue and turquoise water. We watched some local kids playing around in the water sitting in a small inlet waiting for the waves to come in and trying not to be smashed against the wall. Or climbing up a fallen tree trunk from the water towards the cliff and jumping back in. Well, in Europe, we played in the sandbox, that's how kids play in New Caledonia...

Yet another evening and morning on our paradise beach in Luengoni and the next day it was already time again to leave this island. Our flight was in the early afternoon and we ran into an - for us unforseen - issue when returning the car. We wanted to refill the tank and knew there was a station just outside the airport. However, what we did not anticipate was that all fuel stations were closed over lunch from 12:00 to 14:00. We drove a bit around to see if any fuel station was open and at the end had to return the car half empty. We were at least charged a fair price for the missing fuel and arrived just in time for check-in and boarding. A last glimpse on our beloved island from above and soon we landed again in Nouméa (our most frequented airport after Bangkok).

We still had another 3,5 days left and decided to travel around the southern part of Grande Terre and explore a bit the city of Nouméa. You will find stories and pictures of our last days in paradise in the upcoming article.

Happy Easter to all of you folks! See you very soon again.

All the best from Kununurra (yep, still here!),

Moni & Alex