Southern Grande Terre

Upon our return from beautiful Lifou island we picked up another rental car (yeah, public transportation is quite poor, even in the city) and headed to our base for the next few days: Fabien's house. At this point once again a big thank to him and Keisha for letting us stay with them, use their kitchen, washing machine and any other facilities we needed. They also gave us good tips for the region and we often shared a glass or two over a nice conversation.

As we intended to go south to the national park "parc de la rivière bleu" the first day, Fabien informed us that on the way down we should be careful when passing the suburb of Saint Louis, a troublesome suburbs populated by kanaks out of the tribal's system often making troubles, throwing stones at passing cars or even block the road. And if they block the road and you are on the other side there is no alternative way back to Nouméa other than by boat. Apparently it had been so bad in the past that these days police cars are stationed on each side of Saint Louis to react as soon as possible in case of upcoming riots. Sounds serious? It really is because when we passed Saint Louis we did not see the expected police cars around, but massive 4WD jeeps and a tank-like police vehicle... We, however, were able to pass the road in either direction without any issues, but Fabien told us that just a couple of days after we left they did block the road! Lucky us!

Southern Grande Terre looked quite different from the north that we had already seen at the beginning of our trip. Down south the landscape looked a lot more rough and wild with the same red soil that reminded us of outback Australia. We had left early to be able to enjoy a full day in the National Park and we had decided to do a mountain bike & kayak combination to explore the area. This allowed us to do more kilometers in the park and see it from a different perspective on the water. So we picked up the bikes and the guy from the rental shop gave us a map and some tips where to go and stop and when we had to be at the meeting point to get into the kayaks.

We shot off and first climbed up a winding path to a viewpoint from where we could see "la forêt noyée" (the drowned forest) as the area had been widely flooded when they created a dam at Yaté a bit further south. The weather was perfect as it was a bit cloudy and thus not as hot as usually. From the viewpoint there was a super rough track down the other side to join the main "road" again. While Alex was enjoying himself Moni was struggling a bit and fell over when she hit a big pothole. Well, nothing happened so we carried on and stopped a bit further down the road to walk the short "sentier de cagou".

Cagous are a species of bird that are endemic to New Caledonia and it is also the national animal. Due to the absence of natural predators these birds that would theoretically be able to fly lost their ability to do so and are just staying on the ground. If defending their territory they spread out all their feathers they have on their wings, tail and head which looks quite impressive. Cagous were living all around the national park, but were rather shy birds. On this little walk through the forest the chances to see cagous were higher because it was known that a cagou family was living in there. For a couple of seconds we did not recognize the bird when we saw it, but yes, there was a cagou wandering around busily.

We then carried on on our bikes and made a lunch break at a nice rest area next to a tiny stream and pool where Alex went for a quick swim after our sandwiches. Then it was time to head back to be on time for the kayaking. The guy from the rental shop was there to transport our bikes and give us our kayak as well as some rough indications on where to go. There were tons of little side channels and inlets where you could get lost, but we managed our way and ended up paddling straight through all the dead trees in the drowned forest. From there it was another 15min bike ride back to the car park and then we hit the road.

We spent the next two days quite relaxed in Nouméa itself, replacing broken camping items, clothes and buying other souvenirs we needed. And we went to see the two local beaches in the city: Baie des citrons and Anse Vata. Baie des citrons was a calm bay that is an ideal place to relax, read jn the shadow and swim in the sea. Anse Vata was a bit more exposed to the wind and a lot more water activities were going on there: windsurfing, kite surfing, kayaking, stand-up paddling,... One of the mornings we wanted to rent a stand-up paddle to go to Île aux canards (duck island), but the wind was even too strong in the morning. We took a kayak instead and were still struggling to fight wind and waves on the roughly 2km to the island. Over there was a little snorkelling parcours which was quite pretty. Lots of corals and many, many fish and Moni once again saw a cute turtle.

And soon it was already time for us to re-pack our backpacks, clean our tent (anyone who has been to Australia/New Zealand will know why) and wash our car. We went for a traditional "kava" with a beautiful sunset view and tried some "bougna" with Fabien and Keisha on our last evening. Kava is the most iconic drink in New Caledonia produced by the Kanaks: it is a strong herbal, almost sedative drink that looks like dirt dishwater and is served in a coconut shell. You can argue about whether it tastes good or bad, let's call it interesting and it definitely makes your tongue a bit numb. At least we tried it :).

Bougna is also something original kanak and the traditional way to prepare it takes almost a day, so you usually need to pre-order jt at restaurants. It contains different types of sweet potatoe, bananas and pieces of either chicken, fish, crab, prawns or lobster. All the ingredients are wrapped in banana leaves, a thick coconut cream is poured onto it and then buried to cook for a couple of hours in a ground oven heated by fired rocks. It is quite a rich and filling dish, a very unusual taste, but we liked it and were happy we tried it after all.

And on an early Saturday morning end of January it was time for us o say good-bye to incredible New Caledonia and to Fabien and Keisha. Thanks again for everything. We really hope to see you again one day in Europe to return the favour of hosting you. It was a pleasure to meet you!

And then Air Calin flew us over to our next adventurous destination: Australia. What an amazing and diverse country. Wait for the coming articles and we are sure you will want to hop on a plane and visit Down Under yourselves.

In that sense: take it easy and take care!

Cheers,

Moni & Alex