New Caledonia

We didn’t know much about New Caledonia and thought that one week was too long to spend on the main island of Grand Terre. How wrong we were! We only managed to see a few sites and do some hikes around and in between Bourail / Deva and Noumea. We’ll definitely go again! The photos were taken using various appliances – phones, a Cannon D90 camera and a DJI Mini 2 drone.

There is a direct Qantas flight from Sydney to Noumea which is just under 2.5 hours and New Caledonia is the same timezone as Sydney. The international airport in Noumea (La Tontouta) is very small. The views from the plane as we approached it were quite spectacular.

We drove from La Tontouta to Domaine de Deva where we stayed at a quite nice resort in a Kanak-style hut. Raz loved the driving in New Caledonia – on the right side, in a small front-wheel drive Renault Clio (which fitted in quite well, as there were lots of small cars around), on really nicely cambered roads with no enforced speed limits.

The resort where we stayed had beautiful villas in the shape of Kanak huts and there were lots of wild (and very friendly) turkeys around.

Not far from Deva, on the west coast, there are some beautiful bays that can be seen either by driving to them or by hiking the Trail of Three Bays (Sentier de Trois Baies): Baie de Tortues, Baie des Amoureux and Baie Gouaro. There are some interestinng rock formations (Bonhomme, Roche Percée) and also the estuary of river Nera as it goes into the Coral Sea. There were lots of birds, we saw some turtles as well.

Poe is a tiny place close to Deva where there is an aerodrome for local flights – mainly to see the barrier reef and further north to see the heart of Voh (we didn’t get as far this time around). But what we did see in Poe was a New Caledonian sea krait (first out of three that we saw in total (in the wild) on this trip). We could see the footprints of small turtles that probably hatched overnight and then went for the sea (loggerhead (grosse tête) turtles most likely). The beach is nice, peaceful, ideal for watersports that don’t require waves. At the local Epicerie we also found the best kombucha we had in a long while (made locally a bit further south, in Mouidou).

Deva is a huge domain with quite a few hiking and mountain biking trails. There is a dried up river canyon that continues under the sea and is known as Faille Shark and next to it there’s Ilot Shark (yes, appropriately named!).

Bourail is an interesting little town close to Deva. There is a museum which is quite small but has some interesting things in it: the last guillotine used in New Caledonia (complete with the bucket where the head would go!), some petroglyphs and a kanak hut. The building itself also has an interesting history behind it as it housed various institutions along the years.

Between Bourail and Nessadiou there are two interesting cemeteries. France deported quite a few people from Algeria in the second half of 1800s and they eventually settled in this area so there is an Arab cemetery. During World War II, New Zealand set up a hospital in the area and sent troops to New Caledonia as well, so many NZ soldiers were buried in the New Zealand Second World War Cemetery.

Fort Teremba was another interesting place to visit where we learned quite a lot about the history of New Caledonia. It is a restored fortress initially built in 1871 to hold convicts brought to the area to build roads. Following a revolt by local Kanaks against French colonial rule in 1878, it was strengthened, and then abandoned in 1898 when deportations came to an end. After years of neglect, it was restored in the 1980s- 90s. They have another gullotine of course, although this one is a replica!

Parc des Grandes Fougères (of large fern trees) is another place that we went to, but definitely have to go back. The road was amazing – steep, winding, narrow at times, would have been an amazing rally road! The road has wooden crash barriers – I would not want to test how efficient they are. It starts in Farino and is mostly tarmac except the last 6 km or so which are gravel. There are lots of trails in the park – we only had time for a short one and got rewarded with beautiful views. We even saw a cagou, which is a local flightless bird (didn’t manage to get any good photos unfortunately).

We spent the last one and a half days of our holiday in Noumea. Plenty of things to do, many left for next time. We went to the Tjibaou Cultural Centre which is quite a nice building designed by the architect Renzo Piano and houses various art pieces from Pacific islands. It has a room dedicated to Jean-Marie Tjibaou himself and also some transient exhibitions. One of them was by a local artist, Ito Waia, who does some really interesting and eye-pleasing mixed-media pieces (photography + painting). The other interesting piece was by a New Zealand artist (Michel Tuffery) who created a cow out of tins of corned beef.

We walked along the foreshore in Noumea in Baie de Citron and also Anse Vata to admire the various water sports. Also walked around the city centre and Place de Cocotiers (next to it we had a beautiful bougna which is a local dish made with sweet potatoes, fish and/or chicken and then baked in coconut milk in a banana leaf). We noticed quite a few “minicars” which are very small cars that don’t require a driving licence! The markets were also very interesting, especially the fish market.

Next to the fish market there is a totem pole, Mwâ Ka. It is 12 m tall, topped by a grande case (chief’s hut), complete with flèche faîtière (carved rooftop spear), and its carvings represent the eight customary regions of New Caledonia. The Mwâ Ka is mounted as the mast on a concrete double-hulled pirogue, steered by a wooden helmsman, and is meant to celebrate Kanak identity.

The acquarium in Noumea is one of the best we’ve seen. They have quite a few local species but also fluorescent corals and a few nautilus.