Oh la la!

Bon Jour from New Caledonia!
We arrived in Noumea after a 2 day 6 hour passage. It started off a little lumpy as the wind was coming from the south. I found out “Sturgeron” sea sickness tablets aren’t as good for me as “Sea Legs” but late in day two I recovered. Everyone else was fine. No fish this time as we thought the trip too short to bother.
Noumea is different from Vanuatu because it is further south. The weather is refreshingly cool – a bit like a New Zealand summer. The trees are a mix of tropical and pine trees. An unusual place with rusty red earth because of nickel and other mineral deposits.

Hamish took this as we came into Noumea.

I noticed that the buildings were fairly new and when we went out to a friend’s place for diner he said his house was in the old part of town. Their house was built in the 1960’s. It is a mini France here, every thing is in French but most people can speak some English and with my limited French we manage ok. I REALLY wish I had taken my 3rd an 4th form French further!

It is true that it is the people that make a place and we have been very fortunate to have met some neat people here. Last Saturday we visited the Aquarium. Someone said you could walk there from the marina others said it was a bit of a hike about 20 minutes, anyway we set off as it was a beach front walk and it turned out to be a huge walk. After 20 minutes we stopped a young couple who out with their toddler. They did not speak English very well but said it was about another 20-30 minutes away! We opted for the bus and just missed one when there was a toot. It was the man who we had just spoken to. He had gone and got his ute and come back to pick us up. He took us to the Aquarium – what a nice person!!! It was a 5 minute car trip but saved us slogging in the heat. We got a taxi back.

The Aquarium is outstanding we went round it twice. There were so many amazingly different fish. The best was a Napolean fish. It had such an expressive face. The colours of the coral were incredible. We are itching to get out and explore for ourselves.

We are currently in port getting some work done on the boat. The battery charger is on the blink and Lindsay has other jobs to do to get sorted before we head to Australia. We have been very lucky to meet up with some friends who live here and have given us the benefit of their local knowledge for getting things done.

Dad paints the hull while Hamish and Kate paint the oars (and did a fine job!).