New Caledonia: Grande Terre

Grande Terre: Noumea and the Bay of Prony

Culture shock!

After three months of feeling at home in small villages, barefoot and without electricity, we arrived in Noumea: capital of New Caledonia, and the most cosmopolitan city in the South Pacific island nations. The waterfront market sells fine cheese and olives rather than taro and cassava; food stalls make crepes to order, and one is never far from a pastry shop. New Caledonia is still colonized by France; for better and for worse, it shows.

Once again our arrival timing was fortuitous, just in time for the 30^th annual Carnival of Noumea--a Mardi Gras-style parade with 1200 stunningly festooned participants (photo above) and a fireworks display worthy of any major U.S. city on the 4^th of July.

With a European feel comes European prices, so we didn’t spend much time in the capital. A few scenes from our days there:

We could resist the fancy pastries

but we couldn't resist these expertly made crepes

French fast food: baguettes and more baguettes

The Tjibaou Cultural Center, in honor of the Kanak pro-independence leader assassinated in 1989, is an architectural masterpiece that houses traditional and modern Kanak art.

The tall curved structures evoke both Kanak huts and graceful pines.

On the outer grounds are traditional carved statues
and lengths of fabric tied to posts.
A gift of fabric is the standard offering
from guests to hosts in Kanak culture.

Carving is still the predominant art form,
especially of intricate symbolic designs on large pieces of wood

A "living display" of traditional costumes,

instruments and music

Outside of the city, the rest of Grande Terre—and it really is a very Large (Is)Land—is sparsely populated. It’s also a remarkably dry island, more akin to Australia (almost 800 miles to the west) than to lush Vanuatu (about 250 miles to the east).

We took some nice hikes in the Bay of Prony, on the far south end of Grande Terre. The landscape is

characterized by red earth and dense scrub vegetation, occasionally dotted by araucaria pines.

Hiking up (and up and up) to a lighthouse

Red mud colored our dinghy line, shoes and feet

Remains: there is a great deal of mining, particularly of nickel,
on Grande Terre

At 30-45 meters, the indigenous columnar pines
tower over everything else

Hunter-gatherer Art found a genuine treasure!
The nautilus is frequently associated with New Caledonia,
but finding a shell of this size and condition is rare