Over the sea to Mare

Last week we had our first trip in a plane out of Noumea.  It was very exciting heading out to Magenta airport, the first step on our trip to Mare.  Forty short minutes later and were cruising over the large, flat, green (and strangely holey) island.  Let the holiday begin!

We stayed at the Nengone village hotel (the only hotel on Mare) and we thoroughly enjoyed our very comfortable bungalow - complete with flatscreen TV, aircon and delicious views out over the sea.  In fact - it almost felt a bit posh for us...so we weren't too upset when Max stepped in and trashed the poshness in true almost-two-year old style!

The hotel is nestled around a lovely white sandy beach that had some lovely coral to snorkel around.  It's super-calm because the reef protects a little lagoon that is an astonishing range of different shades of blue.  We had plans to walk to the Shabradahn beach and go kayaking and explore beyond our little haven - but it was HOT (30 degrees plus in the shade) and the food, Max and general holiday mood meant we put those plans on hold for our next trip ;)

So - how was the food?  The best thing was the coconut crab that Charlie and my mum ordered one night.  They got one MASSIVE beast, complete with the necessary tools, to crack into, gnaw on and generally tear apart as comprehensively as possible.  Yum.  The crabs actually spend most of their time on land and have pinchers so big that they crack open coconuts with their bare claws (kinda like tearing of tights with teeth...) and they eat so much of the mighty coconut that they actually taste of coconut.  Wow.  So Mum and and Charlie spent nearly an hour working their way through the crab while Dad and I watched, tasted and pointed out difficult little bits they'd missed.

We'll go back to Mare - maybe to camp or stay in a gite and get to know some of the friendly locals.  Our day in a little rental car was just a taster for the next trip!