The Isle of Pines

Wow - it's been more than a year since we arrived here in Noumea. With baby two about to arrive, and Charlie's parents over for a visit, we decided to take a few days out over on the Isle of Pines. Which was stunning.

It's mid-winter here and when I booked the tickets and hotel the agency asked me if I was sure I wanted to go in the deepest, darkest, depths of winter. Well, being a good kiwi girl at heart that just seemed like a bit of a challenge...would the weather be ok? We did get a bit lucky - and winter here is pretty tame. We lounged beside the still blue sea at about 23 degrees and in the sun it was up around 25. It was fabulous. We didn't spend much time in the water - I only did one snorkel in the natural aquarium but it was the perfect temperature for walking around and lounging too.


The best parts of the trip were probably the walk up the river to the Natural aquarium. It's only a 15 minute walk, but it feels like an adventure because you can't the see inlet when you start. It's glorious walking out and seeing the water open up in front of you. We lunched at the Meridien afterwards (Laughing at the reaction of our guests to a $NZ 50 hamburger - it's amazing how you start to become immune to the silly prices!) and decided that our accommodation at Oure Lodge was way nicer.

Oure Lodge is at the far end of a beautiful sheltered bay. I loved walking through the gardens around the bungalows with Max, chatting to the cat and watching the butterflies come and play chicken with us and enjoying the shade of the banyans. We'll be back with bubba two, to show her this lovely place!

Putting roots down here

I always think it's nice to leave a house with a little more soul than when you moved into it...we're staring here early. A lemon tree was put into the garden a few weeks ago and Max loved digging the hole with daddy, watering the new tree and running around outside in his gumboots. Next on the list is a herb garden and vege patch. We just need to find a way to kill all the snails here first! It's wet and feels cold (17 degrees at night, 22/23 degrees during the day) and the snails are loving it.



We also welcomed ourselves to our new pad with a little housewarming brunch. There were probably more kids than big folks here and the resulting chaos of kids outside and adults inside watching the rugby (NZ lost...) was very entertaining. Hopefully there will be more little parties like that one - this place seems to just soak up lots of people.





Finally, we went to a wedding that had me scratching around in the wardrobe for something suitable to dress me and the bump. The trusty pregnant wedding dress did the trick - even covering this large little baby!

Things have been busy with the France-Oceania summit. I'd hoped for a little visit from Mr le President and his wife (I'd have been out at the parade checking out her chic clothes!) but it wasn't to be. For me, aside from having an absentee husband for a few days, the biggest impact has been all the protests, road blocks and even more strikes than usual. Hopefully our trip to the Ile of Pines next week won't be affected. Our fingers and toes will all be crossed!

Dugongs!

A few weeks ago I got very excited by the arrival of some dugongs at Anse Vata beach. This is right opposite work and a great place to watch the sun go down, so when we heard they were there (and almost up on the beach they were so close) we all headed down for a look. It was very cool to see these lovely big animals popping up out of the water to have a look and then getting back down to business on a tasty patch of seagrass. I planned to don a mask and snorkel for a closer look but moving house got in the way. Next time.

What's the haps?

It's been a long time. With bubba two moving from a croissant to a brioche and now a great big loaf of molenberg....things have been a bit crazy. We've also bid farewell to our wonderful view and moved into a great new house that's in a new subdivision in Noumea. It's a big maze of houses, all built in a similar style, all with red roofs! Wonderful suburbia and I can almost imagine Kevin Spacey popping his head over the fence and singing 'Don't rain on my parade' a la American Beauty... it's great.

We love watching max run around the garden, take his ride-on out for a spin and generally enjoy all the space. The area's also very close to the beach so we can whip down there for an evening swim when the sun comes back...Coup de ouest today...bleurgggh (wind and rain)

Making the most of the space

We live on the third floor of this apartment building and I had a chuckle as I walked down the street the other day and turned around to see this. 

Max's swing seems pretty tame when you're on the balcony but I think this shot explains some of the amused expressions I've noticed on the neighbours faces during swinging sessions of late!

A weekend in Yate

A few months after we arrived in Noumea, we made our first trip to check out the Southern coast.  We drove down to a little place called Yate and stayed at the Gite Iya.  There's not much in Yate - a petrol station with a shop and a cafe (which is shut at the moment because of a dispute over the recent change of ownership) and a few little gites.  It's beautiful though - with a river running out to the sea and a coastline that runs from high hills straight into the sea.  It's pretty different to the much tamer west coast.

The Gite Iya has a little restaurant, a camp site with basic facilities and a few bungalows.  We had a little bathroom off the side of our bungalow but no hot water and the electricity seemed pretty intermittent.  It was all we needed though as the sea breeze kept us cool and the sea was gorgeous.  The campsite is right on a sheltered cove that had some good snorkelling.  The reef drops off at the end so you can be quite close in and still see some impressive critters.

We drove home the long way, taking our recently bought car over the mining roads.  That was a bit of a mistake...the map we had didn't show that the road was only packed down red dirt!  Actually - the road was fine, aside from a few scrapes to the bottom of the low-sitting Renault... We were treated to some magnificent views of the Pacific, the old mine at Goro that's now rusting into the sea and a few glimpses of the new, mega modern mine at Goro.  It still hasn't started production but will be mining and processing nickel on site.  A first apparently - and pretty controversial!  A while ago there was a sulfuric acid leak that apparently wiped out a river...I almost feel sorry for New Caledonia where the people will forever be weighing up the pros and cons of sucking out the minerals from their land.  Moolah vs nature...

A trip to Ilot Tenia

This was a long weekend and we made the most of it by heading up the coast on Friday and jumping in a boat to go out to Ilot Tenia.  We started the day reasonably early and were on the road soon after 7am.  After heading up to Bout d' Brousse at Bourake (about 1.5 hours from Noumea) we got into a fast zodiac out to the island.  

Although Max and his good friend Murphy both had a bit of a squeal on the way out there - they soon chilled a bit and by the end they were both telling us stories about how the boat went WHEEEEEeeeee!

The island's a marine reserve and the snorkeling was great.  Lots of big fish and a beautiful coral reef.  I think the array of coral really showed what a healthy, living reef looks like.  We were pampered by Bout d'Brousse, with a great covered area to picnic in - they'll even turn the bbq and cook up a steak for you if you bring it up. 

Next time we'll bring our gear and camp up there.  It would be a spectacular place to wake up!