Nouvelle Caledonie Part 2 (6th June)

The Little Red Dolphin in New Cal

                                                                                                                                                                               Well we are back in Noumea after a wonderful few weeks down a the Ils de Pin and the Southern Province. We ended up spending a very lovely 8 days in and around the Isle of Pines.  Some of the highlights included the hike up to Pic N’Ga which is 262mts tall and a great vantage point to see the rest of the island. 


P&O Carnival Spirit

On Wednesday the 22^nd as forecast the P&O cruise ship Carnival Spirit pulled into the bay with approximately 2000 guests on board and as this was their first stop since leaving Sydney we estimate that all 2000 of them hit the tiny resort town of Kuto Bay.  Kuto went through a bit of a metamorphosis overnight going from a bit of a sleepy hollow with not much going on to a full on action holiday resort.  In the morning we went ashore to check out the stalls and get amongst the action and also to see if we could get a lobster!  We didn’t  quite manage to get a fresh lobster but did have lobster for lunch which was pretty nice and while we were enjoying our lobster lunch we happened to sit next to a couple from the ship who happen to live in downtown Dromana – how far do you have to go!!!


Ilot Brosse

As we were not quite up to keeping this pace for a whole day and with the weather still calm and sunny we thought it was a good opportunity to duck over to Ilot Brosse for the night.  This little island is only about 8NM from Kuto Bay and is a lovely little anchorage although the snorkeling was not quite up to the recently set standard of Ilot Mato. 

Port Vao



                                                                         
We stayed on at Kuto Bay until Monday 27^th May.  Before we left we did manage to fit in a couple of excellent evenings with Retour (Bevan and Jan) and Miami (George and Ute).  How bizarre is this – we finally worked out where we knew Miami from – they were in at Misima Harbour (Louisiades, PNG)when we were there in 2011!   We also ended up hiring a car for the day and did a bit of a run around the island including the Vao market where we purchased some rather yummy pawpaw jam and the largest avocado we have ever seen.  One thing that is really starting to stand out is the general lack of tourists in the resorts.



Vao Market

Baie de Prony Light

 From Kuto Bay we headed back up to Bonne Anse as there are some strong trade winds forecast so figure it would be best to go a nice comfy anchorage for a few nights.  We did the walk up to the lighthouse which has some great views of the southern lagoon - you might be able to tell from the photos that it just a bit windy.  From our anchorage in Bonne Anse we can see, what we now commonly term as, Mordor which is the nickel mine over the back- we thought this was quite funny as it really does have the red loom just like Mordor however, what is even funnier is that as Mark was delving further and further in to our Rocket Cruising Guide it looks like we are not the only ones who call it Mordor!!


Hot Springs

Moose from Ilot Casy










After a couple of pleasant nights at Bonne Anse (especially when we knew how windy it is outside) we moved further up into Baie de Prony and to Baie de Carnage which is again a great little anchorage and very calm but all the soil around these parts is really red and slippery clay so not much for walking on however, there is a great little hot spring just a short dinghy ride away which provided some great entertainment in the afternoons.  We did manage to slip our way up to the waterfall which is really pretty and well worth the effort.

Saturday (the first day of winter) and it looks like the weather is starting to settle a bit so we figure it is worth sticking our heads out again and head over to Ilot Casy which is a lovely little tropical island in the middle of Baie de Prony and we get an even better view of Mordor from here.  We ended up in the north bay on a mooring which seems far too close to the beach but that also makes it kind of nice as well as we can sit on the back deck looking over the tropical foreshore.  We headed into the beach in the arvo for a wander around and managed to do all the walks on the island and also got to meet up with Moose, the local dog, that was left behind when the resort keeper left the island.  Yes there was a resort / hotel here but like many of the others is now shut.  Anyhow Moose gave us a fully guided tour of the island so we saw it all and he was rewarded with a very nice tin of Tuna for his efforts.

Both Sally's at Ilot Casy

Next stop is the Baie de Somme which is only just across the way (approx. 2NM) but a great anchorage for westerlies plus their are some really nice walks including the pretty little village of Prony!. 

We have kind of being hanging out to see how long our LPG gas bottle lasts as we are only able to get Butane here in the land of the French. We normally hold  2 x 3.8kg bottles and have a third on board as we have to survive with what we have until we arrive at Port Villa which is about 10weeks in total since our last fill at Lord Howe.  Normally a bottle lasts us 3-4weeks so even with the extra bottle it is pushing it just a bit tight and nobody likes getting up in the morning to a cold cup of coffee.  To our great surprise the bottle lasted us until the 4th June which is almost 5 weeks so we are not quite sure what they do in LHI but we are very impressed with their LPG and are now more than happy that we are going to make it through to Port Villa without having to endure cold coffee.  We are so comfortable we have even started with a few luxuries like fresh baked bread etc.

The plan now is to spend around 2weeks here in Noumea and during that time hire a car and go inland for a few days to see a bit more of the Grand Terre.  We are also putting together our next provisioning list for our last shop before we leave Noumea (mid June) as our last places to stock up are here and also in Port Villa and then after that it is going to be about 10weeks before we get to see a shop again - quite a daunting thought actually when you think we have to cater for approximately 70breakfasts, lunches, dinners, snacks and drinkies!

 

Will report in again before we leave Noumea and head back out in to the big blue on our way to Vanuatu.

Sunset - Baie de Somme



Ilot Casy