We rounded our stuff up, swept up the airbnb, and drove off. We rented a car for the day so we could explore outside of Noumea.
We drove northwest along the coast for a few hours until we got to Poe Beach. The drive was really pretty; everything is very green and mountainy. We spent several hours there just lounging in the shade on the beach. It was a very long beach and had a very very gradual incline into the water; you could walk out a long ways into the water and still not be very deep. I walked probably 30 meters out and still didn't get much above my ankles. As I was walking a saw a decent sized sand-colored crab. I also saw a really cool shell that I picked up and then realized it was still inhabited; I could see little crab-like legs sticking out so I put it back in the water. Also, in true-New Caledonian style there were absolutely no waves. We could see the waves breaking off in the horizon which must've been where the reef was.
Almost the entire time there we were the only people in sight, but shortly before we were left we were joined by a few people, and one lonely stray dog who decided to take a nap right next to us for awhile. A couple of guys took off windsurfing right in front of us and that was entertaining watching them set that up and head off into the water. It looks like fun but also an extreme workout trying to hold on to that parachute and guide it where you want to go.
After Poe Beach we drove just a few kilometers south to go to La Roche Percee (I don't know how to type an accent with this keyboard). It was a rock formation which by itself wasn't super impressive, but we were there just before sunset which made it really pretty. What I liked most about the area was the beach though. This beach actually had waves! It must be one of the rare breaks in the reef where it lets the waves in, and the beach was really nice as well. Very soft sand without a lot of rocks (unlike Poe Beach). I wish we would've hung out there more today instead of Poe, but you live and you learn.
We grabbed a quick dinner in La Foa on our way back down the coast to the airport. We ended up at a Vietnamese restaurant. We couldn't understand a word the waitress said or read anything the menu said, so I ended up getting a chocolate crepe since that seemed the safest. Although after I ordered I saw a nice plate of steaming shrimp and noodles being delivered to the man at the table next to us which looked really good so I clearly should've been more adventurous.
We got to the airport over 4 hours before our flight, simply because it was dark and we didn't know what else to do. So now we're sitting at the airport waiting for our 1am flight. :/ And then we get to sit on a plane for 9 hours! Yay- it's going to be a super long day for us! But then we'll be in Japan and that will be awesome, so it's all worth it.
We decided to go on a field trip today to Amedee Island. It wasn't the easiest thing in the world to arrange, especially since we didn't even start trying until last night. Mary D is the only "official" way to get there and they weren't taking people out on Monday. Plus they are expensive and include lots of other activities that we didn't need. So we found another blog which mentioned a fellow named Dimitri (phone number +687 77.27.16) who would take you to the island for a smaller fee. We were actually able to reach him on Sunday night and he agreed to take us Monday morning, so we were really thankful that he was flexible for the last-minute planning. "Meet me at the taxi hut on Anse Vata at 8am" he said. He was 40 minutes late but he did show up in his 7-seater boat. He charged us a bit more since he hadn't planned on taking anyone out that day and we were the only two; 10,000 XPF/person instead of the quoted 6,500/person we saw on the blog, but that's still significantly cheaper than Mary D's so we were happy with it. Plus since Mary D wasn't operating that day we basically had the island to ourselves which was really cool. We were able to sit in the beach chairs wherever we wanted without paying. We were able to snorkel all day, as Dimitri had lent us snorkels/masks. We brought our own food since Dimitri doesn't provide that (Mary D has food/drinks included). The only bummer was that the Amedee Lighthouse wasn't open since the big groups weren't there.
He told us to meet him at Anse Vata beach at 8am but he didn't get there until 40 minutes later. In his defense, he did try to call but I didn't have my phone on me. But anyway, he got there and a 20 minute boat ride later and we could see the famous Amedee Lighthouse.
Before taking us to the island he took us out to the reef and explained to us how the reef around New Caledonia is the second-longest coral reef in the world. It's the world's largest lagoon and it surrounds the entire nation and is the reason why there are so few waves on the beaches. It's a UNESCO world heritage site since 2008. He also explained a bit how the coral reef forms which was quite interesting (although I had a hard time catching all of it due to his thick French accent).
Anyway, we got to the island and he told us to meet him back at the boat at 4pm. He also told us that the island would be mostly empty today since the bigger touring companies weren't working that day but that there was some sort of local function being held there that he was attending. Which meant that we were some of the very few tourists on the island for the day which was really cool. We had our pick of all of the lawn chairs (which normally cost money to rent but wasn't being enforced today), we had no interference from other people while snorkeling; we basically had our run of the island. The only thing we weren't able to do since we were practically the only ones there was go up into the famous Amedee lighthouse, since it was closed. But we got to see it from the outside and take pictures so that was okay.
So we set up for the day at the best lawnchairs we could find then took a stroll around the island to check things out. Almost immediately Matt spotted a sea turtle swimming in the water about 5 feet from shore! Here is a picture:
Only a couple of minutes after that I found a (in)famous Amedee Island water snake, slithering out from the grass and into the water. It was amazing how fast he took off once he reached the water! You don't even need to ask if I was thinking about that while I was snorkeling...
After walking around the island as far as we could go each way (part of it was blocked off to prevent people from interfering with the mating of a rare seagull) we decided to check out the snorkeling. Dimitri had lent us the mask and snorkel so we were free to go as long as we wanted. Apart from eating, I spent most of the day snorkeling. So much so that I ended up getting a sunburn on my back and bum, even though I know better. I just did this in October in Hawaii and it hurt so bad I can't believe I let it happen again. I don't think it's quite as bad this time.
While snorkeling I found three other sea turtles! I was hanging out with two of them at a time for awhile! It was really cool. The first time I was out there I ended up hanging out with one of them for like 30 minutes. She was just doing her thing: eating grass, swimming around, getting air periodically. I was only a couple of feet away from her for most of the time. It was great, and I got some great videos, but more about that later.
The next time I was out and found another turtle and I was hanging out with and another one showed up! They each had fish that were sucked on to them catching a free ride. I hung out with them for about twenty minutes as well. Here's a video! It's a little hard to see the first turtle; he's only in the frame for the first few seconds.
I also saw lots of other interesting fish as well: some big unicorn-looking fish with a big horn on it's forehead, some big purple looking ones, some big blue ones that kind of looked like really big Dory fish. I also saw one big long fish that might've been a barracuda but I couldn't swear to it; it didn't look quite as creepy as the one I saw when scuba diving at the GBR. A couple of times I also ran into these brightly colored fish who seemed very territorial; they weren't very big but every time I came around they started charging at me until I left. I just did a quick google search and I'm pretty sure they were Titan triggerfish, who live in lagoons and are notoriously territorial. I'm glad I didn't realize they had teeth or I would've been a lot more frightened!
By the time we left my final count was 4 sea turtles and 4 snakes, although I never saw the snakes in the water. thankfully.
We got back to the main island no problem and then wandered around looking for a crepe. Matt had read that the best ones in town weren't far away so we went searching for those. Google took us on a very indirect, long route and by the time we got there it was closed so that was a bummer. But we stopped at the same place we went yesterday and got another one, even though the service was terrible there.
We walked back to our airbnb and hung out here for the evening. We made spaghetti for dinner again and did a lot of Japan planning. We also did laundry since we're not sure when the next chance will be. This is our last night in New Caledonia!
About the videos/pictures: I took about 50 pictures and videos while snorkeling but then my underwater camera failed again. This time instead of mysteriously corrupting all of my files it just decided to overwrite all of the previously taken media with the last two videos I took. So those two videos are all I have! :( But at least I do have one (crappy) video of me and the sea turtles. I did have a lot better ones, but they are now erased. You get what you pay for I guess! (don't ever buy the SJCAM cameras, just splurge and get the GoPro.)
Short post today all; it's my birthday and I don't feel like working!
Matt took me to the spa today for my birthday and it was wonderful. I got a 50 min massage and a 45 min facial. It was very relaxing and a perfect birthday gift. While I was doing that he decided to climb a hill and got some really good pictures, which are added to the album.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing until dinner, which was a very simple affair. I didn't feel like eating much so we shared a croque, which is popular around here. It's basically a toasted sandwich but they put the cheese on the top of the bread for some reason. It's good though.
Another steamy day in New Caledonia. I think it was about 85 degrees today and sunny.
We walked down to the water taxi this morning and took it to "Duck Island" (Ile aux Canards). It was a three minute ride and a very small island. The first thing we did was walk the entire perimeter which took under five minutes. There was one restaurant on the island which pretty much monopolized everything; they controlled the food, the beach chairs and canopies, and the snorkel rentals. There was hardly any accessible shade either other than the canopies so we bit the bullet and rented a canopy. We also rented the snorkeling gear but we brought our own food so we saved a bit there.
The snorkeling was good; they had an underwater trail that you could follow and each post would have information that you could read. The problem was it was all in French so that wasn't super helpful for us. But we got to see lots of interesting fish and schools of tiny fish swimming all around us. The highlight was definitely the octopus. It was awesome! I saw one at the beginning just before it crawled under a rock but couldn't get Matt's attention in time. But later we found a bigger one and we watched that thing for almost half an hour. It was really big. It's hard to describe octopus sizes since they don't really stretch out for you to take a measurement, but it's tentacles were between 1-2 feet long. And it's body was another foot high probably. Just the way it moved along the ocean floor was mesmerizing. And it would literally change colors before my eyes. One second it was off-white with brown spots and the next minute it was a dark brown/red color. It would change colors instantly, like a TV changes colors. I've never seen anything like it. And if you're wondering where the pictures are do't hold your breath; the entire time I was kicking myself for forgetting my camera! It was really really cool though. It was also amazing how many people swam close to it and never even noticed it. We literally watched it for half an hour and no one else even noticed until the last few minutes. From a quick google search I would say it was probably a "Common reef octopus" since that's what it looked like.
So anyway, after snorkeling we hung out on the beach for a bit fore taking the water taxi back to the mainland. We walked back to the room and hung out for a bit before dinner. We walked back down to the beach area and grabbed dinner at a place called Pizza & Pasta, which is definitely my kind of place. It was good but not the best, but it was pretty pricey. Which is to be expected on an island.
Here are a couple of pictures I took from Duck Island.
We were some lazy beach bums today. We checked out Noumea's beaches and alternated walking around, swimming, and lounging. The beaches were nice but a little rocky, but that helped with the visibility as the water was very clear. The water was very warm as well. One interesting thing we noticed about the beaches is that there were like zero waves. I mean, it depended what side of the island you were on. But on the west side beach there were literally no waves. It was amazing. I've never seen an ocean so calm. If someone would've told me that it was just a big swimming pool I would've believed it. The south beach (where it's windier) had some small waves but hardly anything there either.
That was pretty much our day! We had a crepe snack at a waterside cafe this afternoon and we made spaghetti for dinner in our airbnb.
Maybe we'll get up the motivation to do something more energetic tomorrow. Maybe.
That's, hello from New Caledonia! We speak French here. Also, we're back to driving on the right side of the road!
Not much to report today since we spent most of the day traveling. Had to pack our bags up this morning and say goodbye to Jack as we're parting ways for a few days. He didn't have a lot of interest in coming to New Caledonia so we're going to meet back up with him in Tokyo in a few days.
We flew Aircalin over on the 3 hour flight and it was very nice. They served a full meal which was surprisingly good: beef stroganoff, a roll, some veggies, a piece of cake, and a tim-tam. No in-flight entertainment options as far as I was aware of but that was okay because I worked on my blog and then we watched "Orange is the new Black" on the iPad.
We landed and got through customs just fine and then met up with our pre-arranged transport which took us to our airbnb. It was quite a long drive, over an hour. Our airbnb hostess met us here and she was very nice. It's a small studio and she lives right above us. She showed us around and pointed out some POIs on a map for us. The best part of the place is that it's got a view of the ocean. :)
We had a quiet evening. We walked to the small grocery store and got some provisions for the next few days. We made it back right as it was dark so we decided to stay in for the evening. Which gave me a good chance to work on my blog and publish my Australia page! That's the link to it but you can also always find it under the "Destinations" tab at the top. Let me know what you think!
