Noumea and farewell to the South Pacific
20 October 2015
First Mate Linda
Noumea was always going to be our last port in the South Pacific, and is the first big city we have seen since arriving in New Caledonia 6 weeks ago. I think we have been spoilt for beautiful locations while here (with the Loyalties, Isle de Pine and Baie de Prony) as we have not been overly impressed with Noumea as a destination. There seemed to be a lot of indigenous (kanaks) lurking the streets drunk, which is a bit intimidating, and it has been quite hard communicating as the first language spoken here is French.
Having said that, it has been nice having Nika in a marina, and the markets are a great place to visit with a colouful aray of fresh fruit and vegetables, baguettes and danishes and fresh fish. We spend hours walking the sights and the girls have had a ball scooting everywhere. While in Noumea we visited the Aquarium which was worth the visit, the cultural centre / museum, and the local beaches at Citron Bay and Anse Bay.
We traveled 9 miles north and spend a lovely few days at Baie Maa where we joined a few other rally yachts for a farewell pot-luck BBQ on the beach. It has been quite windy here and has made for great wind surfing conditions for Craig. We also spent a day and night at ilot Maitrie which is a location famous for its kite surfing. There were literally hundreds of people kite-surfing which was spectacular to watch and was amazing there were no collisions. Olivia is inspired and has decided she wants to learn kite-surfing when we get home, much to Craig’s delight. Craig spend an afternoon giving Olivia her first kite lesson, which she said was ‘so awesome’.
Noumea was where we farewell the rally as they head back to NZ and we make way for Australia. It was a sad time saying goodbye as we exchanged business cards with others, and hope to cross paths with them again at some time. We have met some truly amazing people on this trip, and have had lots of fun, laughs and way too much alcohol! Everyone has been so supportive of us as a family, and the girls have thrived on the experience and the attention. Doing this rally with the ICA has given us the confidence to know that we can do it.
So now, Nika is ship-shape and we are all ready for the next big leg, as we sail back to Australia. We have chosen Bundaberg as our port of entry, which will be a 5 night passage. The weather is forecast to be in our favor with the wind from behind, so hopefully no sea-sickness. We are looking forward to getting back to Australia and exploring the east coast as we head south from Qld.
Au revoir, from Nika