School holiday has arrived and that meant traveling for me. Although just for a short 5 days, but I packed my bags and headed to the airport , excited to discover a new country, which is just 3 h away from Sydney.
Lucky with a window seat, I watched amazed the turquoise blue water of the sea and was ready for a few days of warm weather and beach.
The view looked quite good already from the plane.
As soon as I arrived I went to the shuttle and shortly I was headed to the capital of New Caledonia: Noumea, my home for the next 5 days.
I was between the last people on the bus to be dropped off, so the journey to Noumea lasted much longer than I expected, almost two hours.
By the time I reached the city I was starving, so my first stop was a restaurant.
Parfums d’Olive has every week food from different countries and I was there for Croatia’s turn. I paired my delicious meal with a glass of Chardonnay and I was totally enjoying my holiday.
The weather was pleasant and the atmosphere nice, people very friendly and even open to speak English.
New Caledonia is a French island, therefore the official language is French, but assuming because they get lots of Australian and New Zealander tourists, thanks to the location, people are very open to speak English and it made things much easier for me.
My first night was relaxed, after dinner I went to my accommodation and had an early bed time because the following day I had a tour booked.
Little did I know that my next day will turn out to be completely different from what I planned.
I got up early, at 6:45 to be at the meeting point for 7:40, as agreed with the tour company. I waited and waited and at some point I decided to ask for help because there was no tour bus coming to pick me up. My Australian phone number didn’t work, so I went into a hotel and asked the receptionist to call the tour company and ask why aren’t they coming to pick me up. He was very kind and helped me and soon I found out that the pick up point was actually in another place, so I missed my tour. I thanked the receptionist for his kindness and started wandering around, at first quite upset. I went to Baie des Citrons and walked around, then decided to go for a coffee, connect to the wifi and research what can I do in the area.
The day was looking to be beautiful, warm and sunny.
I found out that I was near a very nice lookout , so I decided to walk there. Along the way I met a friendly French lady, who spoke a bit of English and we ended up walking together and taking pictures of each other with the beautiful views. I especially liked the beautiful blue colors of the sea.
Ouen Toro, the name of the hill, from where you can see the city, is an aprox 30 min walk from Baie des Citrons and it’s a popular location for people who wish to start the day with sport. I saw many people walking or biking or jogging.
After completing the walk we said our goodbyes with my new French friend and we parted ways. I decided that my next stop will be Place de Cocotiers but I wasn’t sure of which way I need to go so I asked directions from a lady who was on the side of the street with a few more people, they were Jehovas witnesses. The lady that I asked for directions kindly offered me to take me there by car .
So I got a ride all the way to Place de Cocotiers, where there was some sort of musical event happening.
I hang out around there for a while , walked around, discovered The Best Cafe, where I ate a delicious crepe filled with fruits and cream and soon after that I went back to my accommodation which was very near.
The following day I decided to take a daytrip. Amedee island, where I was supposed to go with the tour, didn’t seem to be working out, the boat was fully booked, so I went to Ilot Maitre instead. Ilot Maitre is a 20 min boat ride from Port Moselle and it’s a small island, where there are overwater bungalows and the color of water is absolutely stunning.
I spent a good few hours just sunbathing and enjoying the 27 degrees. When I went back to Port Moselle I met up with two of my new Latino friends, we had dinner at Le Bout du Monde and then we headed to another little island, called Ile aud Canards, which was just a 5 min taxi boat ride.
We went there to watch the sunset and it was spectacular. Probably the best place to watch the sunset while in Noumea.
On day 3 I met up with a lovely lady from Tahiti and her local friend and we went for breakfast to Ilot Maitre. So during this trip I ended up going twice to Ilot Maitre and to be honest I’d happily go again. It’s a nice place, breakfast was amazing and the color of the sea very beautiful.
Unfortunately my trip was too short to explore more of New Caledonia, but at least I had enough time in Noumea.
Other things that I enjoyed while in Noumea were:
Port Moselle market
Port Moselle sunset
Sunset at Anse Vata
On day 5 my flight was at 10 am back to Sydney, again I was lucky to have a window seat and could watch for the last time the beautiful colors of the sea and wave goodbye to New Caledonia. Would be great to go back sometime…
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