2/14/12 Noumea New Caledonia

 Greetings and happy Valentines Day from Noumea, Grande Terre Island, New Caledonia. Noumea is the capital and largest city in New Caledonia and sits on a peninsula at the southern end of the cigar-shaped Grande Terre Island. Captain Cook discovers the island in 1774 and names it New Caledonia, although he noted that the native Melanesians were warlike and practiced cannibalism. The French take over in mid-19^th century and convert it into a penal colony, placing  convicts on the neighboring island of Ile Nou, which is today connected by a causeway to Noumea.

The second largest nickel deposit in the world was discovered in 1865 and is still key to the economy. The United States and Australia had a large presence here in WWII, protecting the nickel from getting into Japanese hands and providing a “stepping stone” for the United States to get close to Japanese territory.

While a few of the colonial buildings remain, most have been replaced by cement block cubes from the “nickel boom” in the late 60s and early 70s. The real beauty remains in the scenery. There is a double lagoon around this peninsula—one fairly close to shore and one some mile from shore. The shelf then drops off several thousand feet. The Noumea harbor is well-protected and provides views across several islands. Looking inland, one finds a mountain ridge running almost the full length of the island, rising to heights of almost 6000 feet at the tallest peak. The first 3 pictures provide a harbor view, an islands view and a mountain view.

We visited the very new aquarium and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though small, it had some amazing species. The final 2 pictures show a couple of the tanks. The most amazing residents were the nautilus’. We had never seen them before in other aquariums and they are beautiful, although very primitive. Unfortunately, their tank was in low light, since they live some ways down, so we were unable to get a picture.

Tomorrow we travel to Ile des Pins (Isle of Pines), a smaller island to the south in New Caledonia. We plan to beach it. More from there….