22:17.386S 166:26.321E   

 

I have been a bit lapse in recent weeks in keeping the blog up to date but don't worry,......we are alive and well and have been enjoying the pleasures of New Caledonia.

 

As I hope you can see from the Google earth link we are now tucked up in Port Brunelet here in Noumea and have decided to leave Savoir Vivre here for the Southern summer. We have managed to secure a great berth in the best, and we hope safest, little marina in town, a fact that I suspect is not entirely unrelated to meeting, by some stroke of good fortune, the harbour master  while watching the rugby world cup final in a little Basque bar in town!

 

Noumea is unlike anywhere else we have yet come across in the South Pacific.  It really is as if a little bit of France has been transported around the globe. The city is home to 130,000 people, well over half the population of the whole country and nearly all of them are French. You actually have to leave town before you realise you are not somewhere on the Mediterranean coast. Over the years there have been many calls for independence some of which have flared into violence on both sides. The Ouvea massacre in 1988 was a low point even by the standards of French colonial history when the leader of a rebel group was beaten to death while he lay wounded on a stretcher and six other rebels were executed by the French soldiers they had surrendered to.  The French Government soon hit on the cunning plan of flooding the country (which is incredibly rich in mineral wealth, particularly nickel) with ex-pat French families. Given that this is a tropical paradise in the South Pacific with an almost perfect climate, with all the benefits and advantages of being part of the European Union, it has not been very difficult to achieve.   As a result the islands original inhabitants, the Kanaks, now make up less than 44% of the total population so although the country is notionally following a 20 year programme towards self government the reality is, it grows more French by the year.  Any future referendum is unlikely to ever sanction a total break.

 

So while New Cal is hardly the same cultural experience as Fiji or Vanuatu it is still a pretty stunning place. Savoir Vivre is ready for a rest and we fly out on Saturday to New Zealand on what is going to be a bit of a roundabout route home. It is hard to believe, as I sit here typing this on a warm tropical summers evening, that Bonfire night has been and gone and no doubt the Christmas decorations are already appearing in the shops.  We are really looking forward to seeing everyone at home but even before that, we have the excitement of a hot bath in Auckland this weekend!