First Noumea Outing
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Thu 12 Nov 2015 23:57
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Our First Outing in
Noumea
  Bear made our first Noumea boiled
eggs, his came with an egg event. Clearly all too
much for him, as I caught him snoring. Oh, I was reading
my book. Mmmm. This was all the while I scanning Passport pages,
bank statements and the numerous proofs required for the next bit of our
Australian Visa application.
 Time for a bimble. To the left of the
picture is the visitors dock, we are half way along
[off picture] on the other side of the yachts.
  On the corner of the marina is a
starboard buoy. Oh, colour me happy as I look up from
the buoy and the first car I see is a black bug and it sits quietly next to a mini, deep joy. Well Noumea
sits well with me then.
  The bug, a
new number plate to the collection with NC for New Caledonia. Across the road we
see a Porche. Cars, the noise of sirens and zebra
crossings have come at us as a novelty, not seen for what seems
ages.
 In the first park we get to we see
a memorial to the days of slavery. The original
people of the islands of New Caledonia – the Kanak Indians saw an influx of
20,000 French convicts brought in between 1864 and 1897. They were tasked with
extracting nickel to begin with and later copper, but they brought diseases that
decimated the local population.
 The Kanaks
revolted in 1878 against French colonial rule which saw them living on
reservations that gave them 10 per cent of their of their ancestral territories.
The well-armed French soon supressed the revolt and the decapitated head of the
Kanak leader was put on display at the Museum of Natural History. Today the
Kanaks make up 40 per cent of the 99,078 population, only gaining citizenship in
1946 and voting rights in 1953.
   First stop, the internet cafe – our
signal on Beez is too weak to post the blogs and as there were thirty three, we
clearly needed a hard wire. All done in an hour, we could take in all the noise,
bustle and traffic of our new surroundings. An advertising
billboard – been a long time since we have seen one of those. A dustcart, I say again, a dustcart – whatever
next.
 I got over my shock by choosing an
éclair in the cake shop.
  Whilst Bear chose
his, I took in all the rest of the mouth-watering goodies on offer.
    This shop is a serious distraction,
cakes, then the fridges with home-made deserts and chocolates.
 Off we went with
our selections and a baguette.
 The back entrance to McDonald’s had
a ‘once used’ gate showing the old side of the
town.
 Against the wall in the car park we
saw the incredible root system of this ficus, at home
it would be a house plant.
 Yes, we did. An easy supper in McD’s.
  An interesting memorial opposite, as we walked home and a fun fair. Now that is something we haven’t seen for
years.
 We stood and watched, taking in all
the colour and lights.
 Home to
Beez clutching our cakes.
ALL IN ALL A SHOCK TO THE
SYSTEM
WOW CIVILISATION
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