position S22 16.600 E166 26.400
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Ocean Rival Journey Log
Adam Power Diana Power
Sat 11 May 2019 11:40
A good day
exploring the town of Numea. We shopped in the
market which is close by the harbour for some fresh
veg and fish before heading out to visit the New
Caledodia Museum, the Numea museum and the cathedral
all before lunch. A siesta is necessary here as
the sun is still not unbearable in the early
afternoon, but getting close to it. Then in the
afternoon the maritime museum and an art gallery
showing paintings by Henri Coqc. All the museums
were very sparsely attended but all very well
appointed and full of interesting stuff. The NC
museum in a modern building had mostly native
artifacts, boats and houses while the town museum in
the old town hall had the story of colonisation
along with a world war 1 exhibition. The maritime
had lots debris from wrecks on the reef that have
occured regularly over the years since the 1st pair
of french colonisers in the 1700's. Nicely done
though.
The view of the bay
from the cathedral has been mostly blocked with ugly
concrete buildings. The town is reminiscent of
Papete- functional but without much style. A grid of
one way streets makes for easy walking as you only
have to look one way when crossing the street. I
suspect that the french send their trainee
architects out to the islands to cut their teeth,
producing sensible but uninspiring buildings.
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