Well, our visit to New Caledonia is at an end! Both Janice and I were shocked at how fast the second week went by. We had a good time here, especially since the weather has cooperated quite well. Janice managed to get around town a fair amount by bus; there are two lines that both go downtown with one traveling right in front of the hotel.
Both weeks here she joined an informal group of English speaking women residing in Noumia who try to meet every Thursday at a place called The Coffee Club, afterward some of the group go to lunch. A fair number of course have husbands connected in some way to Vale so several are from the Sudbury are. Here is a picture of Janice with the group at lunch this past Thursday:
One of the popular past times here is taking advantage of the usually present breezes. This includes wind surfing and sailing, but also includes paragliding and most spectacular of all (to me) is kite surfing! Here is a picture of a paraglider suspended above Ouen Toro, the high hill just behind the hotel:
And here are some kite surfers just off the point beside the hotel:
One thing we noticed is that Noumia is a popular destination for cruise ships such as this one:
On Friday, the day before we left for Sydney and the beginning of our return trip to Canada, we went out for supper with our hosts Andre, Stacey and their young son John. We were late getting to the restaurant due to some miscommunication problems and so had problems getting a table at the restaurant that was chosen which continued with we not getting our meals to almost 2 o’clock! Here all of the businesses seem to run on very laid back schedules. For example, Andre and Stacey had been trying to buy a car for the last two weeks. One day they went to a used car dealer ship at lunch time. Well, the dealership was closed for lunch too, but for two hours! And while many of the super markets sell beer and wine the have odd hours for when they can sell them. For example forget about it if after lunch on Friday and Saturday!
Before I close here is a picture of Andre and his family at the water front:
It has been a great visit and both of us would certainly like to come back if we could but that is probably unlikely. Still it is a lovely place and without a doubt we both felt very comfortable here, even with the struggle speaking French. I am still amazed at how much French vocabulary I remember from grade school but even so I had a tough time stringing together enough to even strike up a casual conversation. But with rare exception most people here could speak some English so that was not a major impediment.
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