Travel Notes


Sun Mar 17 23:31:19 2002 (nmcfarl)
Book: South Pacific Moon Guide
Location: "New Caledonia, the food"
The food here was french and was incredible. We had baguettes and jam for breakfast nearly every day. We also had baggutte sausage and cheess picnic dinners faily often. Also Yop! a liquid yogurt was staple.
For eating out we had a couple of french influneced native (kanak) dinners at our gite in Heinegene. They where all fish. You start with an excelent fish based saland and move on the a fish in a sauce. Finishing up with Chocolate ( usually an amazingly good chocolate mouse, mmmm!
We also a vietnamese and the every present, often vietnamese owned, snack stands, which sell baugette sandwiches ( cheap and good ) and whatever else they want., The snack bambino, in anse vata Noumea, became a faovorite , for (relitivly) cheap and good food.
We also ate couscous , our 2nd last night we had an amazing Morrocan dinner out with Eggplant caviar, a couscous dish and a really good prune and almond tagine. That night we also tried an apretif of ricard pastis which is very popular here and suprisingly good (if so very very strong, you must water it down.) But we also ate couscous on our own, as mediteranian ingrediants were easy to buy and you can whip up a good meal in 10 minutes without a stove. It was very cool, and very good.
Also at Mount Khogis we had a savoy fondue, a first for both of us and suprisingly good. The power of cheese. Prefect for the end of a rainy day on top of a mountain ( even if was a tropical mountain).
On the how the food was very very good. It also rediculusly expensive wether you went out or self catered, baguettes and snacks are all that seamed resonably priced.


Sun Mar 17 23:31:01 2002 (nmcfarl)
Book: South Pacific Moon Guide
Location: "New Caledonia, the place"
So New Caledonia, which we left last night, was a pretty cool place, with excellent beaches, both in the capital, and on ilse de pins, great food and amazing landscapes in the north. It was also incredibly expensive. New caldonia is actually part of france and everything is imported.
The first night in NC was saturday and we took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel for 35$US more than we'd been spending in fiji for a nights lodging ( we later figured out that renting a car for the day is by far the cheapest way to get to noumea from the airport).
The hotel was cool and the next day we started enjoying the beaches and food of Noumea. We also learned, that yetagain we ere in a country where nothing is open on sunday, We almost got ourselves stuck downtown, because of the lack of transport availible. We pretty much did the same thing on monday, but we also managed to get tickets to one of the little island off of Grande Terre ( the main island) and a travel guide in english, which proved to be very helpfull although not as helpful as the french phrasebook rachel picked up. And on tuesday, Guess what we hung on the beach.
But wednesday was different we woke at 6am and caught a ferry to ilse de pins, named after the really cool basically straight up and down pines on the island. On wednesday, thursday friday and sat, We lazed on the beach went snorkling and basically self catered. Although this was broken up by a few nasty storms ( so no beach ) one so bad that it knocked out the power ( so no baguettes). On Friday I lost my glasses in the waves. That really really sucked (I'm now wearing 2 year old glasses, a real bummer) that kinda screwed that day up form me.
On sat evening we went back to town , had a terrible time finding a room, butlanded at the ibis, where we also stayed sunday 'cause you can'tdo anything on sunday. On monday we picked up a rental car and drove.
We ended up at a really cool place Mt Kohgis. It is a mountain a half hours drive from noumea ( an hour if you have lame maps and a tenuos grasp on french street signs). There is hiking and a Resturant/Hotel. We got a room/meal deal. dropped our stuff in the bungalow and went for a hike, to a watefalls. After Fiji I LOVE tropical waterfalls, They are everything they are cracked up to be. So the trail it self was incredibly complicated, full of hills and tree roots and streams and red clay. It was very slippery, and it was raining. I got muddy , rachel fell and got very muddy, but the falls were amazing. and after we got back to the room and cleaned up we went to a nice hearty savoy dinner of Fondu. It was very good , and and excellent was to end the day. (unfortuanatly the misquitos that night where a fright otherwise we may have stayed another day.)
Then next day we took a long if very scenic drive up north and camnped on a beach . It was a great spot and we watched the sunrise the next morning.
That day we drove to hienegene a lovely spot with mountians behind it and hug sharp rock formations guarding it's bay from the sea. We stayed for a couple of rainy days hanging out, and then we drove south. We stoped a night in La Foa and looked at there Eiffel inspired bridge ( as well at some pretty cool rock formations on the beach at Bourail. Then a night at Noumea, and a day onthe beaches ( also an amazing morrocan dinner). And then we flew onward.
 
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