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| Noumea market |
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| View of the ship at the container terminal |
We docked in the industrial port of Noumea early in the morning and has an early breakfast.
We tried to buy tickets for the ferry to Amadee island but were too late, so we bought tickets on the "hop-on, hop-off" bus which travelled to the town centre and as far as Anse Varta.
We stopped first at the Noumea market which was quite interesting.
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| In the market |
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| Spice seller |
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| Shopping for spices |
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| Local pastries |
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| Local fish |
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| Curcuma (Ginger) |
From the market, we caught the bus again to Anse Varta which dropped us near the Hotel Nouvata where we stayed on our first visit to New Caledonia a couple of years ago.
From there we caught a water taxi for the short trip to Ile aux Canard (Duck Island).
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| Ile aux Canard (Duck Island.) |
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| Water taxi |
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| Beach on Duck Island |
The weather was perfect and although the water was cool, it was fine for us with our summer wetsuits.
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| Toilet Block |
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| A couple of happy snorkellers |
Contrary to the previous visit, the water was calm and clear and we had and enjoyable time snorkelling along the reef.
The water was full of life, colourful fish and we even saw a turtle stop at a cleaning station.
While standing on the island drying off, we even saw a couple of whales off the island.
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| Whale breaching off Duck Island |
We caught the bus back to town and Frances explored Le Cocotier park and city centre while I returned to the ship to shower and dump the swim gear.
Later I returned to the city centre and posted some photos on Facebook using the WiFi at the cruise terminal. Noumea is still pretty uninspiring architecturally, so by mid-afternoon we were back on board and relaxing before dinner.
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| View of Noumea from the port |
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| Historic building undergoing restoration 2019 |
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| Side of the same building in 2017 |
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| Leaving Noumea at sunset |
There was an evening stretch class scheduled for 6pm in the Dancin' Nightclub, so Frances and I went there a little earlier and did some tai chi. We were still doing it as a few people arrived and they joined in. The instructor arrived a little late and was quite happy for me to continue – I don’t think he was highly motivated. Anyway we at least found a reasonable venue, and made contact with some people interested in tai chi.
That night the show was “80’s Pop to the Max”, again featuring the same group of dancers, but this time in 80s gear. Again the show was high energy and well produced, but they only did a verse or two of each song, so we again left before the end and retired to watch another episode of "Better Call Saul" on the laptop.
