The Coral Isles – day nine

Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia.
As usual, we were docked fairly early (around 8:00 am or so) which allowed you the opportunity to get off the ship and do some exploring for the day.
Given that Noumea is quite large and spread out (in comparison to the other places we’ve seen on this trip), it paid to get moving early.
We got off the ship around 9:00-9:30.
For some reason (I think it may have had to do with the length of the Sun Princess), we were tied up, not at the usual cruise ship terminal in the centre of town, but at the freight wharf a kilometer or so away.
As a consequence, we were collectively given a lift into town on a series of coaches.
Once there, I headed first for an ATM so I could do business in the local currency. Experience has shown you tend to get a better deal when transacting in the local currency.
With Pacific Francs in hand, we headed back to the spot where we’d been dropped by the coach, to check out the local tours that were on offer.
At one end of the building was a ‘car’ rental company who specialised more in 3 wheeled scooters (or what they referred to as scoot-cars.
These things had 3 wheels, a 50cc engine, bike-like handlebars, and a vinyl roof over your head (which turned out to be a blessing, given the frequency and regularity of tropical showers that Noumea experiences in a day).
Cath was happy for Max and I to head off in one of these crazy contraptions for an hour, while she walked the streets and browsed the shops and markets.
So, off we went. The hire company gave us a pre-defined route to follow. We stuck to that plan for the first half of the loop, but once we realised we had plenty of time up our sleeve, we deviated from the map and just went exploring.
The beauty of hiring a little vehicle like this was that I could cover much more ground than I could have hoped to do on foot, but I also had the freedom to stop and take photos wherever I saw the opportunity. Something I could not have done had I jumped on one of the organised bus tours.
Once Max and I returned the scoot-car to the rental company, we hooked up with Cath who had been looking at the aforementioned bus tours on offer.
I suggested that her and Max go off and do that, while I wandered the town on foot looking for more photo opportunities.
Max was, by this stage, starting to show signs of too many late nights, early mornings, and general artefacts of “going hard” for too long.
So, it was decided that after the pair of them had done the bus tour, they would head back to the ship.
“In that case”, I said, “I’ll just wander around until I’ve had enough, and I’ll meet you back on the ship later this arvo.”
So, with that plan in place, I headed off to wander through the main part of the town.
I soon ended up at St Jospeh’s Cathedral, which offered some nice photo opps.
But other than that, I didn’t see a whole lot to inspire me. Partly because I was always conscious of the time I had left and how quickly it was running out.
Anyway, I still managed a few shots I’m happy with, and that was the main thing.
Starting to feel a little melancholy at the idea that this is the last port before Sydney, as the next 2 days are open water sailing straight back to Australia.
Too soon. Too soon.

Take me to: <- Day eight | Day ten ->