PORT VILA, NOUMEA & ISLE DES PINS

PORT VILA, NOUMEA & ISLE DES PINS

PORT VILA, Vanuatu, was a busy little town with lots of cars and not a single stop signal anywhere. We took our lives in our hands trying to cross the street! The roads were built in 1943 by the Americans when the island served as a supply base, and probably haven’t been touched since then. The potholes were amazing!! The main street is about 2 blocks long and 4 army trucks wide! The market was very picturesque and interesting. The stall keepers brought their entire families with them, and simply laid down beside their merchandise and slept, fed and changed their babies, or made baskets from palm fronds. We saw several kinds of bananas, papayas, green veggies, coconuts, root veggies and lots of beautiful unusual flowers, along with live coconut crabs. Later we spoke to a handicraft stall owner who was sewing and embroidering on an old manual Singer sewing machine who told us that the average income was $2600/year, and they have to pay for education, about $26/mo for each child. Because this is very expensive for the locals, many children leave school in about the 3rd or 4th grade and start to sell newspapers or find whatever kind of work they can to help increase the family income. Their handicrafts consisted of t-shirts which they import from India and China and then embroider, sarongs, sundresses, shell and wooden jewelry, and carved masks and totems.
Pigs are considered a symbol of wealth, and a tusk is part of the national flag. In fact they make a pretty good beer that is called the Tusker. We’ve kept one that we plan to compare to the South African Tusker beer …
NOUMEA, the capital of New Caledonia, is a bustling city with fairly good streets. Here, too, as in Vanuatu, the main language is French. It’s interesting to me that the French often sent their convicts to these islands where they did much of the construction. A lot of the walls and some buildings are made of coral. This was used as the U.S. military headquarters in the Pacific during WW II. Education in this country is free, and if locals want to study something that isn’t offered in their college, they can get their education paid for in France and they don’t have to pay back the student loans -- the only requirement is that you come back and live in Noumea for 10 years …! Prices were higher here than in the other islands we visited, but the handicrafts were similar -- local shell, coral, wood carvings and ceramics were available. They have nickel and gold mines. The scenery is beautiful, with lovely palm trees and white sandy beaches with windsurfing, parasailing, kayaking, snorkeling, and scuba diving available.
ISLE DES PINS, New Caledonia
This small island truly is the closest island to Paradise! The coral reefs are very fragile so the ship had to stay out from shore and we took the tenders in. I can see why Captain Cook named it Isle of Pines because the skyline has rows of what look like pine trees -- not like our mountain pines, but with softer leaves. It sprinkled a little but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the clear water and white powdery beaches (and getting our first tropical sunburn of the trip!!) This is a favorite resort for people from Australia and New Zealand, and water activities like snorkeling and scuba diving are popular. There are many species of tropical fish, and it is also the home of the Crested Gecko, and the world’s largest gecko which can stretch to 14 inches! There are some nickel mines here.