23rd February - Noumea – New
Caledonia
Today we arrived at Noumea, the capital
city of New Caledonia and one of the largest Ports in the South Pacific and
again berthed in a container port overlooking the town. We only had a half day in port so we were
soon on our coach to start our excursion entitled Botanical Gardens, Bird and
Forest Park.
Our coach drove to the top of the hill so
that we could see the panoramic views over the town before driving on to the
Botanical Park.
The Botanical Park was not a disappointment
it was full of exotic plants that we treat back home as house plants, but here
they were growing happily out in the open, such as Frangipani, Hibiscus, Agave
plus many others.
Scattered around the park were various aviaries
full of exotic birds, such as the Cagou, a flightless bird that is a symbol of
New Caledonia, a large family of peacocks and hens and their babies, plus a
yellow kingfisher and many others.
After nearly two hours of walking around
the beautiful park we had to climb back up the hill to our waiting
coaches. However, I had to drag Doreen
away from the park to catch up with the group as the ship was leaving dead on
12.30pm.
Needless to say we arrived ten minutes late
back to the ship and our coach passengers were the last ones to board the ship
and no sooner we were on board, they pulled up the gangplank and within ten
minutes she was pulling off the berth.
We sat on deck watching the sights of
Noumea pass by and finally sailed through the coral reef that surrounds the
island. All too short a stay at a very
nice island.
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