Noumea

New Caledonia

We had a decent sail from Fiji to New Caledonia, taking just over one week. It was cold in New Caledonia, so cold I had to fix our heater or freeze to death! Crunched for time we were only able to visit Noumea. New Caledonia is surrounded by reef, once inside we motored a few hours to Noumea. Lots of slender pine trees:

Noumea

The anchorage in Noumea was jammed so we opted for the marina, we got one of the last spots:

Like most French territories, things happen slowly and within their abbreviated working hours. We tried to check-in but were only able to get ahold of the quarantine office, customs and immigration would have to wait until Monday. Once we cleared with quarantine we were told we could get off the boat and go ashore, it was carnival that evening!

No carnival celebration would be complete without a storm trooper:

After the parade we headed to the town square, there was tons of food and a sea of people, it was fun!

Nice fish market in town, produce market as well:

Like many island nations in the Pacific, New Caledonia was greatly impacted during World War 2. We visited their WW2 museum most of which is in French, but it was a nice museum:

New cruise ship terminal downtown:

We have been stuck for days and sometimes weeks in almost every stop while crossing the Pacific. Over the weekend we noticed a decent weather window for crossing to Australia so we decided to take it. On Monday morning we visited Customs to complete our check in and at the same time check out. Then onto the Port Captain to get our departure clearance. Port Captain’s office:

Departing New Caledonia:

Through the reef and off to Australia:

We had decent sail to Australia, landed in Coffs Harbour which is a bit south of Brisbane. We checked into Australia at the marina and finding yet another window to head south, we departed for Sydney in the morning.