New Caledonia

New Caledonia was named by Captain Cook, who gave it the Romans’ name for Scotland. Noumea is located on the island of Grand Terre, the largest in an island group claimed by France, and west of the Fiji group. These islands are volcanic and remind me of the Virgin Islands. The entire island containing Noumea, called Grand Terre, is surrounded by an atoll so the water in the lagoons form large, tranquil bays. We arrived on schedule in Noumea but it was drizzling, windy and rainy all day. We had a 2-hour tour of greater Noumea on a tram called the Bumble Bee Train, but the rain and fog reduced visibility to almost zero. I was very disappointed. We visited the Casino grocery and department store. This island was an outpost in the defense of Australia (see the picture of a big gun placed by the Australians)and a forward staging base for the Americans in their charge up to New Guinea during World War II. Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands is 1000 miles north. The Americans built the airfield. As the crow flies, it is about 750 miles to the NE Australian coast and over 1000 miles to Auckland. The island is definitely French but plebiscites scheduled for this decade will decide whether the territory will be completely independent. Currently they are using a Pacific Franc which runs about 93/US dollar. Nickel is mined and smelted here. About one third of the population is European(French), about 40 % are Melanesians/Polynesians, and the rest are mixed. There is not a tremendous amount of tourism here because your money doesn’t go very far and it is remote. It is not nearly as exotic as Bali or Thailand, and it doesn’t have a lot of touristic infrastructure.