Visiting the East Coast
January 14th to 16th, 2005

After my Mon's sister joined us, we went for a 3 day trip on the east coast or New Caledonia. This is the wetest part of New Caledonia, but also the most luxurious part of the mainland.

All pictures are available either in tar or zip formats. Also available is a tar archive of the original pictures, before being reworked (these are actually the same). Note that the tarballs contain all the pictures I took, not just the ones I present on this page.

Road to Hienghène

Lunch stop at a resting area next to a beach.

The beach at the resting area.

Tribu Tendo (Tendo Tribe)

The initial plan was to stay 2 nights inside a Kanak tribe to experience the traditional Kanak way of life. In addition to sleeping in the traditional hut, we were also supposed to follow the tradition of offering a gift to the chief of the tribe for his hospitality, to eat a bougna (a traditional dish), go fishing shrimps, and do a small nature-discovery walk. Things didn't go as planned...

The hut where we slept.

As in any traditional hut like this, the floor was not paved, but was just compact dirt. The "beds" were simple thin foam mattresses lying on the ground. We had a woolen blanket each. The hut smelled of smoke so heavily that I actually had a sore throat in the morning. And to keep us company, a chicken slept with us... But I personnaly had a very good night of sleep, and felt that it was something pretty unique to experience. I believe Stéphane slept well too.

Despite appearances, these huts are said to be very solid and to resist to cyclones.

Mom and myself in front of the hut entrance. As you can see, the door is not very tall...

With our host. He used to be the chief of this tribe, but his son is now assuming this position.

The four of us in front of "our" hut.

House wall (seen from inside).

Morning fog.

Club Med'

To put it mildly, some of us felt that one night was enough to get a good feel of what the Kanak traditional way of life is. In addition to a very bare accomodation, the facilities (washroom, bathroom, etc) where minimalistic and questions were raised about how clean they were. To make a long story short, even though we knew that it would be a very bare accomodation, we felt cheated on everything. So we decided to leave first thing in the morning, and find something else. The only decent accomodation in the area turned out to be the Club Med'. It wasn't a luxurious Club Med', but it was pleasant for everybody to spend a night there.