Noumea, New Caledonia

We are now in the bustling metropolis of Noumea. Actually it really is a bustling metropolis. New Caledonia mines most of the nickel in the world so they are a very rich island. The downtown is very pretty and the shops and restaurants are plentiful. We unfortunately were there on a Monday which seems to be their day for all the tourist stuff to be closed so the museums and the aquarium were all closed up. We walked over the a great little beach called Lemon Bay or Baie des Citron as they call it here. We went past some very modern marinas full of boats of all sizes and shapes. The bay the cruise ship came into was filled with cruising boats. I suspect this must be a little off the main cyclone path for there to be so many cruisers during the season but I haven't checked that out.
We did a little shopping along the way. I needed a new light weight shirt for sun protection and found a great little sporting goods store that had Columbia stuff that was just a little more expensive then REI in the states. Jeff needed a full length skin to keep him from burning during snorkeling and found it at another dive shop just off the main "Chinatown" in the downtown area. The snorkeling was great just by swimming off the beach to the coral outcroppings.
The island is huge and I can see this would be a fun island to explore more in-depth. We should come back when we have more time. The nice thing about cruising on a ship is you don't stay too long in any one place so that the ones you don't like much are left without too much of a bad taste and the ones you really like you are left wanting to come back again.Læs mere