When I started my trip I had originally planed on staying at a decent hotel once every one or two weeks. Nothing super fancy, but just nice.
So far, I really haevn’t done that at all. My luxuries have been in the form of single rooms at the hostel.
Well, I decided to go for broke here in Noumea. I’m staying at the Meridien. Three days of luxury before living with mosquitoes in off beat islands.
Before you go to a place, you only can read about it in guidebooks or on the web. It isn’t a substitute for being there. I really had no idea what to expect in New Caledonia. The only thing I ever recall reading about it was riots they had years ago against the French (and that will be part of a very long post I’m going to make soon).
Let me just say New Caledonia is really much more than I expected. The island is beautiful and I can see why Noumea is called “Paris on the Pacific”. This could easily be in the south of France.
It isn’t just a nice city “for the Pacific”, it’s just a plain nice city.
I can see why the French are so reluctant to give it up.
I’m off to take photos of Noumea. Being eight hours behind (16 hours ahead) of everyone you know is really becoming difficult.
Oh, on the advice of one the readers of this site, I’m going to postpone going to Papua New Guinea until I’m in Indonesia or Australia. The flights to PNG from the Solomons are too much of a pain in the ass, where as from Australia they are reliable and frequent.