Noumea, New Caledonia

November 2023

Just looking at these guys surely makes you feel happy.

For this visit to Noumea, we stayed at the Port Moselle Marina and enjoyed it very much. It was very close to the city centre, with easy access to supermarkets, chandlers and restaurants.

We were now in a period of waiting as we eyed the weather predictions each day, looking for that unique pattern that would give us the best passage to New Zealand.  It would be a 6 day trip and we were very wary about any repeat of that memorable passage from Australia to Vanuatu.  Even though the cyclone season had officially started we were relatively relaxed. This marina is pretty impressive from a cyclonic point of view.  We couldn’t see the point of heading into potentially bad weather just because the insurance policy says we should be below 30 parallel by 30^th November.  A great many other boaters were doing this (and greatly increasing their chance of needing to actually use said insurance).  But each to their own, and we do have a bit of cyclone experience from our time in Queensland.

Port Moselle is well setup for cyclones.  There is a spiderweb of huge chain across the floor of the marina to which all the boats get attached and locked in when a cyclone call is made.  One of the other trawler boat owners we met here has been through cyclonic winds here and said he felt quite comfortable.

I smiled as we passed this bin quietly doing its job in the Port Moselle Marina.  For Christmas many years ago, Peter bought me a Tee-shirt that sponsored these guys.  The founders were a couple of surfers from Byron Bay who’d come up with a low power way to keep marinas clean of floating waste.  They started out with a good idea and a Go-Fund-Me page, and now have an international product – go dudes.

Peter has taken to channelling Sir David Attenborough.  He comes back from his ‘first Hobbits breakfast’ with a new photo each day of something happily living in the marina.  This marina is teaming with life.  As well as the expected fish we have regularly seen Sea Snakes and Turtles cruising around.

He spotted a Spotted Stingray one morning and received the following reply from Mitch.

“Spotted this stingray 2m off the bed this morning. Quite nutty.”  Nice to know the family is still showing interest.

While we were waiting for the ‘perfect’ weather window, we did some more land-based touring. We were particularly keen to visit the mining museum at Thio, on the other side of the Grande Island.

This photo from the museum display shows what the mining looked like.  Nickel has been mined in New Caledonia since the 1870s.  The displays included an explanation of the geology (which also explained much of what we had seen in Vanuatu), the always impressive developments in technology, how the mine influenced immigration and how people lived.  The museum is very well presented and there was so much information that we had to stop for a tea break (no café here, but the lovely guide put out the makings for tea and coffee and a plate of fruit for us).

All the information at the museum was printed in French, so…

This is Peter reading the information panels through Google Translate.  The lovely guide was soooo happy when I showed her the Google Translate.  She had been ‘girding her loins’ to talk us through the whole museum.  But her English was only-just better than our French, so we thanked her for her dedication and said we’d let her know if we got stuck. Technology can be so very useful; although we’ve come across some very funny translation errors (as I used to tell my students; “always consider context”).

We also booked to do some diving with one of the local companies.  I didn’t take the camera for the first dive at a passage through the outer reef, which turned out to be a good call on my part.  The surge was impressive and I was regularly hanging on for grim life (well it felt like that).  It takes about an hour to speed boat the 20km to the outer reef, and once you are there it is like Kings Cross Station! There are boats all over the place waiting in 200m of water for the surfers riding the break over the reef.  And then there are us divers ‘gliding’ around underneath them all.  There is a goodly amount of marine life out here too.  The water is fresh and has good movement.  And sea life likes movement, even if I don’t.

After we came up from the first dive, we were a bit confused as we seemed to be heading back in to Noumea for our second dive.  Were we coming back early maybe?  But no, there is a most amazing turtle dive site very close to the marina.  This is why it is worth booking local guides when you can, as we would never have found this spot on our own.

Sooo many Turtles…

Sea Snakes, schools of colourful fish of a great range of shapes and sizes, and Reef Sharks (perfectly safe with those guys), and…

A most garish Nudibranch!

While we had the car, we went for a spin out to the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre.  This is a wonderful complex and grounds dedicated to showing and explaining the unique Kanak culture.

The building design of the Cultural Centre is quite striking.  Renzo Piano, an Italian architect, won the design competition (I must say the other designs were all very bland compared to his vision).

The Kanaks build these huge structures without nails or scaffolding.  We watched a video of the process – so impressive.  You have to admire the person who gets to climb the framework all the way to the top to put that spire on – and with no ladders (I’m sure the shimmy-er got lots of kudos with the ladies). 

It was so cool (in all senses of the word)

Meanwhile back on Opal Lady we were busy stocking up on travel meals and checking all things mechanical.

Boat Alert: Weevils have bored perfectly circular holes out of a bag of oats and into a bag of rice; The Fiends.  We have to sign off on being pest free for NZ, so it will be WAR for a few days in my stores lockers.  The official NZ document doesn’t actually list all insects, but just asks if the boat “has hitchhikers”! I laughed when I read that.  If NZ Biosecurity finds anything creepy or crawly, the boat has to be fumigated, so it’s easier all round for me to do a clean out and record it in the Biosecurity Log for the Boat.  [I know I shouldn’t, but I really enjoy all the paperwork that goes with travelling on a boat].  The last major Boat Battle was the 2-year Cockroach Crusades back in Cairns (those pesky blighters got aboard in Darwin) – the good guys won and I haven’t seen a Cockroach since.

Finally, in the last week of November we received the Import Permit for one manky-moggie into New Zealand.  I had to book him an appointment with the local vet for his final treatments using my very sad French – and they understood (they were very patient)! The lovely Government Vet, who has to sign him out of the country, has offered to come to the marina so we don’t have to book a car again (they are located 30 minutes out of Noumea).

The week before we were hoping to Check Out of New Caledonia, we popped out of the marina to have our bottom cleaned (New Zealand is fussy about bottoms).  We anchored around the corner in the Bay, at what I believe is a designated area for cleaning (although this may be an unofficial designation).

The lovely Clementine of Noumea Yacht Services arranged for our clean by two keen young diving dudes armed with the biggest scrapers I’ve ever seen – it took them no time at all. I gave them my camera to take some photos of our clean bottom for the NZ Biosecurity and another paperwork box was ticked off.

Our weather window arrived the following day so now to Checkout and Refuel, in that order (do not refuel before checking out if you want to claim the tax).

Clementine took care of our paperwork for checking out.  If it’s submitted late in the afternoon, you can request a time early the next morning for actually leaving.  This is what we did, so that we could refuel first thing in the morning before the traffic rush. The Moselle fuel dock is well laid out, but it’s location right at the entry to the marina can mean some tight manoeuvring around traffic.  I’ll admit we have sat and watched some boats get themselves into embarrassing situations while we were there (but for the good graces of some deity go us).

[And there are quite a few small boaters who aren’t averse to zipping in front of much larger boats, or possibly just have no idea of the road rules for boats.  One day we heard the MaryD Seven, a 38m ferry, sounding her horn.  This was not unusual, but this particular day she sounded 5 hoots (the often heard “get out of the way, big guy coming through”).  But then it was followed by a continuous horn, which is really not good.  It became clear that a dinghy had decided to stop in the middle of the concourse, right in front of the ferry – it got REALLY exciting for a wee while, but all ended well.  Back to our leaving.]

With all this in mind, Peter decided we would de-berth and park up at the fuel dock early, before anyone else was around and wait for opening hours (I swear it was barely light; that boy does like his early mornings).

Whiling away the time waiting for opening hours (I feel I’ve been setup here)

I found a collection box for the local coast guard and threw all our spare change into it.  After showing our exit paperwork to the cashier, the price per litre was adjusted to exclude the fuel tax.  We filled up, melted the credit card, and left with some fresh milk and sandwiches to begin our cruise across the lagoon to the outer reef..

December 1^st (OMG – so very late in the season – we know) saw us bidding a fond adieu to Noumea.  Next stop Opua, New Zealand.   

Boat Works

Made up new snubber

Navigation Notes:

Location of cleaning station: 22 16.920S, 166 25.877E.  I am not sure if this is actually an officially designated area, but it is where all the boats go.  The anchoring was good.

The hull needs to have been cleaned within a month of arrival into New Zealand.  Having photos or GoPro footage, date stamped and ready for the Biosecurity dudes helps the Checking In process go smoothly.  Clementine of Noumea Yacht Services organised ‘ABC Dive and Clean’ for us.  The cost was ~ $400AU.

Checking Out cost ~$250AU including the service fee for Clementine.