Day 24- 10/26/22 - Noumea, New Caledonia - Day 1

This morning we woke up in Noumea, New Caledonia after a slow sail yesterday and overnight.  Since we've been here twice before (2016 and 2019), we were in no hurry to get off the ship.  So we had a leisurely breakfast and caught a 9am shuttle bus to the cruise terminal.  Because the Westerdam is about 60 feet too long, we can't berth at the Passenger Cruise Terminal but must dock at the container terminal.  The officials at the container terminal won't let passengers walk from the ship to the port gate.  So shuttle busses were provided for the passengers to reach the cruise terminal which is about a 5 minute drive away.  Those shuttles run from 8am until Midnight.  After 6pm they also make trips out to Lemon Bay and this allows passengers to take in the restaurant activity out there.  The last shuttle returns at 11pm from Lemon Bay and 11:30 from the passenger cruise terminal.  If one misses the last shuttle, one must find their own lodging for the night as the container port gate will not open until 8am the following morning.

Once we arrived at the Passenger Cruise Terminal, we explored the shore excursions being offered there and checked in for our next day turtle excursion trip.  We found a 2.5 hour country tour on a bus that would take us to the Cultural Center.  It was only 7,000 CPF (Central Pacific Francs) or around $58 for the two of us.  The comparable HAL tour is $70/person and doesn't include the countryside portion of the trip.  With a 11am departure time and a 10:45am checkin time, we headed off to get some local currency from an ATM and shop at the local grocery store for a couple sodas for the day.  By the way, there was quite a line to exchange currency at the local money changer in the terminal.  I've always found it to be better to just use an ATM to get cash if that is an available option. We also took the opportunity to shop the craft market on the upper level of the Passenger Cruise Terminal Building.  

We boarded our tour bus at 10:45 and after the bus was completely full, we left shortly after 11am with Vivienne, a British Expat and now married to a Frenchman, who narrated the 2.5 hour tour.  She knew many of the details and the first part of the trip we were quite familiar with because of our previous trips.  We went past Lemon Bay, the Acquarium, and up to the cannons on the bluff overlooking the harbor.  From there, the route was not familiar as it was in the countryside.  Soon we reached the Tjibaou Cultural Center and Vivienne guided us on a 45 minute tour through the facility.  The Cultural Center is just re-opening after a 2 year covid shutdown, so the only real things that were open were some bookstores and collections of pictures depicting the indigenous people.  Outside there were a couple of very nice village houses.  The architecture of the museum buildings is comprised of striking wooden frame structure which have sort of a broken egg shape and a built of strips of an African wood that is termite resistant.      I'll put a picture in this post to make my description clearer.

After the Cultural Center visit, we continued on with a stop at a Catholic Church with very plain architecture, but really pretty stained glass.  Our guide commented that this was a very active parish. From there we looped back around to the port area and dropped us off next to the Passenger Cruise Terminal.  

Angela and I headed on out on a walking tour of downtown in search of a French restaurant or the McDonalds we previously visited.  We were really looking for WIFI as we've found that our T-Mobile service really doesn't work well here and there is only one carrier (NCL MOBILUS). I was able to connect early this morning to complete a stock transaction, but throughout the day, no connection was available except when I discovered local WIFI.   While looking for a restaurant, we found a couple local policemen and tried to asked them where the McDonald's was found.  After a bit of gestering and Angela using a bit of French, his recognition light went on.  He pointed us in the direction I thought it was located, but they had no recommendations for a French restaurant.  Not 30 feet away we found a very nice little Indo-French restaurant (Aux 3 Palmiers) and each of us devoured a foot long baguette sandwich.  I washed mine down with a local beer named Number One.  It was a very good beer; not bitter, and bit on the sweet side.  On our bus tour we saw where it was brewed. 

After lunch we wandered over to Coconut Square or KM Zero where there was some sort of game event for disabled children.  It was located right at the main fountain.  From there we wandered some more up to the first Protestant church in the area (Reformed Church).  It wasn't open for visits, and the exterior looked decrepid. Down the block was a large park like area which was the residence of the Island High Commissioner.  We continued our wandering back down the hill and Angela spotted an Apple computer store.  I purchased an SD card reader there to help in downloading pictures to my iPhone from my various cameras.  

We continued wandering to the Passenger Cruise Terminal and sat on the bench in front watching several shuttle busses fill up and head back to the ship.  We then boarded a bus and were back onboard by 4:30pm.  I spent the next hour writing my blog and drinking 3 glasses of iced tea before eating a very light shrimp & green pepper salad for dinner with Erik & Marilyn out in the Lido pool area.

We all ended our evening watching the new Elvis movie on the Main Stage screen before retiring to our respective staterooms.

I should note that we were required to take at a minimum a copy of our passport off of the ship.  A real passport would be needed for liquor purchases or currency exchange outside of the money changed at the Passenger Cruise Ship terminal.  However, nobody asked for them today  from us or anyone we knew.

Tomorrow is projected to be an exciting day snorkeling with the turtles at Signal Island.  The reports I heard from today's snorkeling there were excellent.