noumea

From the Le Meridien Noumea, the town of Noumea was about a 30 minute bus ride.









Noumea's main mode of transportation is the car. You will sometimes see a scooter or motorcycle. Public transportation are buses or taxis and rarely will you see anyone walking or riding bicycles. If you paid for your bus fare before boarding the bus it cost more (200 XPF about 289 yen or US $2.50) than if your pre-bought a fare card (170 XPF about 246 yen or US $2.14). I couldn't understand the need for these cards other than to distinguish pre-bought and on-board fares and we often saw them littered on the bus and streets.

Much of the town is hilly, which gave breath taking views of the city and bays on clear days.

I was disappointed at how much graffiti was all over the place. At sightseeing spots, graffiti even covered the landmark or statue. Even houses with garage doors or walls had graffiti tagged on them.

The money in New Caledonia is the Pacific Franc (XPF). We were surprised at the size of the bills and coins, they were larger than what we were used to in the U.S. and in Japan. Unfortunately, our yen wasn't too strong so everything was REALLY expensive.

The marina area had many boats, but only 1 boat is available for rent to go cruising or fishing!



Most of the street signs were in French.


And the traffic signals were interesting. The smaller one on the bottom are for cars that are closest to the signal. The larger one at the top are for the cars further back of the line.

A new aquarium was opened a couple of days before we got there, they have lots of unusual fish plus a live florescent coral display.

Unlike Japan, there are many benches and places to sit to have lunch or just take a breather.





They even had a Chinatown (doesn't every city?). This one was called Polynesia Chinatown.

We were smiling when we saw this store called "Waikiki" in Chinatown.

I was pleasantly surprised at how friendly everyone was. Many people greet you with a "Bon Jour" or "Konnichiwa" on the street and especially when you enter a restaurant or store. You also often see people kissing each other on both cheeks, (even the hotel staff kissed each other on the cheeks when changing shifts!) You also see people yelling across the street to tell a friend "hi".

Despite the graffiti and litter, Noumea was still a great place to roam around.

Next post will feature everything French....stay tuned.

Aquarium
61 promenade Roger Laroque
Anse Vata
Phone: 26.27.31
Closed on Mondays

Le Meridien Noumea
Pointe Magnin
Phone: 26.50.00