Day Nine - Noumea, New Caledonia

Backblip #9

A late afternoon flight from Fiji on Aircalin landed us on the quaint little French owned island of New Caledonia.

We were crossing our fingers that the warm welcome and ease of transition we received in South Korea would be the same here. It wasn't quite the same, but we managed just fine. Neither my husband or I speak a lick of French besides the simple hi, hello and thank you. I expected that the people would speak more English for whatever reason, but they didn't. So communicating was hilarious at times.

They had to sell us two hotel rooms because they were out of family rooms. Each room had two beds in it, which would have been fine for us to each have one little one with us. But there was no reasoning with them. We had to have 2 rooms.

In the room, I managed to find the Disney channel, and the boys were all excited. It was the movie Toy Story and not an ounce of English. They enjoyed it all the same and even went on to watch a French-dubbed Zorro after that.

I found brief Internet access by sitting on the ground just outside of my room. Other hotel goers wandered by as the night went on with a "Bonjour" and "Bonsoir" greeting. I have to admit that the French language is really a beautiful language, and I now understand why it's considered one of the romantics.

We didn't get but a night in Noumea, so this is a shot from the front of the airport. It is the sky, the clouds and the mountains. This is definitely a place we intend to go back to some day and spend a great deal of time exploring.