Noumea

I’m back on the boat with a keyboard I know. It’s so confusing when several keys have been moved. It wasn’t just the punctuation, some of the letters too.

Noumea is wonderful. It’s closed down, because it’s Sunday. The Chinese stores are open, but that’s about it. McDonalds is very busy too. The city is very pretty and modern. It’s about 1/3 the size of Suva, but much more developed.

We got here about 2pm yesterday and were checked in about 5pm. The marina is gorgeous. It comes with hot showers!!!!!! Can you tell I’m excited about that. I took a very long one this morning. As a welcome, the marina also gives you a round of drinks at the restaurant/bar. That was really nice. After our free drinks we went in search of someplace to eat. The guidebook says there are 130 places. None were open. We found a couple of unattractive places after walking for an hour. We decided to go back to the marina and eat there. We were seated and later told that the chef doesn’t come on until 7:00 pm. It was 6:30 and we’d been there a while already. We knew that other than McDonalds we wouldn’t find anything else open, so we ordered and waited.

Steve and I had the 3 meat plate. It had venison, kangaroo and ostrich on it, with your choice of sauce and sides. It was wonderful. All three meats were grilled to perfection and very tasty. Susan had soup and salad and was very satisfied.

This morning Steve went to mass and Susan and I went off shopping. We needed some warmer clothes. It’s very cool here: 66 degrees and lower. We went into about 2 dozen shops in Chinatown and found some things. I got a pair of long pants and Susan got two pairs. I still need another long sleeve shirt, but I’ll wait until tomorrow when all the shops are open. I didn’t find anything today.

We shopped at the market too. It’s right next to the marina and has a fresh fish market, fresh veggie market, prepared foods, handicrafts and souvenirs. We bought a bunch of stuff and brought it back to the boat for lunch. We had smoked salmon tarte, tuna brioche gratin (tuna melt), spring and summer rolls, and some very excellent poisson cru. We love the food here!

We love Noumea. We’re probably rent the slip for two weeks and go out for marine adventures on day trips. Then it’s off to Australia.