Hi from Noumea suckers

[merv]

MD's thread on the snow has prompted me to post this.

There I am all this week soaking up the warmth in Noumea. The only let down so far is it has been blowing hard. Here's my view from the hotel - haha suckers.

There are lots of bikes on the streets and 80% of them would be 'tards (not counting the zillions of scooters) and of those about 90% seem to be 2 smokers. Haven't got many pics yet and you'll see the two up one I've got is of a 4 stroke.

Its been funny seeing how they ride here like the cops don't exist - they're popping wheelies, including two up, all the time (scooter riders included haha) and sliding to stops at the lights and passing cars as much as they can. The noise they make is something too riding essentially what are MX bikes on the street

Dig the XR200RA that was in the Maccas park. Also look at the price of Maccas, like everything in the town damned expensive. We get about 57F to the Kiwi buck so the Crispy Chicken is over $10.

Internet at the hotel is free but pretty slow for broadband.

[PirateJafa]

Tell the bastards to give me back my TEU and FEU containers without any fudging holes in them from now on.

Oh, and enjoy the sun too. :niceone:

[merv]

Oh, and I did see this Aprilia parked on the footpath.

[Steam]

Oh man, Noumea? That sounds so good. I don't even know where it is, but it's gotta be better than Dunedin in winter.

[sels1]

- haha suckers.

yeah go on, rub it in....you'll keep :yes:

[98tls]

:bash:Hate ya.........minus 2 here.....heat pump and the bloody fire going.Have fun you lucky bugger.

[merv]

Hopefully I'll get you a few more pics before the week is out.

[98tls]

Hopefully I'll get you a few more pics before the week is out. Cant wait.:bash::bash::oi-grr::msn-wink:

[Nasty]

Sounds like you guys are having an awesome break ... seeya when you get back!!

[skidMark]

MD's thread on the snow has prompted me to post this.

There I am all this week soaking up the warmth in Noumea. The only let down so far is it has been blowing hard. Here's my view from the hotel - haha suckers.

Internet at the hotel is free but pretty slow for broadband.


You seem to mentions blowing and sucking alot.

Whats ya bf's name?

[fergie]

2 degrees here this morning Merv, and by the way, I've gone right off you!:clap::niceone:

[Swoop]

Good on ya Merv! I hope the beer is nice and cold in the hot sun. Ahhhh bliss!

According to gossip... if you are not part of the "Club Med" set and have everything paid for in NZ, your wallet will be bled dry. Friends who arrived on their yacht were shocked...:buggerd:

[portokiwi]

way to go mate i allways wanted to go there but never did.
Have a great time.

[Big Dave]

Whenever I think of Noumea I think of.....McDonalds???

[merv]

Honestly the place is really suffering crumbling infrastructure - like the state of the roads and the footpaths. It's not exactly a tropical paradise - rougher than we were expecting with a Cannons Creek look of the city centre.

Bleeding dry is what I was on about with the Maccas comparo - close to double NZ costs. As for Maccas Big Dave I was surprised the French had left the American capitalists in here.

You gotta try these things though eh! Travelling to foreign lands that is, like when I do venture in to Cannons Creek.

[sels1]

Honestly the place is really suffering crumbling infrastructure -.
Most of the Pacific Is are like that now Merv. They have gained Independance from their former colonial masters but have lost the financial, technical and organisational backing that came with it.

[Quasievil]

Most of the Pacific Is are like that now Merv. They have gained Independance from their former colonial masters but have lost the financial, technical and organisational backing that came with it.


Yup us included.

[Swoop]

Most of the Pacific Is are like that now Merv. They have gained Independance from their former colonial masters but have lost the financial, technical and organisational backing that came with it.
It is surprising that they haven't leeched onto UnZud. We are suckers for handing out $$$'s to tin-pot dictatorships and other Pacific Island nations.

[007XX]

Hey Merv old buddy...Good to know you're having fun so far, apart for being disappointed by the streets. The pics you took are part of the area where the buses take off from. It's not the nicest portion of the town unfortunately.

Have you had a chance to go towards the "Place des cocotiers" ? It should be a little cleaner and have nicer shops as well...

Also, make sure you get to "La baie des citrons", and have an ice cream from " La Sorbetiere"...you won't regret it!

[martybabe]

Dude you should have saved yer money. The photos below were taken at new plymouth beach yesterday, It's glorious here.

No1. me and the boys after the rugby, I'm the one in the nice boots.

No2. New Plym beach 1300hrs today (wind wand just out of shot).

[martybabe]

Ok ok, it's all spiggin lies but I'm so jealous man. have a great time wherever Noumea ? is. :bleh:

Enjoy, mart.

[2_SL0]

Correction made


Ok ok, it's all spiggin lies but I'm sooo jealuos of the man in the boots. have a great time wherever Noumea ? is. :bleh:

Enjoy, mart.

Couldn't resist.

[martybabe]

Correction made



Couldn't resist.

:laugh: I got this as a quote notification, had a quick read and thought, I didn't write that, Oh gawd maybe I did, a bit tired today. Glad to see it's just naughtiness on your part. Funny but naughty :oi-grr::lol:

[merv]

Hey Merv old buddy...Good to know you're having fun so far, apart for being disappointed by the streets. The pics you took are part of the area where the buses take off from. It's not the nicest portion of the town unfortunately.

Have you had a chance to go towards the "Place des cocotiers" ? It should be a little cleaner and have nicer shops as well...

Also, make sure you get to "La baie des citrons", and have an ice cream from " La Sorbetiere"...you won't regret it!


Hiya and no worries it all does look a bit better open today compared to Sunday when it was all closed up. The tagging sadly is everywhere. My comment about the streets is about how the surfaces are all bumpy and breaking up and walking the footpaths is an experience because of their condition too - gotta watch out for mudpuddles etc.

We'd already been to La Baie de Citrons and that was pretty good - the two up bikers were there. Haven't had an icecream yet but bought some lovely Creme Brulee icecream to have back at the hotel tonight.

We had lunch at Place des Cocotiers today - quite nice and weather was great today - lunch for two - entrecote, frite et salade plus a drink each around $100NZ.

We've rented a Citroen C4 for 3 days to drive around a bit for some of our time here and we've booked to jetski to some islands and the reef on Wednesday and the boat trip to Phare Armedee on Friday.

The cruise ship Pacific Dawn was in town and that looked cool.

Plenty of bikes parked at the cop shop, and today I was seeing more 4 strokers - yippee!

[Trudes]

Come on Merv, you're killing us!!!
And where's the pics of you in your budgie smugglers???:cool:

[Swoop]

Pick 6. What an excellent idea for bike parking! Obviously they do not have the council zealots issuing tickets for doing that.

[Number One]

togs togs togs...UNDIES! Ewwww :lol:

[merv]

togs togs togs...UNDIES! Ewwww :lol:

Don't know about that but hey at least they drink your beer over here.

I liked this little three wheeler Piaggio scooter that was parked in the hotel carpark too.

Oh and you knew drinking too much of Number One's beer was bad for your health eh!

[Number One]

they drink your beer over here.
Oh and you knew drinking too much of Number One's beer was bad for your health eh!

LMAO my own beer?! You ain't missing anything back here weather wise - it's fricken :cold: brrrrrrrrrr

[cold comfort]

Great to see your pics. Had a great time there too. The diving was excellent and the food/wine superb. The locals got screwed big time as you will read at the cultural centre. Having just got back from the USA and passed thru Indian slums its a sad commentary on the white mans greed.

[007XX]

wherever Noumea ? is. :bleh:
.

Ok, for all those who don't know...Noumea is the capital of New Caledonia, pacific island about 2.30 hours away from here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Caledonia



We'd already been to La Baie de Citrons and that was pretty good - the two up bikers were there. Haven't had an icecream yet but bought some lovely Creme Brulee icecream to have back at the hotel tonight.

Trust me...Go to the Sorbetiere! It is an imperative experience...


We had lunch at Place des Cocotiers today - quite nice and weather was great today - lunch for two - entrecote, frite et salade plus a drink each around $100NZ.
Gawd...I miss tha food! :weep:


We've rented a Citroen C4 for 3 days to drive around a bit for some of our time here and we've booked to jetski to some islands and the reef on Wednesday and the boat trip to Phare Armedee on Friday.

Aha...good man! I hope there won't be too much wind for your trip to the lighthouse, and make sure you go on the glass bottom boat.





Oh and you knew drinking too much of Number One's beer was bad for your health eh!

They're only saying it's bad if you don't exert some moderation...of course moderation itself should be abused of with discretion :D

[Finn]

For those interested, here is a great online resource for Island hopping... It's got a good section on New Caledonia.

http://destinationsmedia.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

[Delerium]

You think maccas is expensive there (it taste rubbish there too) try buying a litre of orange juice and convert that into nz currency, that'll give you a shock, or go to the three brasseurs bar and order a jug, that will give you a coronary.

There is a very good italian place next to the sorbet icecream place, and not far from the 3 brasseurs. There is a VERY attractive waitress there too, but the food is primo.

[merv]

Hey thought I'd better update you with a few more pics.

I've been intrigued by all the French microcars on the streets like the Ligier X-TOO. They are powered by 500cc diesels limitied to 4kw and 45km/hr and I understand anyone over 16 can drive them without a licence, and I'm trusting driving the Citroen on the streets with these people. This lot of pics were taken outside a school - great line up of scooters and bikes including the small 'tards with MotoGP type exhausts.

Nude 125 :2thumbsup - don't you just love the name Gilera gave that bike.

[merv]

Yeah and OK we did go back to Baie de Citrons too and had lunch at La Sorbitiere, finished off with what they called glace simple i.e. basic cone icecream.

I do think those microcars are cute.

The snake is a tricot raye which is a sea snake - eats at sea but sleeps on land.

I told you the roads were rough, the last pic is typical of a lot of the surfaces - I presume the wet season is the problem causing them to fail.

[merv]

I told you we were going to do a jetski ride - well that turned out to be fun as the sea had got rather choppy - up to about 1m waves. We had a (Mrs thought) spunky French guide by the name of Jeremy - didn't know Frenchman used that name. He said he'd been in NC 4 years and reckons he wouldn't go home.

It was a 3 and a quarter hour trip and the only people on the tour today were us and a Japanese couple from Osaka.

The Seadoo tapped out at 6280 rpm and I only manged to wave pierce one wave giving us a full sea blast, the rest of the time was just a lot of spray and it was interesting keeping it as straight as possible angled onto the wind and waves.

Mrs KD there are some shots of me in my budgie smugglers but sadly hidden by tthe wetsuit - haha :whistle:.

I'm glad I bought a waterproof camera, it worked a treat and survived the trip no sweat. Only hassle is Mrs couldn't take pictures of the roughest bits she couldn't hold the camera steady enough on the bumps. This is a trip I'd recommend to any bikers. I love anything with a throttle and some power.

[Aslan]

glad to hear you're having fun Merv - enjoy! Cheers S

[merv]

You can see the weather was dull but it would have still been around 23 - 24 deg and its still about 20 now at night.

Then we went back to Baie de Citrons for a late lunch to try out the Paparazzi Bar Ristorante Italianio. That's the one Delerium mentioned, and sadly there were no good looking waitresses. Gotta have a scooter as part of the sign eh! Scooters, scooters everywhere and the riders are all crazy.

Then there's the cute open microcar.

[merv]

glad to hear you're having fun Merv - enjoy! Cheers S

Thanks, and you know me, always taking photos of all sorts of things eh, especially local culture.

[merv]

OK back home now and yes it was fun and I'm glad the weather is good here or has been for the last couple of days else we mighta frozen our arses off after the mid 20's temps we had.

It wasn't all perfect as I said above but it certainly was interesting and mainly good fun. I'd recommend to anyone that you visit it for a change but be prepared for it to be windier than a tropical paradise ought to be and assume everything will cost exactly twice as much as it does here.

For me the best fun was the jetski trip on rough sea and for Mrs merv her favourite was the visit to Phare Amedee Island. It was a well organised all day boat trip to the island with a lighthouse to climb, glass bottom boat tour, reef tour, buffet lunch, ethnic singing and dancing, coconut palm climbing, pareo (sarong) tying, cocunut opening etc etc.

Anyone know truly what happened to Club Med Noumea - was it the post Sept 11 2001 that lost it so much business that caused its abandonment or was it in decline before closure at the end of 2001? The building and grounds have been left derelict next to Le Meridien Hotel like an eyesore so if you stay next door try for a room with a better view. We stayed at Best Western La Promenade which is an apartment hotel with full kitchens, laundry and perfect views. That was a great choice because we chose to always eat breakfast in with supermarket tucker instead of paying the hotel for a $40 continental or $50 cooked breakfast - remember I said double NZ prices.

It did rain a bit as we arrived but that never chased the bikers away. I loved the hard out approach of all the small bike riders - never slow down just pull out and pass in the face of oncoming traffic. One 2 stroke motard came up behind us while I was driving and I said to Mrs merv hey quick snap a shot as he gets in front but he zinged past so fast in the 50k zone she didn't even have time to get the digital camera turned on as he streaked around the corners in front of us - no cops seemed to show any interest in the bikes at all.

Here's a few more pics for you, Harleys included.

[merv]

Here's Club Med after being abandoned for over 6 years - sad eh!

4th pic is from the beach in front of Le Meridien right next door.

[merv]

Here's Phare Amedee. 007XX suggested we should go there and yes it was well worth the visit.

[merv]

In summary then a great 8 days away to definitely what was a bike friendly city.

Would we recommend it? Yes.

Would we go back soon? Probably not in a hurry, did most things we wanted to and there are other places we want to visit before doing repeats.

[Mikkel]

Sounds like you've had a nice holiday - good to hear that there are plenty of bikers there and that they are enjoying themselves :)

I'd very much like to visit New Caledonia myself! Hope to do so soon...


Honestly the place is really suffering crumbling infrastructure - like the state of the roads and the footpaths. It's not exactly a tropical paradise - rougher than we were expecting with a Cannons Creek look of the city centre.
:mellow:

Most of the Pacific Is are like that now Merv. They have gained Independance from their former colonial masters but have lost the financial, technical and organisational backing that came with it.
:shifty:

Yup us included.
:yes:

We've rented a Citroen C4 for 3 days to drive around a bit for some of our time here and we've booked to jetski to some islands and the reef on Wednesday and the boat trip to Phare Armedee on Friday.

I hope you had no trouble staying on the right side of the road :D


I told you the roads were rough, the last pic is typical of a lot of the surfaces - I presume the wet season is the problem causing them to fail.

Looks like a typical Christchurch city road to me... :dodge:

[merv]

Yeah no problem driving the Citroen on the right (wrong - haha) side of the road - it helps having the car back to front. I haven't done it but I'd say it would be harder trying to say drive a pommy car across the channel into Europe when your natural instincts wouldn't suit the opposite side.

Didn't see any bikes for hire - the car was just easier near the hotel - but I'd say they would be there if you looked harder for them.

p.s. good to be back to my faster internet connection - you don't hear that often in NZ eh! :laugh:

[MacD]

Most of the Pacific Is are like that now Merv. They have gained Independance from their former colonial masters but have lost the financial, technical and organisational backing that came with it.

However they haven't gained independence from France. A referendum on independence isn't due until 2014.

See 007XX's Wikipedia link.

[merv]

However they haven't gained independence from France. A referendum on independence isn't due until 2014.

See 007XX's Wikipedia link.

Yes we read over there how it had been imminent but all parties agreed to postpone it further, and they did all seem to be living in harmony for now except as follows:

Their biggest problem me and Mrs merv sensed (now probably no different than most countries) was youth crime and violence - there were current news stories about trashing schools and attacks on other people and as usual there was tagging everywhere - Manurewa you say!! It will be the usual problem of the widening gap between the haves and have nots, drug use, high expectations and boredom - no different than here and oil prices causing inflation only fuel (sic) this issue.

[007XX]

Anyone know truly what happened to Club Med Noumea - was it the post Sept 11 2001 that lost it so much business that caused its abandonment or was it in decline before closure at the end of 2001? The building and grounds have been left derelict next to Le Meridien Hotel like an eyesore so if you stay next door try for a room with a better view.

What happened to it? Greed...
One of the ex mayor of NC (3rd richest man in the Pacific), built the massive luxury hotel and casino next to the (then) Club Med. When the lease of the Club Med came up for renewal, the guy in question bought it, kicked them out of it, and the buildings have been falling apart since then.:angry2: It made me so very angry when I saw that in 2006 on a visit to my parents...

I actually will think of asking my dad whether he knows anymore as to the reason fort his BS.

And people wonder why I left such a "paradise"! They're killing my island, that's what they're doing.


In summary then a great 8 days away to definitely what was a bike friendly city.

Would we recommend it? Yes.

Would we go back soon? Probably not in a hurry, did most things we wanted to and there are other places we want to visit before doing repeats.

You've barely scratched the surface, but quite honnestly, if you were to go again I'd recommend having a local showing you around and a bit more time as well. Going up North, visiting the tribes, there are horse back riding trecks that are very worthy, 4x4 trips that'll have you grinning for days, etc
I only gave you a acouple of things to do based on your sejourn's length.


However they haven't gained independence from France. A referendum on independence isn't due until 2014.

See 007XX's Wikipedia link.

Thanks MacD.:niceone:..I was going to point that out, but am not always calm shall we say on the subject, and I didn't think I should get into a political conversation here, taking over Merv's happy holiday thread.