NATURALLY SPLENDID AND CULTURALLY RICH, NEW CALEDONIA BOASTS A PLETHORA OF DELIGHTS FOR THE TROPICAL TRAVELLER, JUST THREE HOURS FROM AUSTRALIA’S EASTERN SEABOARD.
Here’s five reasons why you should visit New Caledonia:
- Tranquil Uncrowded Beaches
New Caledonia is world renowned for its beaches and diving sites, but finding a private patch of sand along its coast is easier than you may think. At the Loyalty Islands – Lifou, Mare, Tiga and Ouvea – visitors can find a remote patch of populated coral reef, and unspoilt beaches. The Isle of Pines is equally beautiful and is a perfect spot for a French picnic on the beach.
Cheese arrives regularly direct from France, so it’s easy to pick up fresh, soft and buttery French cheeses. Travellers can enjoy them the local way with duck pate, local ham and baguettes at a sunset beach picnic – and don’t forget the wonderful wine and champagne (they’re pleasantly affordable).
2. Places to go and places to see…not People!
New Caledonia is an amazing destination: from its mainland to the archipelago adorning its flanks, visitors will find a host of different places from wonderful secluded beaches and Idyllic Islands to amazing mountainous landscapes.
Outside of the buzzing city centre of New Caledonia’s capital Noumea, travellers will find outback plains on the West Coast, tropical mountains on the East and eye-watering, beautiful beaches in the Loyalty Islands. In the South, you’ll find 9,000 hectares of untouched wilderness and red earth underfoot.
3. Rich local culture and cuisine
Home to the Indigenous Kanak, and Caledonian and French cultures, New Caledonia presents cross-continental influence and synthesis at its best.
New Caledonia’s cultural diversity is best reflected in its food, which marries mouth-watering, flavoursome Pacific Island cooking, with French wine, pastry and tradition.
Local delicacies include Bougna, which is a traditional Melanesian dish combining chicken, lobster or fish with yams, bananas, sweet potatoes and coconut milk wrapped in banana leaves. The food is then steamed in an earth oven heated by hot stones. Bougna is served with a variety of other dishes, including seafood, coconut milk and tropical fruit.
Being an island in the Pacific, it will come as no surprise that seafood features on many restaurant menus with freshly-caught prawns, lobsters, oysters, marlin, mackerel, crab, and mussels for delectable bowls of moules marinières. The market at Port Moselle in Nouméa is one of the best places to pick up fresh seafood, caught by local fishermen.
Boulangeries – best translated as either a bakery, or a place where bread is sold – and patisseries are commonplace throughout New Caledonia, but even roadside petrol stations are stocked with fragrant fresh croissants and pastries.
Outside of forgivably, stuffing your face up and down the country, we recommend tourists visit the Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Nouméa for a look back at the 3000-year-old history of the Kanaks.
4. Local festivals
On top of the wealth of delightful New Caledonian foods on offer around the country, there’s also an equally formidable line-up of local festivals celebrating French traditions.
For arrivals around June, check out Nouméa French Cheese Festival – a celebration of the art of cheese-making. There’s also Bastille day celebrations in July, and the French Francolies music festival.
The festival piece de resistance is New Caledonia’s Giant Omelette Festival, which takes place every year around Easter time in Dumbéa, just outside of Nouméa. People celebrate the creation of a giant omelette in remembrance of Napoleon demanding it be made for his soldiers by the townspeople of Bessieres.
Be sure to arrive hungry!
5. A Taste of France closer than you thought! (fewer than three hours from Sydney)
A taste of France would usually call for a trade in time zones, but if you fly out at breakfast from Sydney on your way to New Caledonia, you’ll arrive in Nouméa for lunch. Flights across the Eastern seaboard take fewer than three hours on average to arrive in New Caledonia, which means saving time and money.
*original article Travel Weekly 11 March 2019, http://www.travelweekly.com.au/article/six-reasons-why-new-caledonia-is-an-easy-sell-for-agents/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=Six%20reasons%20why%20New%20Caledonia%20is%20an%20easy%20sell%20for%20agents&utm_campaign=Travel%20Weekly%20newsletter%3A%20Thursday%2014%20March%202019
Want to know the best time of year and the best place to stay in New Caledonia at the very best value for money available? Then complete the enquiry form on the right and we’ll get the best options back to you very soon.
Or contact us on 08 9384 4110 or travel@synergytravel.com.au