La Nouvelle Caledonie avec ma chere Rama et Emmanuel!

Welcome to the beautiful island of New Caledonia, situated in the Pacific Ocean, neighbouring New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Tahiti and other small islands ...

One of the many amazing meals with the Micolou-Kane family :)  Great conversations, delicious food (and Stanley's!) and unforgettable moments for all of us... Thanks guys for making us feel home after all these months been 'homeless' :D

 Voila, 'LE FROMAGE', apparently Rama and Emmanuel read our minds before we arrived, as the only thing we had craved in this trip has been Real Cheese... well, even before we had this conversation, these huge blocks of cheese were served on the table... no words to describe the feelings!!

 While Emmanuel rehearsed for his drumming function, we had a great catch up. For the good old times :)











Emmanuel playing the drum in the centre, wearing a green T-shirt.

Sitting down a Flame or Flamboyant tree

                               

 Here we are posing at the Kanak museum in Noumea. The Kanaks are the local inhabitants of New Caledonia who now live together with the French. They use wood craving to reproduce human or animal figures to protect their lands. It is a costume when visiting a Kanak tribe, to bring a piece of fabric or cloth and give it to the tribe Chief in order to ask for permission to visit his land.

Night life in NC. The crazy girls are in town... you better shut down any Karaoke!! (This should have been the advice... but unfortunately they were not aware of us just yet....) Here we are singing Ali's choice of "I've got you babe" by Sonny and Cher http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzYBuKaQ83s Nice picture, awful sound! ... LOL

Exploring the island with Rama's Kanak friend, shinny happy people!!




 












Little hoola dancers in a South Pacific festival in Noumea, where Emmanuel played later.





 Once the kava (a grayish cold drink, bade from a root) is the right strength (as deduced from the colour), the ceremony master will call out the nickname of the first recipient using an old archaic formula ("kava kuo heka"). The touʻa will fill the cup and the cup is then brought, often by a young lady, to the intended chief, and brought back afterwards. Then the next name is called, and so forth.

But if you don't like Kava (which is very probable as it taste somehow Bitterly  Weird and it numbs your mouth too!) you can always have a super calorific Hawaiian cake... and do not attempt to weight yourself in a few weeks...  

A day in Noumea's aquarium... beautiful corals, and exotic fishes...











 Where's Wally ... I mean the fish??

Scuba diving ... sureee!! :P

Emmanuel playing with his drumming band, beautiful African music.

 Getting ready for a boat trip!.













 Our Kava tasting wasn't that pleasant (for me and Emmanuel at least!)... I tell you I rather stick to the chocolate cakes :D

 Bye bye Noumea, it has been a magical and super enjoyable week! Thanks to Rama, Emmanuel and Solana for treating us so well, we wish you many happy times together!

 

It has become famous for the aerial photography known as The Heart of Voh, a large formation of vegetation that resembles a heart seen from above.