Just two hours from Brisbane or two and a half hours from Sydney, New Caledonia is the closest to the Pacific Ocean in Australia. French territory, the largest of the islands of the South Pacific, where the world's largest lagoon and the second largest barrier reef in the world.
It is primitive, but complex, untouched, but cosmopolitan, calm, but adventure.
It is the Pacific, but it is also a piece of France.
In New Caledonia, you will find rainbow waters, mountain rainforests and ancient Melanesian culture, contrasting with the clearly European way of life.
Fine wines, cheeses, pates and games are sold by coconuts and pits in the markets of products. Luxury yachts are fed by the same waters as traditional canoes. Old friends gather under the palms to play petanque in the afternoon.
The capital, Noumea, where these contrasts are most distinct. Noumea, located on a hilly peninsula surrounded by coves, is the largest and most cosmopolitan city among the islands of the South Pacific.
More than 130 cafes and restaurants overlook the streets and the embankment, as well as gourmet concierges, patisries, chocolates, hunters and small importers of wine. The weekly night markets held on Thursdays at the Place des Cocotiers attract hundreds to the town square to enjoy food, art, music and entertainment, and the surrounding lagoon is a stage for the daily parade of kite surfers, sailors, wind and skier enthusiasts.
The magnificent cultural center of Thibau, the architectural masterpiece of Renzo Piano, is a tribute to New Caledonia to its indigenous Melanesian peoples, the Kanaks. It stands next to a lagoon on a narrow promontory where there is a collection of art and traditional crafts from New Caledonia and the wider Pacific.
Behind Noumea is a natural landscape rich in tropical botany and fauna. The mountain forests of New Caledonia form one of the richest biodiversity reserves in the world, and the lagoon is a pristine marine environment and home to dugongs, algae and countless tropical corals and fish.
To enjoy the best of New Caledonia, you can choose one of the five-star resorts, such as the Coral Palms Island resort with its over water or the beauty of the remote island of Le Meridien Isle of Pines, offering maximum luxury and intelligence in the shade of lush vegetation and quiet gardens.
Pines Island is often referred to as the “Jewel in the Pacific”, and a few days exploring its turquoise bays will explain why. The combination of volcanic geology and elevated coral reef creates a prehistoric landscape, crowned by the towering Araucaria islands of the colonists that surround the bays and gulfs and inspire the name of the island when James Cook sailed past in 1774,
Today, the island remains untouched and has changed little over thousands of years. Oro Bay, recently named among the 30 most uncovered beaches in the world. The respected islands of the US magazine are home to the resort of Le Meridien, where simply the courtesy of luxurious bungalows lurks among palm trees and pines.
