Noumea, New Caledonia

I thought we were all excited to be on dry land by the time we hit Noumea on Thursday but how wrong was I! As soon as we walked down the gangway, whinging about the heat began. They weren't wrong, but the way the carried on was over the top as usual. We happened to be there on a public holiday so instead of walking into a bustling town centre, it was more like a ghost town with my screaming/arguing kids. After a couple of hours of trying to deal with the meltdowns, we decided to go back to the ship for lunch then head out on a bus to Baie de Citron (Lemon Bay). That's when things started to improve for my water babies.

Ella with her spirit animal (because of her speed not the name)

I tried to take some pics for you Renee but it was pretty tricky on a full bus. This is the big carpark by the McDs

So cool to watch all of the kids play with these 2 little brothers who only spoke friend. Building sandcastles and finding hermit crabs doesn't really require much language we found

Maybe your street with the school on the right Renee?

This lovely Mum of the boys we were playing with was just so sweet. As they left they said 'Bye friends' and she gave the kids some twisties (even though it was making her boys cry to give away their chippies).
I ended up getting on the bus to catch up with them and when I saw them walking off to their apartment I got off the bus and gave her our leftover francs. She kept saying no and I had to rack my brain to pull out some broken french to say 'Je n'ai pas besoin the money. Je vais aller en bateau'

That's the boys we played with....Pierre et Benjamin

Dalls fell asleep on the bus. To say she was exhausted was an understatement! I think from here it was straight up to the pool to watch the kids play in the pool of course.

I thought when I first went to Noumea 15-ish years ago to stay with Aunty Nae, I'd never go back there. Now I feel like surely I'll never have a reason to go there again. But who knows, maybe in another 15 years I'll be there again...when I'm nearly 50!!!!!