Day of wandering about central Nouméa... with actual decisiveness towards the end! We rent a 4WD!

10:00am

One of the frustrating things I'm finding here in New Caledonia is that there are interesting things to see here on this island, but finding out where they are and how to get to them is very difficult. I've been trying to find more information about the strange plant life and landscapes here--but to no avail. The ranger at the Parc Provincal de la Rivière Bleue didn't have information, the botanic gardens didn't either (we were told to wait until Tuesday), and …

In New Caledonia. A very strange island. Half French, as in France French, with butter from Normandy shipped halfway around the world and Bordeaux wine. Nevermind that Australia and New Zealand are less than a three hour flight away... and the closest big city is Brisbane.

Getting irritated that I can't find any local information about interesting plants. It's not on most tourist's agendas... we're not the right kind of tourist, though. With prices so high here (an hour of Internet access at a cafe is US$10, a rental car is US$70 a day from a cheap place …

Today we took our little Renault Twingo all around the island, seeing what strange attractions are in the west and northeast of New Caledonia. While we found some interesting things, such as strange black cliffs near Hienghène, cute roadside fruit stands, and an old World War II US air base, we found most of the scenery simply pleasant rather than wonderful--and not as weird and fascinating as the landscapes east and south of Nouméa.

Starting early, we gobbled down a quick breakfast and headed north along the western side of the island. The landscape was primarily flat to rolling, with …

OK. A day around town. And with a rental car too!

I just couldn't wake up today. Took three big cups of good French coffee.
Picked up the rental car at the hotel here--they dropped it off. Then after breakfast headed out to the Tjibaou Cultural Center. Caught the 10:30 English language tour. We were the only two on the tour, and our tour guide was excellent. She led us first along the cultural center's extensive native plant section, which is divided into five areas along a single path.
We then wandered around inside looking at the art and …

After a lazy morning, we met Andre for lunch and spent the afternoon snorkeling with the fishes and relaxing.

We woke up at 8. Breakfast downstairs in the hotel was pleasant, it was a buffet and more European than Australian: there were cheeses and meats, along with the standard cereal and fruit fare. The sun was bright, the sky was cloudless, the temperature was in the mid-20's. It looked like a very good day.
Afterwards, we looked at renting a car. Budget wanted 30000XPF (at a 131XPF to US$1 rate, this was US$230.) For a two day rental …

A long day--flying to New Caledonia from Sydney, then getting to the hotel took up most of the day.

Early wakeup--6am. Got dressed, put the stuff in bags in the car (parked in an underground car park at the Stamford Plaza Airport), then a quick breakfast. Looking out the window, we could see the airport covered in fog, but we didn't worry.
Hopped on the 8am shuttle to the international terminal--which took forever as we also stopped by the Ibis and the Holiday Inn. Arrived at the airport at 8:45 and checked in for our 10:25 flight. The …

Nowhere have I seen such oppressive, in-your-face, roadside driver propaganda as I have here in Australia. Not in Scandinavia, not in the rest of Europe, not in Canada, not in the United States--and not even in Singapore, the nanny state par excellence.

You have to wonder about the effectiveness of a public education campaign where a typical driver can receive one 'impression' every two to three minutes. Most drivers would get desensitized, I would think.

So, for all of you that have been questioning 'can it really be that bad?', I took pictures of every roadside warning sign I saw …

http://www.marmot.net/2002au/2002-04/2002-0422_Canberra/

Posted several pictures from our wanderings around Canberra today and yesterday--in particular, Parliament House, the National Museum of Australia, and the Australian War Memorial.

Comments

dancubca

April 23 2002, 08:45:39

Hey Daniel,

I absolutely love the posts (and pics) from your trip! Thanks for doing it :)

Of course, I'm really looking forward to your post about Perth as I'm considering a move there someday.

danlmarmot

April 23 2002, 15:37:25

Running away from something? Perth is absolutely the furthest city you can go to from the Bay Area!

Still …

Spend a wonderfully pleasant day in Canberra. Mailed off a box of books back home; for the record, it's A$60 to mail a 16kg box of printed material to the US.

Then a bit of more shopping at the clearance racks at Katmandhu, a block away from the apartment. I needed a few more hiking shirts, as my old North Face 100% nylon shirt has got a bit too stinky. Walked by a park with some 'garden sculptures' of huge casuarina seedpods--must get a picture of myself sitting on them tomorrow morning.

Then we drove over to the Australian …

One heard three times today: "Australia is a young nation, so... [insert some whinging here]."

Well, yesterday (Sunday) we had one thing to do: go to the Buchan Caves in eastern Victoria. It's one of the few nature thingies you can do regardless of the weather--and good for that, as it has just been pissing down rain on Saturday since we left the Prom. Fields were all flooded, rivers were surging, and potholes were sprouting.

Buchan Caves were fairly interesting; we did the Royal Cave tour. With six inches of rain in the past few days, they were wet as well--the water had percolated the 30m or so into the cave system, with dripping water …

Yes, that's what I think I did to my modem when I plugged it into the lovely phone line at the St George Motor Inn in north Melbourne last week.

But all is better now; an quasi-cheapo PCMCIA modem now does the work. Still, I still think the old modem could be OK, and perhaps it's the phone system here in the past three hotels. They all emit an odd warbling tone for the dial tone--and then just go silent while you dial. Even now, I can't dial my very national ISP, Telstra BigPond, on this particular phone line. So …

Wonderful day hiking around at the Prom (Wilson's Promotory NP).

We rented a cabin in the park for tomorrow night, at the very southern tip of the park--and the Australian mainland! Should be fun, though it is a 19km hike in.

Yet another Strange Wildlife Sighting today: while waiting in the parking lot, Chris got a jump from a rosella that landed on the radio aerial! The rosella--a kind of parrot--then hopped onto the rear view mirror on my door. I snapped a few pics, then it flew off. It wasn't more than two feet away.

That's one thing about …

How many oceans are there? Really?

We took a day trip down the Great Ocean Road southwest of Melbourne.

Anything goes

Not enough curry

I tease a swan.

OK. I've decided to post more pictures. I'm getting rather slow... making sure each picture is perfect.

So I'm now aiming for speed: grab a few interesting pictures, do batch editing on all of them so they look sorta decent, then doing a thumbnail sheet of them all with minimal captioning.

Yesterday's pics are at http://www.marmot.net/2002au/gal/2002-0411/ . We went to the Melbourne Garden and Flower Show and the Melbourne Museum, and there are a couple of pictures of what streets look like here. Enjoy!

Not enough boy flowers at the Melbourne Flower Show for you, Dan?

A great day in Melbourne--first to the Garden and Flower Show, then to the new Melbourne Museum behind it, then to Prahan Market for foodie stuff.

It was a nice warm day--maybe 25c; we took the train to the flower show, which is a big big major deal. It's $17 to get in, and thousands of people were going. Browsing the retail stands you can certainly tell this is a nominally British country: it's all about daffs and tulips and various bulbs and English cottage garden plants. The Queen would be proud! Does Melbourne have the same climate as, say …

I've finally made web pages for a project on our trip. The idea is to make a visual log of where we've been, so every time the odometer rolls over another 1000km I've taken a picture. Plus it helps me remember all the places we've been.

The log can be seen at http://www.marmot.net/2002au/log/odometer/ Enjoy!

everywhere else, but not

I walked down Chapel Street in Melbourne tonight

A fast internet connection