New Caledonia

In 1774, explorer James Cook was the first European to sight and name a large island in the South Pacific which he called New Caledonia because it reminded him of Scotland. Today the country’s three main islands and multiple small ones are a territory of France and all islanders are French citizens.

We visited Maré and Lifou islands in New Caledonia. These unspoilt places have few visitors so there is nothing artificial or touristy about the Kanak people or their islands. 

Eni beach on Maré Island 

We visited the small village of Eni on Maré Island.  The people welcomed us with a traditional greeting song and a feast.

The islanders grow much of their own food and use traditional food preparation techniques including the bougna (pronounced boon-ya).  Fish or meat and yams, sweet potatoes, or plantains are combined with coconut milk and wrapped together in banana leaves. Tied in a bundle with coconut fibres, the packet is then buried under hot stones to cook.  The results are delicious.

Bougna

In addition to tasting bougna we were also served wonderful fresh fruit including passion fruit, watermelon, oranges, and the best pineapple I have ever had.

The Kanak people live in small villages and simple homes.  There are few insects and little need for window glass or doors.

Seen all over the islands, traditional thatched houses are still used, mostly for important people like visiting family or the chief.

 Church is a very important part of islanders’ lives and Sunday services are attended by most everyone.

Eni Village church

The sea around the islands is pristine and the fish and coral are amazing.

Jokin Bay on Lifou Island

The snorkeling at Jinek Bay on Lifou was fantastic.  

Giant clam

Puffer fish

The people of Lifou, the second island we visited, have been cultivating vanilla, which grows wild on the island, since the 1990s.  The dried and aged seedpod of an orchid, vanilla is not a native plant but was introduced by a missionary from South America in 1860.  Cultivating vanilla is laborious and time-consuming and takes more than a year from flowering to the final product.  It does however, bring a good price and is a valuable source of income to the island.

Green vanilla pods

The children of New Caledonia are completely at home in the sea and love to play there.

MS Noordam

When I first learned about the South Pacific as a child, it fascinated me. The islands, beaches, climate, and people seemed so beautiful and exotic, but also impossibly far away. Never did I think I would actually get to visit this fascinating place, so when the opportunity to sail there came along, I was thrilled.  

The next few blogs will give you a small taste of the South Pacific, but first, our transportation – the MS Noordam, a ship of the Holland America Line (HAL). The Noordam was built in 2006 and carries 1900 passengers and 800 crew. Our voyage takes us from Sydney, Australia to Honolulu, Hawaii.

The Noordam at Circular Quay

We departed from Circular Quay just after sunset and the views were magnificent.

This is our tenth cruise on HAL and we like their ships very much.  They’re beautifully decorated and full of marvelous art as well as lovely floral arrangements.  The food and service is topnotch and so is the music and entertainment.  It feels like we're spending 15 days in a five-star hotel complete with live music and Broadway shows.

Central atrium

George Willem Opdenhoff, 1807-1873

Fresh flowers

Athena, Red Marble, Empire Style,1800-1820

There are many fun activities on board such as learning the Hula, trivia and music trivia contests, game shows, wine tastings, special dining experiences, pickleball, educational presentations, and on and on.  People who haven’t been on a cruise often wonder if we get bored but the truth is we are usually very busy and don’t have enough time to take in all the great options on board.

Wine tasting

View of the South Pacific from the main dining room

Our first stop is New Caledonia.  More about these islands in the next blog.

We’ve just spent four days in Sydney and believe it or not, today is our last day in Australia.  It has been an absolutely fabulous trip, full of amazing experiences, wonderful people, and the beauty of this gorgeous country.  

Happily, our adventures are not yet over.  This evening we embark on the MS Noordam for a 15-day cruise from Sydney to Honolulu. On the way we will visit Fiji, American Samoa, and New Caledonia.  I will continue to write about our experiences during the cruise but I am not sure I will be able to post any blogs while on board, due to limited internet service. Once we reach Honolulu new posts will go up.   For now, I leave you with some snapshots of our time here in Sydney.

Historic Vaucluse House built between 1805 - 1827

Native Banksia 

New South Wales Government House, the 

Governor's residence, built between 1837 - 1843

Kangaroo Paw, a native plant

Surfing

Manly Beach

Sydney Harbour Bridge, built between 1923 - 1932 using 

steel manufactured in Newcastle at the BHP Steel Works

The famous Opera House

The Noordam was actually in port at Newcastle a couple of weeks 

ago.  Here she is passing in front of Newcastle Beach at sunset.

The Noordam at Circular Quay, where we will board her later today.

Newcastle, New South Wales

Newcastle might not exist if it wasn’t for two things – escaped convicts and coal.  In 1797, just nine years after the First Fleet’s arrival, Lt. John Shortland was chasing convicts who had stolen a boat and sailed north to escape the penal colony at Sydney.  Though he did not find the convicts, he did discover the Hunter River with its natural harbour and also noticed chunks of coal lying loose on the ground.  Shortly thereafter, Australia’s second city was founded and named after Great Britain’s famous coal city, Newcastle.

The modern Hunter Harbour

Newcastle’s massive coal deposits have been a driving force in the region and along with its other natural resources, like timber and sandstone, helped build not only this city but also much of Sydney.  Coal deposits are everywhere and much of Newcastle and the nearby city of Stockton stand over a Swiss cheese of underground mine shafts.  Even now, all proposed building sites must be carefully reviewed and any underground shafts filled in before development can begin.  Coal is still mined in the region and Newcastle is today the largest exporter of coal in the world.

This is a coal seam on a beach not far from Newcastle Beach.  

It is common to find pieces of coal washed up on the beach.

These early 19th century coal train tracks are still visible 

not far from the coal seam in the photo above

Newy, as the locals call it, has done a fine job preserving its heritage architecture.  Newcastle East where we live, near the mouth of the Hunter River, has a number of beautiful buildings.

Christchurch Cathedral just up the hill from our apartment

Terrace houses in Newcastle East

City Hall was built with local sandstone and steel made at the BHP Steel

 Works on the Hunter River.  They burned coal mined here to make steel.

City Council Chambers.  Note the picture of Queen Elizabeth on the wall to the left.

Back in the early days of the city Customs House oversaw the collection of tax on imported goods entering the harbour.  Due to its close location to the river, the building also had a time ball mounted on its tower.  In the early 19th century, time balls were used in harbours all over the world.  At precisely the same time every day the ball dropped down a pole, signaling to ships to set their chronometers, a crucial navigational tool used to determine longitude.  Though redundant now, the Customs House time ball still drops daily at 1:00 pm, preserving an important piece of local maritime history.

Imported goods were often held in large warehouses, called bond stores, until the bond or customs tax was paid.  The word “store,” in this usage, doesn’t mean a place where things can be purchased but rather a place where goods were stored.  Owners of bond stores typically made a good living in a busy port like Newcastle and often their structures were quite handsome.

Earp Gillam Bond Store

Nobbys Lighthouse, sitting atop Nobbys point, dominates the mouth of the Hunter River.  Once an island, convicts helped build the causeway that now connects Nobbys to the mainland.  Over the years a beautiful beach has built up and the original rock-filled breakwater has disappeared under the sand.  

Nobbys at sunset

The sunsets in Newcastle can be quite stunning.

Newcastle is a truly lovely town and we have come to feel completely at home here.  The people are friendly and kind, the weather is fantastic, there are restaurants and cafes galore, and we have enjoyed so many wonderful adventures both within the city and nearby.  It is the perfect size, in our opinion; big enough to have all the amenities we like but small enough to feel like a real community.  We have loved every minute of our three months in Newcastle.

But today we say a fond and bittersweet farewell to Newy and head south to Sydney, another pretty fantastic but much larger city.  Newcastle has a population of about 550,000 compared to Sydney’s massive number of around 5 million citizens (just slightly less than the entire population of the state of Minnesota).

Hunter Valley

The Hunter Valley is one of the oldest wine-growing regions in Australia, with vines first planted around 1823.  These early growers knew little about making wine and their grapes were intended for the table, not the bottle.  It wasn’t until James Busby, a Scotsman with a passion for viticulture, immigrated to Australia in 1824 that the wine industry in the Hunter Valley began to develop and grow. 

Busby wrote a number of important books about viticulture, the most useful of which was titled, “A Manual of plain directions for planting and cultivating vineyards and for making wine in New South Wales.”  He also collected a wide variety of grape vines from wine-growing regions of Europe, including France and Spain, and planted them at Kirkton, his Hunter Valley property.  Cuttings from these vines were shared with many vineyards in the valley, playing a crucial role in the early development of the wine industry here.  

Since those early days, viticulture has exploded and today the Hunter is one of the premier wine-growing regions in Australia.  Its winding roads, eucalypt woodlands, vast vineyards, and distant mountain ranges are also very pretty.

View across the valley of the Brokenback Mountains 

We are lucky enough to live just one hour from the Hunter Valley and have spent many a lovely day exploring its beautiful byways, restaurants, and vineyards, buying a bit of happiness.  

Australians love a glass of wine with a good meal (they would say “a good feed”) which means that the valley is also full of fantastic restaurants.

The people in the Hunter, like everywhere in Australia, are very friendly and personable.  We have had many interesting conversations with the locals about winemaking while tasting great wine and even meeting a friendly dog or two.

Chardonnay aging in new French oak barrels.  The heat 

helps bring out the buttery flavors from the oak.

Baxter the wine dog