Bonjour Bob!

Lifou, New Caledonia

When deciding to travel somewhere, we should always ask ourselves 4 questions:

1.  Why do we want to go there?

2.  What do we want to see/ learn?

3.  Where do we want to go within our destination?

4.  Who do we want to meet?

Sun, surf, sand...... bliss!

Stunning reflection of the boat on the water is clearer than the actual boat above!

I realise the answers will be quite, quite different, when asked before travel, and then if we ask ourselves the same question, when we return from travel.

Before heading off to New Caledonia,  we decided to prepare ourselves for the task ahead: Learn French!  So when we received a Helpx request from a French-speaking fella, we put the book away and we jumped on the chance to learn basic French from a real teacher. Thibaut arrived, prepared for a lesser challenge than we presented: for starters, we took several attempts just to pronounce his name correctly!!

The beauty is overwhelming!

It was downhill from there....... the basics took forever, simply because the English tongue is not used to all the softly rolled r's and petulant mouth shapes required to emit some of the romantic-sounds of le petite Francais.  However, after a week of daunting challenge,  belly-felt laughs and endless repetition, Thibaut left and we felt smugly in control of the basics.  We could say hello (bonjour), good bye (au revoir), baguette (bread) and fromage (cheese).  Mike also had a phrase which indicated we could not eat egg, due to his egg allergy.  Right!  We were ready to conquer Napolean Bonaparte, with our command of basic French!

The sand at Chateaubriand Bay is the finest, softest ground up coral sand.  Superb!  And it holds it's shape!  Wish every sandpit had this kind of sand for children to experience.

We were wholly and woefully unprepared for landing in a geographical area fiercely, patriotically, well.... FRENCH!  What were we thinking??? We had booked a car for the 4 days we were due to stay in a little AirBnB in Noumea but imagine our horror when we realised that the car's steering wheel was on the left side of the car!  And that we were to drive on the right!  It was truly crazy, the brain defaults always to it's patterns of old, ingrained, over 40-odd years of driving on the left, so it only took 5 minutes till we turned into the wrong lane, headed straight into oncoming traffic!!!  This happened several times over the first four days.  Scary!

These gorgeous little French vehicles, a cross between a shopping trolley and a golf cart.  Fiat.  It has just the two front seats and a luggage boot.  Must be super-economical to drive!!

Driving was hair-raising, spine-chilling and downright terrifying, kinda like being in a roller-coaster ride, with no seat-belt!  My butt was constantly clenched tightly in fear, it felt firmer than doing rigorous aerobic workout classes!  Anyway, we eventually arrived at our destination, sans GPS, only with a map, and a compass.  A what?? Yes, you heard right!  A compass!! My beloved decided to leave his iPhone behind, and take a compass instead, so we could know where we were headed!  Only, neither him nor I know how to actually use a compass accurately!!  But miraculously, after stopping to ask a couple of people along the way (both times, neither could speak English but pointed us in the right direction), we got to our first destination.  We also never knew how big the mainland was!

Shutters, shutters everywhere!

Every window is shuttered or has rolling garage doors over to protect the homes interior from the heat!

Windows are smaller than what we are used to in New Zealand.

Decorative detail on these shutters show the beautiful symbol of peace and tranquility.

Creating cool interiors.  Shutting out the sun.

We stayed in a delightful AirBnB for 4 nights, in a wooden Balinese fare in Evelyne's garden in Mont Dore, Noumea.  There were 3 very friendly cats, Bob, Titi and Zhuzhu.  We couldn't make out which was which, so we just called them all Bob.  Bonjour Bob!  

We had the pool to ourselves and explored the local area at leisure, especially the Boulangerie (bakery) 3 minutes walk away.  French breads and pastries - wow!!  One day we set off to explore the north to La Foa.  The area is dry, scrubby and Cowboy Country.  Yep, there are real French cowboys, with Stetsons, boots and cattle.  And horses.  Big dry horse Ranches.  Very interesting.  It was so hot that we didn't dare venture further than La Foa, and no-one could speak much, if any English, on any of our stops.  It felt like we were Earthlings landed on Mars, where all the road-signs, shops signs and language was Martian, and we were the only ones not speaking it!!  Now I know what it must feel like for other travelers who have limited English, and arrive in English-speaking countries!!  Even in places like India and Thailand, I never felt quite so out of my depth!  

This is a Lifou island cat.  But we also called him Bob.  Bonjour Bob!

Anyone for a game of ball?  Island style!  Coconut-ball!

We then flew to Lifou Island, cause that's what Henri highly recommended, having lived there with his wife for some time (in Katikati, people call him French Henry!).  Henri makes our pizza and pain au chocolat every Friday, at our local market.  We stayed in a chalet RIGHT on the beach at Baie des Chateaubriand.  STUNNING, if you can look beyond the litter (plastic, plastic everywhere, it makes me truly despair!).  Washed up on the beaches, from all over the world!

Trees are tagged by young island boys,while the colours of the water take your breath away!

Then we flew back to Noumea, to stay another 4 days at Baie des Citron in a hotel right across the road from the beach (the hotel which incidentally, was totally kitted out with plastic!!  I kid you not, from the wash basin and shower tray, to the chair, fittings, fabric coverings, doors, windows, decor - all some form of plastic!!!!)  But herein lies the jewel in the crown; in our first four days in Noumea, we had (of course) gotten horribly lost trying to find the local fresh produce market, so in sheer desperation, Mike has stopped the car, gotten out and rushed over to a group of people gathered outside a supermarket.  Apparently he'd blurted out (forget our hard-learned French), "I'm a New Zealand tourist!  We're Lost!"  We later learned that the two women were just about to meet each other for the first time, and before they could introduce themselves, this harassed tourist had burst in on their group, and they both, having been to New Zealand, had come to the rescue to explain (in English) how to get back onto the highway.  Seeing Mike was not keeping up with directions, one of the women had gallantly offered to drive there ahead of us, so we could follow her.  Once there, she gave us her email and phone number in case we became lost again.

View from within a church on Lifou

The red moon rising

The sun rising (I never did figure out how they both rose in the same spot??)

The rest of the story is the History of Newness.  New Zealand.  New Caledonia.  New Friends.  The second time we returned to Noumea after time on Lifou Island, we arranged to meet up, and both women who Mike pleaded with for directions, and their husbands drove to meet with us.  We struck up one of those precious friendships where lack of time forces the constraints of propriety apart, and allows for a kind of thrilling speed-dating-type-relationship to unfold at blinding speed!

Bays and water everywhere up North

Beautiful colours

Palm trees and Blue skies

Churches, churches to be found all over.

We spent the rest of our 4 days in the company of our new friends, as they enfolded us in their arms and transported us safely through a foreign world, making sense of everything unfamiliar for us.  Offering such generosity that we were totally blown away.  We ate lovingly prepared vegetarian meals (with no aloef - egg, in French), drank teas and coffees, chatted, shared ideas and were chauffeur-driven everywhere our hearts desired and more!  

Baguette, the French bread which inspired the chain of Subway!!

The Sunken forest.  Grand Terre Sud.

Shady picnic spot.

We were taken to the highest vantage points in the city, shown the immense nickel factories, the crazy lunar-like landscape of the South, a penal settlement from the 1800's, picnicked in a shady glade beside a waterfall = all things that we would never, ever have experienced or discovered on our own!  So when answering the original four questions of what, why, who and where, indeed the answers are very different, having returned home;  we saw so much much more than we could have dreamed of, met people we resonated with and felt drawn into an instant family connection, a powerful and lasting memory of our time in New Caledonia.  We were honoured and blessed to have experienced Nouvelle Caledonie from a French perspective, while speaking English!!  And if my Google translator is any good, below is written what I would love to be able to say:  

Nous avons laissé nos coeurs en Nouvelle-Calédonie .

(We left our hearts in New Caledonia!)

Travel Packing Guide

Blue skies, swaying palms, golden sands, warm sunshine...

We like to travel.  Particularly to tropical destinations.  We love Vitamin D - how it feels on the skin as we soak it up, lying on vanilla sands as we gaze across azure waters.  Our next destination: New Caledonia.  A little French-speaking island in the South Pacific.  Never been there before but if the pictures are anything to be believed, a veritable Robinson Crusoe destination.  Multi-coloured blue oceans and lagoons, coconut palm-fringed beaches, mellow yellow sandy coves and desert-like landscapes in the hinterland.  Can't wait to explore!  We are headed to Noumea, to a self-contained BnB for 4 nights in Mont Dore, then 5 nights on the island of Lifou (highly recommended by an Algerian-born Frenchman who makes pizzas in Katikati), and the last 3 nights back in Noumea at a beach-side hotel.   

Fiji time.

 A few tropical holidays over the past few years and we now have packing down to a T!  We used to start 3 weeks ahead of time, but now it begins a week in advance, using our trusty holiday packing list.  This way, we can print a new copy off each time, cross off what we are unlikely to need for that particular trip, add anything new and start to tick off what goes into our suitcase.

 The suitcase is a whole new adventure in itself, we bought a second hand, hard body Zootcase on wheels, from the Bowling Club garage sale across the road from us a couple of weeks ago, for a princely sum of $10.  Anyone out there who has had to purchase a new suitcase will know that these cost anything up to $180 for a new version, so I am feeling particularly chuffed with this.  It has a small ding on the outside (probably why someone gave it up but I have reinforced the inside with duct tape) but inside is like brand new!  It's all zips, secret compartments and pockets!  The inbuilt combination lock is sans-combination, but that's okay, I have a little combination lock which can be used to lock the zips together.  Mike has one side (all fully zip-locked close when done, to separate his from hers).  I'm in love!

I will share our list, simply because it makes travelling so much easier - adapt it as you will, for the occasion.  Note; this is a travel list for tropical destinations!

Travel List

Clothes/ Extra:	Cosmetics/other:	Food/other:
Dress/skirts	Nail brush	Stock cubes
Drink bottles	Face-cream	Coffee
Books	Insect repellent	Plunger
Camera/batteries	soap	Tea bags
Hats	sunscreen	rice
slops	Shampoo	Pasta
Walking shoes	Conditioner	Cereal
T-shirts	Massage oil	Lollies
Undies	Dental floss	Travel snacks
Towels	Foot scraper	Salt
Shorts	Nail clippers	Skim milk
Socks	Tooth brush/paste	Sugar
Swim togs	Plasters	Empty H2O bottle
Walking shoes	Healing Cream	Coconut oil
Light jersey	Koromiko (remedy)
Rain jacket	Tissues	Kitchen Sponge
Reef shoes	Waist pouch	Sunlight soap
Sunnies	Mobile phone	Washline
Goggles/snorkel	Credit cards	Pegs
Mossie Coils/mats	Money	Ziploc bags
Diary and pens	Computer/iPad	Travel adaptor
Daypack	Shaver	Mending kit
Incense	Shopping Bag	Swiss army knife
Travel material	Battery Charger	Solar torch

A footnote on some of the above items:  

Koromiko is a homeopathic remedy for traveller's diarrhoea.  I have had to use it once in Bali, and it was a lifesaver.  The shopping bag is a little fold-up bag which takes very little space, and can be used when shopping in markets or shops instead of using that unsustainable option - the use-once plastic bag!  Ziploc bags are the new airport must-have, to parcel up any cosmetics, personal care items or lotions.  Keeps them from spilling into your luggage, as well as handy for showing or declaring to customs.  Incense is a must-have for me, I like to mask smells in hotel rooms, or accommodation where there is a strong odour of cleaners or mustiness.  And it makes me feel instantly at home!  I like to keep an old fashioned diary of our travels - I use this to log any ideas, thoughts and experiences.  Long after the memories have faded, reading the travel diary evokes strong visual memories and feelings.  We don't always take all the food options, depending on where we are staying and what we will doing - for example, I like to self-cater, so stock cubes can turn any bland meal into something quite delicious and palatable.  Tea, coffee, milk powder and sugar is an essential, along with a small stainless steel (indestructible) plunger.  I have crafted a bungey-cord washing line which can be strung over the bath, and we usually hand wash our day's clothes every evening so that we do not have to take huge amounts of clothing. A bar of pure sunlight soap works wonders, I use it for dish-washing as well as laundry soap.  One item, many uses.  

Fruit blended smoothies, a great tropical location meal.

We have started to take our Nutri Ninja, so we can blend up fruit smoothies even in a hotel.  My Swiss army knife prepares many a meal, I just make sure it goes in the luggage hold or else it'll be confiscated!!  (Been there, done that before!)  I take coconut oil in a small jar, good for skin, lips, hair - all. Sunscreen - well, I make that.

Ingredients to make natural sunscreen.

Melting the wax to make holiday sunscreen fills the kitchen with the smell of honey!

Melted beeswax, olive oil, essential oils and zinc oxide powder whisked together.

Sunscreen on right, in screw-tight, wide-mouthed plastic jar.  For recipe, click here.

Tetrapak (recycled) Travel Sewing Kit

 We will only be taking the one suitcase (23kg) and 2 small day packs (cabin luggage), so every item is scrutinised for necessity.

His and Hers compartments.  Our Pre-Loved New suitcase - perfect for the job!

New Caledonia, here we come!  One week to go........

Attracting Birds

We don't have any crows to scare.  In fact, I want to attract birds, not frighten them away!  Birds scratch up the ground (tilling) in search of worms and bugs and eat a lot of pesky insects (pest control).  I recently made a Garden Sprite (note, not scarecrow), to be company for our faithful Josephine (another Garden Sprite).  The newcomer's name is Aurora.  She was constructed in the garden shed, one cold end-of-Winter's day, from off-cut scraps of Cedar shutters.  I simply used the pieces in the lengths they were found, so she has a child-like appearance.

Aurora, the Garden Sprite

Aurora's eyes are 2 old wooden door knobs, the nose; a circular cut-out I drilled to make a hole in a bird nesting box, and the mouth a strip of old plaited leather belt (whose buckle broke).  I have had a small piece of mirror lying around the shed for ages, so it was a good project to use it on - it gives the appearance of a hole in the center of her stomach!  My mother's old broken jandal soles have become her feet.  (Sadly, yes, I do horde lots of things for that one day, when I might use it!!)

Coming back to attracting birds to the garden, they need food, water and shelter and here are some ways to achieve that:

• Improve the backyard habitat and create a safe oasis for birds to visit and live.
• As Spring is on our doorstep, add a few nesting boxes around the garden, on a fence or tree, where cats cannot get to them.  Ones that open can be cleaned out before Spring, each year, to make way for a new family.
• A Bird Supermarket is simply a collection of nesting materials provided for them to forage and use in the building of nests - human hair, straw, string, wool, strips of fabric etc.

3 different nesting boxes and a Bird Supermarket on the right.

The Bird Supermarket need not be so specific, just a collection of natural nesting materials for easy bird access.  This one is made from bits of wood, old perspex pieces and "landing" perches.

• Birds need access to water.  Have several drinking sources around the garden for them on a hot day.  If the container is flat, it offers a wonderful opportunity for them to have a quick bath on a hot day.  Water needs to be changed regularly, to ensure it is clean and safe.
• Shrubs and trees - birds need places to hide, to nest and to forage in - we planted kowhai trees specifically to attract the mighty-beautiful tui.  If you grow fruit, then you may need to bag your growing fruit (I have sewn individual little bags which I peg around near-ripening fruit) or else you will be growing fruit only for the birds and none for yourself.  I leave the fruit at the top which I cannot reach, for the hungry little birds to eat.  Fair share for us and for them.

This water source is good for a drink, not a bath.

• Birds need not be fed over the summer months as there is plenty to scavenge in the garden, however, in the colder months, I like to feed them.  Scraps of bread or rice get thrown out on the grass and soon attract hordes of wax-eyes and sparrows.  I have been making Seed Cups lately (melt coconut oil and mix in wild bird seed, pour into a cup and hang in the tree) and enjoying the Feeding Frenzy that results.

Seed Cups

My seed cups last about a week as the birds get to know about them!

• Birds need a cat-free garden, or like ours, a Super Lazy Cat, who allows them to creep right up on her while she sleeps, and sneak her remaining food right out of her bowl!  From a kitten, we have discouraged her from catching birds (yes, it can be done!).

Our old birdbath (needing a good scrub and filling up with fresh water).

Buddha Head Bath is always a good drinking hole for birds as well as the cat!!  

I sometimes used to curse the birds in our garden, as I would find them scratching up new seedlings, or pecking every ripening fruit or messing up my newly laid out pathways, but I have learned to live alongside them.  I have a few little blackbirds that forage for worms within my grasp, while weeding.  They have come to know and trust us.  A few thrushes living in our garden are wonderful garden helpers - we hear them pounding the snails they find, on our stepping stones and it makes us smile, they are working hard at saving our crops from snails!  When I plant new seedlings, I have to put collars around them (plastic bottles or cans) to stop hungry little birdies from scratching at their roots - but these extra measures just ensure that we all stay happy, and in harmony with one another!  The joy of seeing them in the garden, and the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.