March 21, 2025

New Caledonia is a French colony and a former penal colony. The island is quite large and we just visited the tip of it. We decided not to book any excursion for the island and just ventured out on our own. We were docked very close to the downtown area so easy to walk around.

Lots of sailboats and protected harbors. This is the view from our balcony.

We wandered around town and while not much to see we were surprised by how many sewing businesses there were. Seems that most of the women make their own dresses which are very colorful.

We were told on board that New Caledonia was very expensive and after walking around and looking at menus we have to agree, A basic sandwich was 25 dollars.

Another item of note is that since we switched to T-Mobil for our cell service we have add unlimited data and texts in every country we have been to including the world cruise last year and visiting Iceland and Greenland last year. This was the first country that we did not have T-Mobil available to us.

New Caledonia takes US dollars but not their favorite. They like there local francs but they also accept Euros, Australian and New Zealand money. Some stores had signs in the windows saying “no US dollars”.

While wandering around I decided I wanted to get a haircut ad we found a place right near the boat to get one. It was not a cheap haircut but still better than the ship. They also had a huge grocery store close to the port which we went into but did not buy much since the prices were high and we know we will be in Auckland next wee.

We made it back to the boat for a late lunch and then spent several hours on our deck in the shade and there was a nice cool breeze so very comfortable.

We now have 2 sea days before getting to our first of 4 days in New Zealand.