The Ile des Pins, Nourea, is rightly famous for its spectacular bays, reefs and beaches and to access two of the best of these, Kuto Beach and Kanumera Bay, the visitor arriving by ferry from Noumea or on a cruise ship, as I did, need do no more than walk a few hundred metres either side of where you come ashore.
Many visitors to the Island do not venture beyond these beaches. That is fine but for anyone wanting to further explore the island, and especially those with an interest in the island’s history, I highly recommend taking an island tour. This is exactly what I did.
Our cruise ship, the Carnival Spirit, offered two island tours (in addition to a few other, mainly water based, options). Basically the island tours were the same except that one was guided (English/French speaking guide) and the other was not. Each lasted a couple of hours (the guided one slightly longer) and was via bus. Some of the buses were air-conditioned and some not – we were lucky and got an air-conditioned one.
In terms of cost, there was a significant premium for the guided tour which cost (2016) A$65 while the unguided tour was A$40.
Given that our bus held in excess of 40 passengers the price difference was excessive, especially as the guide would have been lucky to get A$50 for his efforts (probably less). See below re local tours.
Notwithstanding the excessive price difference between the two tours we took the guided tour as we wanted to understand and better appreciate what we were seeing. The guide was excellent, both informative and amusing, and I am glad we paid the extra.
In addition to letting us see the interior of the island, part of which has just recently suffered significant bush fire damage, and many of the lovely bays along the coast we stopped at (further details in separate reviews):
*St Maurice Bay – with its stunning statue of Christ commemorating the first Catholic mass on the island, back in 1848. This statue was a trip highlight for me.
*Vao village where we were able to see the convict built Notre-Dame de l’Assomption Church, a WWI/ WWII Memorial and St Joseph’s College which sported some interesting art work and a commemorative monument recognising 116 years of Marist Brothers’ service to education on the Ile des Pins.
*St Joseph’s Bay where we were able to admire the bay and some locally built pirogues (outrigger sailing canoes) while indulging in some locally made pancakes and honey.
*Queen Hortense’s Cave – where the then princess hid for a year while a bitter feud raged across the island over who would be King or Queen on her father’s death. Hortense won! In itself, the short walk to the cave is worthy special mention.
In passing we also were also able to see the historically significant remains (ruins) of the island’s former penal colony prison.
At the beginning of this review I commented on the excessive cost of our guided tour. I should point out that significantly cheaper tours, covering roughly the same ground, can be arranged directly with local operators, after you disembark your cruise ship. There are two issues with these (i) you have the hassle of organising it when you disembark and you could have to hang around for some time before you depart and (2) those on ship organised tours get priority in disembarking so you loose time on the island. Some members of our group who just wanted to enjoy the beaches in the vicinity of the landing point had to wait up to two hours to disembark and indicated that if visiting here again they would probably sign up for the cheapest tour option just to get of the boat earlier. You choose.
Be aware that there is no public transport, apart from a handful of taxis, on the Ile des Pins. I imagine a local tour option would be available for visitors arriving by the ferry from Noumea though don’t have any details on this.
This blog entry is one of a group (loop) of entries based on my trip to Ile des Pins, New Caledonia. I suggest you continue with my next entry – Christianity Combines With Tribal Traditions – or to start the loop at the beginning go to my introductory entry – No Hurries, No Worries.
The Rambling Wombat 