North New Caledonia - La Foa, Bourail, Poindimie, Heinghene, and Kone - Part 1

After our first few days, we went up north for a 4-day camping trip. Yes, I said camping. The wonderful thing about this country is that everyone leaves their homes on the weekends and goes camping somewhere, so everyone owns a tent and sleeping bags.

Our hosts (other than Justine and her partner, there are 3 other roommates), lent us their equipment, and off we went. Before we continue, I need to make a small point. The cars here are manual. Rony had always driven a stick shift, that is until we started dating (my car is an automatic), so after an hour or so he was driving like a pro. I, on the other hand, have never driven a stick shift.

Me: I can't drive a stick shift
Rony: I will teach you
Me: Pshaaaa.

(The preceding conversation is, in fact, verbatim).

Before we left, Justine and Rony sat down and planned our itinerary, though to be fair, Justine basically planned it for us before we arrived. In our effort to be nice guests, we washed the dishes before we left. Unfortunately, a glass cup broke in my hand while I washing it and I got a huge cut on my pinky, with blood flowing everywhere.

Normal person's reaction: Ahh!! Ahh!! OWW!! Ouch!!! Blood! Eww!! Ouch!!!!!!!
Talia's reaction: See? I told you I was allergic to cleaning!

Anyway, we bought some food for those few days and off we went. Our first stop was La Foa, a town that, as it turned out, had a lot to offer. After a stop at the local tourist information office, we promptly went to visit the local (not in use) prison.

A bit of background about New Caledonia: It was actually an island where convicted French felons were shipped off to serve their sentence. While they were there, they actually built the prisons and towns themselves.

The view from the tower at the prison

The prison has a beautiful view, like the rest of the country, and it has been almost completely restored. The old prison cells now hold life-like statues of "prisoners" showing visitors what it used to be like. The following is an exchange between Rony and me when I first spotted the "prisoners:"

Me: Ahhh!!!!!!
Rony: Hahahahaha!!!!

Yes, Rony found immense pleasure in my sudden discovery and subsequent squeals of fright, but that's OK. :-) Anyway, the prison was pretty cool, especially the tower where we could see the scenery all around us, with the bay and old bakery.

One of the first "prisoners" who scared the living daylights out of me

We then started our drive up north towards Poindemie, which is where we spent the night in local tribe accommodations. The place itself was really nice and in the mountains, and the people hosting us were really nice, even though it scared me a bit at times and felt a bit Criminal Minds-ish :-)

One of things that we found very impressive and cool about the country is that people have stands in front of their homes and essentially have a trust-based "shop" where they were selling fruits and other goods. They would lay out whatever they're selling (bananas, pineapples, flowers, etc.) and have prices on them and a small box for people to pay for whatever they take - and we saw people taking and paying!

One of the "trust shops" along the way

Even more impressive, one of the places we visited, that had a small minimal entrance fee, didn't have anyone selling the tickets. Instead, they had a note that asked that people leave the money in a box - and they did! I'm not sure what's more impressive: People actually paying when they could get away with not paying, or seeing a box full of money and not taking the money. Either way, we found this very cool.

We'll post part 2 of northern New Caledonia soon, but for now we're going to bed and get some sleep :-)

Pics from all of north New Caledonia (not just this blog post):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=576716&id=906005363&l=70fc839448