New Caledonia is a French colonial possession. The entire country remains under the control of the French. There is a pending election scheduled for 2018 which could result in the independence of the country. The Iles de Pins (French for Isle of Pines) was named by Captain Cook who was impressed by the tall pine trees on this island. Our ship, the m/s Paul Gauguin which operates out of Tahiti is a small cruise ship, 320 passengers plus a crew of about 200. Its small size and shallow draft allows it to get close to smaller islands and into smaller ports than some of the very large ships. At the Isle of Pines we anchored off shore and were transported to the dock by tenders. The island wraps around a large bay and this reduces the surf. There were no problems operating the tenders here.

The island is relatively small and we didn’t schedule a tour here but did spend the day walking the beach and looking for local birds. We saw several interesting birds but having no bird book, we couldn’t put a name on any of them, only make a guess about the genus of the bird. We did note their markings in hopes of learning more about them when we have internet to do a thorough search. All of the trees were interesting but the pines were quite spectacular. Tall and straight, they tower over the rest of the forest. I imagine that they were more abundant when Captain Cook saw them. Today they are widely scattered among the smaller trees.

The beach on this island was made of a very fine sand, almost a powder. It likely wasn’t the usual quartz that makes up most sand but I didn’t have the means to examine it more closely. It was very soft and pleasant to walk on this beach. There were some small pieces of pumice floating in the surf and being lighter than water they accumulated at the top of the beach in a zone of pebbles. The vegetation is very dense with trees forming a solid canopy even over the roads. The Isle of Pines is sometimes described as the island closest to paradise and I would agree with that description. It was the most beautiful island we have seen on this trip. On part of our walk we were on a narrow neck of land which had ocean on both sides. Just a few feet of sea level rise will divide the island into two separate islands. We saw several resorts on our walk. They welcomed us to walk the beach and to visit their restaurants but restricted other facilities to their guests only. Certainly a friendly an attitude as one could expect.

Once again we spent a little time shopping at several stands near the dock. They had a nice selection of clothing and souvenirs. Louise found a nice wrap for informal wear and several small brass geckos. New Caledonia currency is the Pacific French Franc (XPF) which is pegged to the Euro. The exchange rate for us was 86 francs to the US dollar. That makes a franc worth just a little more than a penny. So prices were in the 1500 franc range which sounds like a lot of money but really isn’t. This is the first island we’ve encountered on this cruise where these small tourist shops accept credit cards.