Noumea is the capital of New Caledonia. It is the largest city in these islands and has many multi story buildings in the business district and also condominiums and apartments in buildings up to ten stories high. Located on the island of New Caledonia is a large port with shipping facilities as well as docks for cruise ships. We were within walking distance of the city center. Within sight of our ship was the major portion of population and in the opposite direction a large nickel smelting operation. Nickel mining is the heart of the economy of New Caledonia.

We had two days in port in Noumea. During our stay we took two guided tours on the island. The first was a tour of the botanical garden and bird sanctuary. We were driven by bus to the garden and then toured on foot with a guide. French is the first language of the people here but many including our guide also speak English. We were introduced to a number of trees common on the islands and also saw many of the birds which are common here as well. Other than the waterfowl, the birds were all caged. Louise and I took our binoculars which we found to be very helpful in observing the birds, even those in the cages. Tropical birds have such wonderful colors we enjoyed being able to see them as best we could. The binoculars help by gathering more light which makes the colors more vivid. Even birds in the shadows show nice color in the binoculars. Of course they also help us see more detail that would be missed without magnification.

The first evening in port in Noumea we were entertained by a local group performing native songs and dances in the theater on board the ship. A troupe of five women and four men entertained us for about 40 minutes. They had two guitars and three ukuleles, all other instruments were made of materials used by the indigenous people. It was a high energy performance with men dancing for one number and then women dancing for the next.

Our second tour was the following morning. We were taken by bus to a park on the Dumbea River just a few miles outside Noumea. There we were given instruction on kayaking before launching our kayaks for a trip upstream. With about 10 kayaks in the group, we were a small enough group to see and hear our guide throughout the trip. The Dumbea River is a source of drinking water for the city of Noumea and is known for its wildlife. At our put in point, the river is near enough to sea level to be partly salt water but as we move upstream it is all freshwater. After about an hour working our way upstream, we stopped. Those who wanted could swim, we and another couple chose to continue kayaking on upstream for a short distance. This allowed us to get away from the large group and move more quietly. We saw several flocks of birds and some ducks on this part of the trip. We were back at the ship by lunchtime. Having developed a good apatite during the morning, food was welcome. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the ship. At 6:00 p.m. we left port sailing for our next stop in the Fiji Islands.