The Isle of Pines [Île des Pins], New Caledonia (1)

The Isle of Pines [French: Île des Pins] is a municipality [commune] of New Caledonia. [French: New Caledonie].

The Isle of Pines [Île des Pins] is called 
"The closest island to Paradise [French: l'île la plus proche du paradis] ".

We could go to the Isle of Pines [Île des Pins] 

by ferry from Nouméa. 

( Nouméa is the biggest city in New Caledonia.)

When the ferry approached the isle of Pines, 

we could find several Melanesian isles.

 

 

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Arrived on the Isle of Pines.

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The guide picked us up.
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Drove to the sightseeing spots.

 

 

"Eglise Notre-Dame de L'Assomption" 

or "église de vao".
We saw it from the car window on the way to the Cave of Queen Hortense.

We passed through the forest to the cave of Queen Hortense.

It was like a jungle.

the Cave of Queen Hortense 

[French: Grotte de la reine Hortense].
It is also called "Oumagne Grotto".

the entrance of the Cave of Queen Hortense

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next place

We could eat Melanesian traditional meal here.

We could also change the clothes to the swimming suits.

We could go to the beach "Piscine naturelle" from here.

To be continued... The Isle of Pines [Île des Pins] (2)

Episode of the Isle of Pines [Île des Pins] 

Tomo&Chouchou went to the Isle of Pines [Île des Pins] by ferry from Nouméa in New Caledonia. The ferry sometimes rolled. But we didn't feel seasick while we were on the deck. Thanks to the nice wind and the view, we could forget about the shake of the ferry. 

While approaching the island by ferry boat, we could see several islands with many trees which look like thorns. It was very tropical scenery.

When we arrived at the port, there were many people with cars or trucks. They came to the port to pick up somebody, or to take foods and things that they bought or received from Noumea. It was busy for a while.
We requested to have a local guide to the travel agency from Japan, so we looked for our guide. Then a woman with her child came to pick us up. She said, "Your guide cannot come so I came instead of him.". She couldn't speak English. She spoke French a little bit. That made us feel anxious. Anyway, she drove us to the first sightseeing place "the Cave of Queen Hortense [Grotte de la reine Hortense]". The woman said "See you one hour later at the entrance.", then she quickly left the cave by car. So we had to visit the cave by ourselves.

When we entered, we could see a forest which is like a jungle. We had to walk through the jungle to reach the cave. We succedded to find the cave. It was dark in the cave. It was the mood which bats lived there. The rocks like icicles were hanging. We finished visiting the Cave of Queen Hortense, so we waited for our guide to pick us up. But she didn't show up at the meeting time. We waited 30 minutes more. Even though, she didn't come.... We started to feel worried...
We didn't know the contact of our replaced guide. We also couldn't use the cellphone abroad at that time. So we couldn't contact our replaced guide.
We didn't know where we were really located in the Isle of Pines. We were wondering what to do.... then a family who came to visit the cave asked us, "What happened?". So we explained that our guide didn't come to pick us up. Then they nicely called our travel agency for us. After waiting for thirty minutes or one hour more, the replaced tour guide finally came back by car. She was so late to pick us up but she didn't aplogize at all. We felt bad about her attitude.
Anyway, she brought us to the next place where we could eat Melanesian traditional meal and where we can enjoy Natural pool [Piscine naturelle].
Our tour guide said again that she would leave us here and she would come back to pick us up. We strongly asked her to pick us up on time next time. We were anxious if she would come on time... but anyway, we decided to enjoy until meeting time.
When we arrived there, Polynesian woman was preparing to cook traditional meals.
We decided to enjoy Natural pool [piscine naturelle] first until the meals would be ready. We hurried to wear swimming suits in the main place of the resort and we left for Natural pool [Piscine naturelle]. To be continuted...

Tomo Chouchou's advices for the Ile des Pins

1) We were supposed to have a French guide who speak English. But he didn't come. Instead of him, someone who couldn't speak English came. You had better find a trustful guide from your country. 

2) Local people live in their time. It means Island Time. For them, time goes very slowly and they don't care the time. You need to watch the time by yourself in case you catch a ferry to return. In our case, we walked by ourselves to catch a ferry. We could walk somehow. You just need to walk along the beach.

Relating article

- Nouméa