{"id":14785,"date":"2018-12-01T21:13:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-02T02:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14785"},"modified":"2018-12-23T21:15:25","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T02:15:25","slug":"noumea-new-caledonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=14785","title":{"rendered":"Noumea, New Caledonia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday – December 1, 2018<\/p>\n

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We just had two days \u201cAt Sea\u201d cruising the South Pacific Ocean on the Holland America Cruise Ship: M.S. Amsterdam. \u00a0They kept us busy with lectures, activities, and entertainment in the Main Stage Theater. We also had plenty of time to relax and enjoy a pampered lifestyle.<\/p>\n

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Today we arrived in Noumea which is the capital and largest city of the French islands of Nouvelle Caledonie. \u00a0Noumea is situated on a peninsula in the southern part of New Caledonia\u2019s main island, Grande Terre. \u00a0The city lies on a protected deep-water harbor and is one of the most industrialized cities in the South Pacific due to the island\u2019s nickel and gold mines.<\/p>\n

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Although French is the main language on the island, New Caledonia is a unique mix of French and Melanesian cultures. \u00a0During World War II, Noumea served as the headquarters of the U. S. military in the South Pacific. \u00a0We found an active market just off the harbor.<\/p>\n

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Fresh fish and produce were set up in permanent structures. \u00a0Tents were set up in the back for clothes, beach equipment, souvenirs, tee-shirts, etc.<\/p>\n

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Two men played island music behind one of the produce stands:<\/p>\n

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This tropical tree blooms in December all over the South Pacific islands. \u00a0Someone said they call it their Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

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There was a downtown with a quiet main street which led into the center of Noumea.<\/p>\n

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The weather was hot (in the high 80s) and very humid. \u00a0It didn\u2019t feel like Christmas! \u00a0We strolled back to the ship and cooled off in our air conditioned cabin.<\/p>\n

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A cooling breeze blew across the harbor. \u00a0Later, we watched the sun set over the Pacific while the Amsterdam sailed away from Noumea, Nouvelle Caledonie.<\/p>\n

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Saturday – December 1, 2018 We just had two days \u201cAt Sea\u201d cruising the South Pacific Ocean on the Holland America Cruise Ship: M.S. Amsterdam. \u00a0They kept us busy with lectures, activities, and entertainment in the Main Stage Theater. We also had plenty of time to relax and enjoy a pampered lifestyle. Today we arrived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising","category-new-caledonia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14787,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14785\/revisions\/14787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}