Phare Amedee

Well, we had another stunner today! We were picked up by bus at 8am from the school in brilliant sunshine. The harbour looked pristine and glorious as we slowly pulled out - the only blot on the beautiful landscape being the nickel processing plant in the background belching it's acrid pollution into the air! It is so incredible that they allow this to happen!

Phare Amedee is an island 45 minutes offshore and the lighthouse on it was built in France in the 1800s but it was broken down and shipped over here to be rebuilt and positioned on the Island. Our first activity there was going out on the glass-bottomed boat. This was great as we saw quite a few green turtles swimming around the small reef close to the island. Half an hour later after our return to land, we were off again to the large reef surrounding New Caledonia. It encloses the largest lagoon in the world and a few years ago was made a world heritage site. We saw more turtles and large fish, but by then, the kids were champing at the bit to get into the water themselves!

We had a huge tropical smorgasbord feast first, followed by a cultural concert - more Tahitian than anything else. Some of the kids were called up to learn traditional dance moves and we had some serious hip-swaying going on from our girls!  Paul was called onstage also and held his own with a rendition of some traditional male dance!

The kids love the snorkelling as they saw more turtles and some were swimming alongside them. The snakes were a novelty of course, but by the end of the day, they were more used to them and not shrieking whenever they saw one.

 

 

It has teemed tonight, so once again have fingers and toes crossed for a good day tomorrow.
Au Revoir!