Our Family Travel Logs: February 2019

Sunday, February 10, 2019

Port Douglas QLD Jan 2019

We had an Aussie adventure on the way home from New Caledonia to compare the snorkelling and ended up having a great little holiday in Port Douglas. Stayed in a resort that was nice and enjoyed exploring the cosmopolitan town full of trendy restaurants and shops. From here we did a trip out to the Agincourt Reef on the Quicksilver boat to its well appointed platoon near the drop off of the continental shelf - they had semi submersible rides, helmet dives, great snorkelling and lunch. The ride out was long and nauseating but once you're in the water that eases. Because of the stinger season lycra suites had to be worn to protect you from the deadly stings of the irukandji jelly fish. The helmet dive wasn't as easy as thought - the process of being weighted down and not having control over your experience was daunting, we all had false starts with Oren and Alex staying down the longest, Hollander ended up with a sore ear unable to equalise. But we had to try it! The Quicksilver have a marine biologist talk explaining the corals and fish life of the Great Barrier reef. I learnt about the corals being like a jelly fish with an external solid skeleton which is the coral - forming many shapes like the brain, plates, staghorn's. The animals skin is home to microscopic plants that create the colour and provide 90% of the corals food. Global warming is killing the plants and bleaching the corals which then die off as they loose their food source. Even though this is happening the Quicksilver site surprisingly has alot of colourful coral and large fish and clams. This was slightly different from our experience in New Caledonia as we were swimming off shore and every thing was smaller.

All the tourist attractions in Northern QLD were really well set up for the tourist, we visited Hartley's Crocodile Park and enjoyed the boat ride, holding koala's and a croc, then eating crocodile for lunch! We went to the Mossman Gorge and did a Kuku Yalanji cultural walk and Dreamtime talk. Then went to the Nightfire by Tjapukai Cultural Centre for a fire ceremony, dancing, chanting and a wonderful dinner all run by the local Aboriginal community in Cairns a fantastic representation of Australian Aboriginal culture for the tourist.

Pullman Port Douglas Sea Temple Resort - with swim up rooms.

Our pool entry from room

Port Douglas market day

Courthouse Hotel Port Douglas 1878

St Mary's by the Sea Port Douglas - Hollander's School and Gerringong's Catholic Church name sake.

Mossman River Gorge

Dreamtime Gorge Walk smoking ceremony

Ochre and soap making demonstrations

Kuku Yalanji peoples land

Hartley's Crocodile Park

Cassowary feeding experience.

The beaches are not swimmable in summer due to the irukandji jelly fish.

On the Quicksilver trip to the outer barrier reef - lycra suits.

The scary helmet dive

At the Tjapukai Cultural Center Cairns.

Oren volunteered for the fire making ceremony

New Caledonia Jan 2019

After a 3.5 hour flight from Sydney we landed in the French foreign territory of New Caledonia founded in 1853. The place feels immediately different - for one its French speaking with alot of French tourists, and its incredibly expensive as most items are imported so the Australian Dollar to French Pacific Franc is not great, eating out cost 2 to 3 times more.

We went about learning about the history of NC a Melanesian Island originally home to the Kanak people, a penal colony for the French, known for its sandalwood and nickel, an awful history of 'blackbirding' - slave trade to tend the sugar cane fields of QLD and Fiji, conflict in the Kanak Independence movement of the 1970/80's, and currently in 2018 the rejection vote for Independence from France.

Noumea the Capital is a port town on the main island, frequented by cruise ships and not that attractive. We stayed at the Chateau Royal on the main beach of Anse Vata Bay, the on shore winds are strong so a popular spot for wind surfers. The town has a number of restaurants we tried out a recommended French restaurant on the harbour which was nice and had a large cellar on display of wines but the delight was an ice cream store called Amorino where the cones are filled with ice-cream made into flowers for you. We visited the Tjibaou Cultural Center designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano to replicate the Kanak huts and to honour the Kanak Independence leader Jean Marie Tjibaou assassinated in 1989. The highlight of our stay in Noumea was getting a water taxi to Ile aux Canards (Duck Island) visible from the mainland. There is a coral snorkelling route with an amazing array of fish, we saw a reef shark and swam with a turtle that was really relaxed about us all excitedly swimming beside it.

The next stop was a 30mins flight to Ile des Pins over azure blue coral reefs. The island that we saw was still very untouched, lots of jungle and rural land tended by locals. We stayed at the gorgeous Le Meridien and loved every moment of it, situated on the Bai d' Oro and walking distance through the jungle to the Piscine Naturelle - the renowned natural aquarium a beautiful pool which contains coral and tropical fish (we also saw a poisonous water snake a black/white krait). The local people also take tourists on outrigger canoe rides across Baie d' Upi and then drop you on the muddy beach entry to the jungle trek back home to the resort. This triggered the kids to watch Moana again and start singing the theme song. The island is renowned for its pencil pines but also the unusual eroded rocky formations that prop out of the water which were evident on the sail up the bay. Le Meridien was so relaxing, read a book, had fun using the SUP's and canoes and laid about in the beach huts and hammocks. We discovered a beach side cafe selling fresh lobster which was amazing, the setting idillic and the local cash handler/waiter a very blinged up rastafarian. Ile des Pins is known for its escargot snails - we couldn't face eating them, but the shells are used as decorations around the place.