Ile des Pins
Paradise found
In the morning we left Sydney and that evening we were sipping wine watching the sunset over Kanumera Bay at Oure Tere resort on the Ile Des Pins.
The flight from Sydney to New Caledonia took a little under three hours and as we were connecting from Noumea's International airport to catch a domestic flight on Air Caledonie we needed to transfer from Tontouta to Magenta airport which we did on a pre-booked shuttle service by Smiths Voyages.
Our thirty minute flight gave us a birds eye view of what to expect from our destination.
Turquoise seas, reefs and white beaches and sandbars. Our transfer to the resort of Oure Tere (Pure Earth) gave us an insight into the unspoilt beauty of the island and on arrival we were warmly greeted with a fruit cocktail and efficiently escorted to our beach front bungalow only steps away from the gentle waves rolling onto shore.
The bungalows are sympathetically placed in amongst the tropical gardens and soaring palms giving occupants privacy and affording the best opportunity to immerse one self into the gentle embrace of this piece of paradise.
The resort is efficiently managed by warm and friendly staff who attend to all our needs effortlessly. The al fresco dining area and open bar lounge overlook the beach and the dining menu offers a good variety of dishes some prepared in the traditional Kanak way like Bougna baked parcel of banana leaves with fish, prawns and coconut milk. Traditionally this dish can also include chicken or pork and is buried in a earthen hole and baked on hot stones.
Kayaks, long boards and snorkelling equipment is provided free of charge to guests and the bay has an abundance of tropical fish and coral.
We hired a car for one day in order to tour the island and visit one of the 'must see' attractions La Piscine Naturelle in the Baie d'Oro which is a pool of beautiful turquoise water protected from the sea by a narrow inlet and surrounded by pine trees. The snorkelling is spectacular and even if you just wade into the water the fish approach you. A 20 minute walk from the car park through natural forest is the only way to reach the pool, if you go take water and wear sandals as there is some wading necessary through the shallow lagoon this adds to the natural beauty as there are no boardwalks or constructed pathways. I learned that the local chief has banned cruise passengers from here in order to protect this precious environment and coral I have also read recently that returning visitors have been saddened by the disappearance of the many giant clams they saw on a previous visit years earlier and the greyness of some the coral, they were however quick to point out that this still does not detract from this lovely piece of natural paradise and it is pleasing to see that new clams are developing. On our day tour of the island we also stopped in at the modest Catholic church in Vao (the small principle village of the island).
2 comments:
Thank you for the such a great blog, Really informative.
Many thanks for your comment.
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