December 8, 2001
New Caledonia - the Mars of the Pacific

Tropical islands generally come in two colours--white and black. Coral atolls and uplifted coral islands look as if they have been bleached. Persil-white soft sandy beaches abound. The other type are of volcanic origin and everywhere you look you see black rocks and grainy sand; even on a sunny day those islands have a foreboding aura.

Then we arrived in New Caledonia, which is red. And we are not talking the pale pink hue that coral beaches sometimes have: when we say red we really mean bright red, "Pillar Box red" as we English would say.

Without launching into too much of a geology lecture, the bones of the story are that New Caledonia broke away from Australia when the continents were still shuffling their positions, and it is of neither volcanic nor coral origin. (Incidentally it is still on the move, sliding slowly below the Pacific plate.)

Apart from its rather distinctive colour, New Caledonia's geology has also influenced its economic development. Lying like a sandwich filling between the soil and the bedrock is a layer of high-quality nickel (45 percent of the world's nickel is in New Caledonia).

Along the east coast open cast mines sprawl across mountains which look as if they have been scalped. Whole mountainsides are being removed and their precious covering transported, by what from a distance look like lines of ants, to ships waiting in the bay below to transport the nickel to Noumea for processing. It was like a scene from a science fiction movie set on Mars.

Open-cast mining is always an ecological challenge, and in an area of natural beauty it is doubly so. We drove through the main mining area on the east coast and it is so impressive that it has its own kind of beauty, but elsewhere mines dot the mountains, disturbing the natural rhythm of the vista. No doubt eventually the vegetation grows back, though it is more likely to become scrub than the forests that previously cloaked the island.

Baie de Prony

In the south of Grande Terre (New Caledonia's main island) the Baie de Prony offers cruisers a deep inlet with at least 10 different anchorages to chose from. Around the bay are miles of hiking trails, making this a great place to anchor and get in some exercise. There is a lovely walk up to the lighthouse, which overlooks the eastern pass.

Red is a bit of an issue here too though. It results in stunning sunsets as the sun ignites the red of the hillsides, but it also colours everything in contact with it red - anchor chains, dinghies, painters, shoes, feet, everything.

We spent nearly a week in Baie de Prony enjoying the walking and the scenery and the time spent scrubbing the dinghy was a small cost to pay.