Sea Kayaking - New Caledonia

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Sea Kayaking - New Caledonia Stuart Palmer The sky was moody and dark as we paddled off the beach at Yete, the southern end of New Caledonia's north-eastern coast and the start of our 10-day coastal paddle. The kayaks slid over 1.5m swells while we guided the boats past the inner reef and crashing waves. Then our view of land disappeared as the rain poured down. This was not the blue skies, white sandy beaches and gentle tail winds I had imagined! ej paddled on toward a small bay, 17km to the an outer reef, weather which in late September we could W north, where we hoped to land and camp be- expect to be relatively settled, and a coastline of white fore nightfall. The rain stopped and the sky sand beaches shaded lby coconut palms on which we could brightened a little, lifting our spirits. In the distance we camp without objection from the locals. could see Cape Tadu which protected the small bay we New Caledonia is part of France andi lis located midway were heading for. By 6.00pm Cape Tadu lay right in front between Brisbane and Fiji. It comprises the main island, of us but the light was fading alarmingly quickly. Grande Terre, which is 400 km long, 50 km wide and has "Look! Dolphin!" Bang! My kayak jolted forward as a central range rising to 1600m, plus a number of smaller something collided with its stern. The anxiety of the ap- islands. The population is 200,000, ofwhich 120,0001 live proaching darkness had already lifted my pulse rate it in and around Noumea. The remainder of the population was now fair racing! John mayl havei identified a 2m long is sparsely distributed, living in small villages in la brousse dolphin, but myin imagination could lonly see a shark. What- (the outback) i.e. that area beyond Noumea. ever it was, it must have been large and moving fast to Forty-five percent of the population is the Melanesian have made my kayak lurch like it did. l'm sure it got a Kanak people, while the remainder is of French and other bigger fright than I did. origins. New Caledonia has been under French control for Thel light was now getting seriously dim. We could hear 150 years. The Kanak peoples' fight for the return of their the waves crashing on the reef around us and could make land andi independence came to a climax in the 1980s. The out the white of the broken water, but the coastline was outcome was that the French settlers were forced out of lost to darkness. What a stupid situation to get ourselves the north-eastern portion of Grande Terre and an agreeinto: surrounded by darkness at sea along a foreign coast ment to work toward New Caledonia' 's independence was and only 2 hours into a 12-day trip. We navigated by the reached. Today a high proportion off the Kanak people live sound of the waves and the strip of white water. A gap in tribes off the land, while others havej jobs in the mining opened in the white strip. Wel hesitantly paddledin, feeling industry and government sectors. We found the Kanak for the bottom with our paddles. With a sigh of relief the people to be extremely relaxed and friendly. kayaks slid a sandy beach. Once on thel beach we con- Beyond Cape Tadu and our unplanned night paddle, our gratulated duca other on our recovery from that bit of mis- journey north quickly: slid into a pattern of paddling swimmanagement and agreed that we would be much more ming snorkelling, and camping. The coastline typically careful for the remainder of the trip. comprised a strip of white sand with a backdrop of coco- That was the start tofJohn's and my 300-km sea kayaking nut palms from which the steep, bare hills rose. journey along Grande Terre's (New Caledonia's main is- Like New Zealand, the majority of New Caledonia's forland) north-eastern coast. I am glad to say that the re- ests were destroyed during its early European settlement. mainder of thej journey was not as eventful as thet first few But unlike New Zealand, subsequent repeated burn-offs, hours! low natural fertility and mining has stopped regeneration, The trip had been in planning for a number of months. leaving the hills covered with grass and low scrub and Wel had hoped to take our own kayaks but after long re- scarred with red slips. Large-scale nickel mining continsearch found no reliable and economic means of trans- ues with little or no evidence of efforts to control the silt porting two 5ml kayaks to New Caledonia. We settled for run-off or to encourage re-vegetation after the mining. the fall-back option of hiring kayaks. The only suitable A plateau of coral stretches out from thel beach. At low kayaks for hire on thei island were one Puffin and a Spec- tide this plateau was normally only a few hundred millimetrum (if you could describe a Spectrum as suitable). To tres deep and extended anything up to 100m out from the describe the kayak rental agreement to be loose would shore. Not the place to be caught on an outgoing tide! The have tol be an understatement. We found ourselvespad- light blue water over the plateau dropped loffi into the deep dling away in these kayaks having made no payment, and turquoise blue at the abrupt plateau edge. That plateau the owner of the kayaks knowing our names but having edge was the place to go snorkelling; the placev where you no other particulars. Wel hadn'te teven agreed how or ifwe could see a whole host of brightly coloured fish and coral. were going to return the kayaks from the northern end of Disappointingly, access to the plateau edge for swimming the island. Well, I guess that is the island's way re- and snorkelling was usually difficult because of the wide, laxed. shallow coral plateau. We had selected New Caledonia for this two-week trip Our daily routine was set around thel hours of daylight. because it offered a long length of coastline protected by We would get up soon after 5.00am to be on the water by Tramping and Mountaineering 1999

North-eastern coast, New Caledonia Stuart Palmer 6.30am. Our day's paddling would end around 3.00pm to Hienghène coast was for us! About 5 km off the coast, giver us time to set up camp and relax beforet the sun set at there was a string of perfect tropical islands. We spent 6.00pm. No morel night paddling for us. Each day wer would our second dayin thel Hienghène area island-hopping bepaddlel between 35 and 40 km, taking us 8 days to cover tween three of thesei islands. Circled with white sandand the 300 kilometres between Yaté and Hienghène. Thirty- palm trees and an interior of diverse, lushj jungle and chatfivel kilometres in a Spectrum is a long way! tering! birds, each island was asl beautiful as the onel before Theweather becamer reliably predictable: scattered cloud it. We spent a relaxed day paddling from island to island, with little wind first thing in the morning; by 10.00am a walking the circumference of each island and checking gentle 101 knots of the trade winds would come over our out the underwater world. right shoulder tol help us along our way; and by 3.30pm Our trip had started with a "little adventure" with our cloud would roll in, which if you were unlucky, would encounter with the dolphin in the dark. After 10 days of produce a few showers. It was comfortably warm, in the enjoyable and uneventful paddling it wouldn'tber right to mid tol high 20s degrees Celcius. end the tripwithout another "little adventure". During our The coastline variedi from long straight stretches ofwhite dayofisland-hopping. the wind had picked up to 20 knots sand studded with palm trees, to a series of peninsulas. creating a 1.5m swell. After studying our maps we de- We would paddle from the tip of one peninsula to the cidedi to head for a large river to provide us with an easy of the next, taking us away from land for crossings tif landing and some shelter upstream for the night. Well, at typically 151 kilometres. least SO we had hoped. Large waves breaking on a sand Occasionally idyllic "treasure islands I would appear bari in the mouth oft the river quickly had us back-tracking along the coast; white sand ringinga a plot of coconut palms and rethinking our plans. Wes struggled back up-wind along and surrounded! by coral = great places to stop for a swim the coast in search of a safe landing spot. We found a and al bite to eat. There was road/track access to the coast section of less threatening beach and headed in. To our along about half of our route. The coast appeared deserted surprise we slid up thel beach, still safely in our boats. We from the sea and there was little or no: sign of civilisation made camp, hoping the wind would drop overnight. It around our campsites. didn't, leaving us with a 3-hour slog back up-wind to The highlight of our journey came as we approached Hienghène and the end of our paddling. After 12 days of Hienghène, at the northern end of thei island. This 10-km tailwinds, we couldn't really complain about a morning of section of coastline was superb - 60-metre high cliffs of pushing the wind. limestonel rose out ofthe deep turquoise blue water. White New Caledonia with its relatively settled warm spring sand beaches and coconut palms abutted the cliffs and a weather, coastline protected by an outer reef, and sandy garden of colourful coral and fish could be explored off beaches had provided an excellent coastal cruise byl kayak. thel beaches. There was little discussion about whether we Thanks John for your French vocab and company on would continue north along the coast or spend the last another good paddle, and thanks to the manyl local people three days of paddling exploring thel Hienghène coast. The who helped us along the way. Tramping and Mountaineering 1999