I've just been reminiscing about our trip to New Caledonia, back in 2004. I don't actually remember a great deal about it all, things get blurry when I go back beyond the last few years, maybe I'm getting older faster than I think!
New Caledonia lies between Australia and Fiji in The Pacific. I was there for a French science conference, held at the rather magnificent Tchibaou cultural center (left). But we also did make a quick dash to visit the southern forests. New Caledonia is a rather remarkable place in terms of biodiversity, there are extremely high levels of endemism. Having been sheared off the coast of Australia over 65 Mya, it retains many relictual lineages of plants and animals that have subsequently diversified and are mostly now extinct in Australia. An example is the kagu, a rather odd, endangered, quasi-flightless, ground-nesting bird that I did not manage to see in the wild, despite a very quick stop odd at the Riviere Bleue National Park. It's nearest living relative is thought to occur in South America.
New Caledonia also harbours the world's largest remaining nickel deposits, lots of tahitians left French Polynesia to work in the mines or in the logging business, there are also large tracts of relatively intact primary forest, with some BIG ol' trees. There is also a thriving tahitian community die by side with the indigenous melanesian kanak population and the caledoche (the name for the first french colonists, who are now several generations Caledonian). Viriamu's uncle worked as a lumberjack, now he is retired and makes 'mitihue' and 'ma'a tahiti' for sale at the weekend market.
New Caledonia lies between Australia and Fiji in The Pacific. I was there for a French science conference, held at the rather magnificent Tchibaou cultural center (left). But we also did make a quick dash to visit the southern forests. New Caledonia is a rather remarkable place in terms of biodiversity, there are extremely high levels of endemism. Having been sheared off the coast of Australia over 65 Mya, it retains many relictual lineages of plants and animals that have subsequently diversified and are mostly now extinct in Australia. An example is the kagu, a rather odd, endangered, quasi-flightless, ground-nesting bird that I did not manage to see in the wild, despite a very quick stop odd at the Riviere Bleue National Park. It's nearest living relative is thought to occur in South America.
New Caledonia also harbours the world's largest remaining nickel deposits, lots of tahitians left French Polynesia to work in the mines or in the logging business, there are also large tracts of relatively intact primary forest, with some BIG ol' trees. There is also a thriving tahitian community die by side with the indigenous melanesian kanak population and the caledoche (the name for the first french colonists, who are now several generations Caledonian). Viriamu's uncle worked as a lumberjack, now he is retired and makes 'mitihue' and 'ma'a tahiti' for sale at the weekend market.
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