22 May 2011:

A close-up of the Southern Cross and the Pointers. It's amazing how these stars stand out in cities, but as you get somewhere with less light pollution, they start getting lost in the sea of stars and the softly glowing "clouds" of the Milky Way.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Tested my camera at taking photos of stars. The Southern Cross, along with the Pointers, is in the photo. The Southern Cross has significant meaning to many communities here, and is prominently featured on the flags of New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, and others. Combined with the Pointers, it also gave early navigators a way to find due south.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Roast wild boar (hunted earlier in the day), green papaya, and poupier de mer (sea purslane), freshly collected from the beach. There was also French wine and other goodies. A very fancy-feeling affair, with quite a few guests. One somewhat elderly French couple living in Wallis (Uvea) and Futuna told me about their Samoan trip and gave me some recommendations on what to do there.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Decided to pay 30,000F for dinner. This explains the gunshots we heard earlier in the day. Dinner the previous day was in a grass hut by an outdoor staff kitchen. Kiba and Miami stood staring at us while we ate, effectively with their noses in our food. The got the leftovers and chicken bones from our meal.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Angry evil-looking sea star. Probably don't want to step on anything like that.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

I ended up going out quite far, but still nowhere close to the where the waves were breaking when I decided to head back.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Crabby crab and vegging out sea cucumber.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

I planned to walk out all the way to where the waves were breaking, or even a nearby island, but it was surprisingly far, and there were some uncomfortable squishy or sharp parts to walk over.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

The beach where we were staying at low tide in the evening.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

A view of the tropical foliage and a nearby island.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Since it was still early, we decided to go for another short walk. This eucalyptus grove is a collection of a few dozen varieties, collected and shipped in over time.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

23 May 2011:

The road to Koumac. I'm surprised that large buses travel up this very narrow road. I believe those are niaouli trees on the side of the road.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-10.html

22 May 2011:

Due to the fact Sarah and I were unfamiliar with the "friends" we went to Boat Pass with, and their car was overloaded, we decided to walk back. This is part of the road we walked back on, before a nice Polynesian man on vacation offered us a ride.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Some cool-looking mangroves in the area. There were a few small stores in the area, but it was very sparsely populated in general. Actually, the strange thing about NC is that population figures for towns were always much higher than what it feels like - most likely due to people living in "tribes" away from the town centres, resulting in a very dispersed and hidden population.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Sorry, first shirtless photo of me on this blog. But I guess that's unavoidable if I'm to blog about my travels through Polynesia and Melanesia! I'll start off with a smaller photo of me for you to adjust.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

A view across the channel to the nearest island. There are supposedly very large sharks of a few metres in length in the channel. We tried to snorkel over to see them, but due to how murky the water turned out to be that day, we decided it would be too risky. The water is surprisingly cold, and felt even colder than the water in Nouméa.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Later that day, we went to Boat Pass, which I think is the northernmost point of Grand Terre.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

We ran into a group of wild horses, quite common in NC. The dogs kindly chased them away for us while we were observing them.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

A sign pointing out the niaouli trees. There are quite a few wild niaouli forests around NC. From when I used their homemade niaouli soap, I was in love with the fragrance. It smells like a warmer and softer version of eucalyptus.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Salt pans owned by the family. They sell artisan salt in their giftshop, in addition to natural essential oils and soaps. They gave me a small package of niaouli and eucalyptus oil as a parting gift.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

A view from the top of the hill. To the north is a series of islands in the Coral Sea, and a bit farther on, the Belep islands, which I wanted to visit, but is too difficult to get to.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

We went on a short hike around I think what is their property. It's quite a large area with a lot of natural features. Their two dogs (Kiba and Miami, if I remember their names correctly), came with us. They looked kind of similar, but one had floppy years, and and other, pointy.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html

22 May 2011:

Turns out Sophie and Boris' (the other two in the car) parents own this vacation retreat - Relais de Poignam.

Rough notes:
http://mandarinmanmarktravelnotes.blogspot.com/2012/04/2011-nz-to-sf-day-9.html