Tongas and New Caledonia

Ah! this crossing of 2200 miles! Probably the worst since we have left France. And we cut it in two, but still: both parts were as bad as one another. We never used the engine so much, and our patiance has been more than tested! After 13 days at sea we finally reached the Tongas, short stop which allow us to discover a nice cruising place, catch up with friends on other boats and spear-gun fishing (we couldn't since the Marquises because of the Cigüatera). After our stops in French Polynesia, the Tongas seem really poor, and we were surprised to be welcomed like we were in the Galapagos: around the sailboats, in poor countries, is organised an economy of services (internet access, washing, pubs, happy hours, everything in english, organised parties, tours, car rentals... ). And the locals come to propose all kinds of services directly to the boat! If the practical aspect of these services is undoubtable, the consequences on the relationship with the locals is catastrophic. We suddenly become a bag full of dollars, instead of a visitor. To find again an authentic relationship, we need to go further and not stop in the most beautiful anchorages as they are too crowded... In the Tongas we had the impression of being in a giant marina, with numbered anchorages: local names are judged as being too complicated to say, so the rent a boat company Moorings had the idea to edit a new map of the Tongas with numbers instead of the names. Please take a ticket, follow the guide, only in english, Tongan is too complicated, it would damage your brain. That is why people ask us how come we speek Tongan when we say "Malo e lelei " -hello-. Unfortunatly we had no time to dig in much further and avoid all of this… Too bad, Tongas deserve much better than that.
As soon as we leave we run in a terrible storm, followed by an endless zone with no wind... It is with great pleasure that we enter in the lagoon of New Caledonia, 12 days later, exhausted. During this crossing our pleasure came from the wildlife since we caught a big wahoo (1m30), a dorada about as big and an excellent bonita. We were lucky to have a huge whale come up right next to Céphée and one evening, our most beautiful sunset. Fun came also from the SSB where regular contacts with Sunday Morning and Najelys helped us keep up!
Our discovery of the "caillou" (the rock - the local name of New Caledonia), we owe it to Christine and Anthony. We meat them in the Marquises where they were honeymooners, and we called them as soon as we arrived. They live in Dumbéa -a couple of km from Nouméa- since 6 years. They made us discover in a couple of days what we would have maybe never seen alone: plants, local culture, beautiful landscapes, ,… Anthony made us taste fruits and vegetables from his own garden (he has a passion for gardening and good food: great mix for us!) and Christine revealed herself as an excellent tourist guide. Great moments that we will not forget. 2 weeks is too short to discover New Caledonia and we will come back next year. Now we need to leave for Australia before the huricain season. We will let Céphée rest a little while we discover Australia with Hélène's parents in december and then New-Zealand with our backpacks in febuary...

 

A local recipe:

Sweet pork

The caledonian cuisine is much influenced by the asiatic way of cooking. This recipe is an example and we chose it because you should easily find all ingredients and will enjoy it.

1 kg to 1,2 kg pork, 1/4 l of soyu, drops of nuoc mam, 60g sugar, 1 garlic clove, 1 dry onion, 3 green onions, oil, a glass of water

Cut poork in pieces and fry in oil (2 tbsp). Remove the grease. Fry the dry onion in 1 tbsp oil. Add pork, soyu, water, and nuoc mam. Cook for 35 minutes. Add sugar and chopped garlic. Let the sauce thicken, about 10 minutes on medium heat. To decorate, use the fresh green onions finely chopped.