IIt's better to reserve the trip to ILE DES PINS early because it's very
popular among tourists. On a fine day, the view is wonderful. Unfortunately
the day we was there, it was cloudy.
The plane, which took off Magenda airport, was a 42-seat plane. It landed
in an even smaller airport in ILE DES PINS.
We got on a small bus driven by a local man. The man was greeting every
person he met. The population of the island is only about 1600. He also
said that he knew everyone. We went to Grotte d'Oumague right away. The
driver spoke French only but our guide from hotel is Japanese. Our group
was made up of 4 Japanese families. The children were noisy but we didn't
mind. They were making friends and playing on the beach.
We walked into the jungle, and could see the cave. There was stream so
watch your feet.
Next
we went to bay Oro. On the side of the road there were many papayas. We
got off the bus and walked the path side of river. When went across the
river, we could see many starfish with long hands. Upon the entrance of
jungle, there were many small halls, small red hand crabs in there.
When we arrived at Piscine Naturelle, it was cloudy. But it soon became
fine. We could take some nice photos.
When
we fed the fish with French bread, many fish came together. Finally the
fish ate bread from our hands.
Vao is the center of the island. There were school, church, bank and market.
The famous church is printed on a 1000CFP bill. On the St.Joseph bay, there
is a monument. There is a nice tree to nap under it.
We ate lobster for lunch at Gite Kodjeue. We also ate papaya salad. It
was papaya only and tasted like Japanese radish. The water was clean, and
we could eat salad. The water and wine both tasted good.
After noon, we visited on KUTO. We snorkelled on Kuto bay, and swam on
Kanumra bay. We could see many fish behind of the coral of the Kuto bay.
We could see a sea snake too. Unfortunately it was too cool to swim in
the afternoon. On the Kanumra bay many local children swam cheerfully.
The sand was very sandy and smooth.
We went to Gite Kodjeue again, took a shower and drank hot tea.
I wanted to visit ILE DES PINS on a fine day again.
