Happy Valentine’s Day to all you folks in the Northern Hemisphere. For those is the Southern Hemisphere, sorry I’m a day late. The photo above is a naturally occurring mangrove swamp near Voh in New Caledonia, not too far from where we are cruising now. I didn’t take the photo as AVATAR lacks the requisite helicopter, but it seemed an appropriate image for the day 🙂
We have concluded our whirlwind tour of the three main islands of the Loyalties – Maré, Lifou, and Ouvea – where we did a lot of scuba diving (next post); then sailed a few days ago across the approximately 80 miles of ocean separating the Loyalties from the northwest coast of Grande Terre (I just discovered that this is the official name for New Caledonia’s main island. Also that it is the third largest island in the Pacific after New Zealand and Papua New Guinea). The east coast of the big island is the wet side, with steep lush mountainsides, raging waterfalls, limestone spires near Hienghene, and an enormous river. As we rounded the northern tip of New Caledonia the mountains became more barren and dry; not too different from some of the landscapes we see in the desert southwest and Mexico!
The weather has turned gray and rainy on us – with some distant lightning and thunder and drenching rain squalls. Gives us a good opportunity for a bit of housecleaning and laundry!
Here’s a few landscapes from the last week.
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Happy Valentines Day back atcha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the visually most lovely cards ever.
Happy Valentines to you too! Many thanks for the pictures
Read in the MO Club newsletter that you are a new member! What a great adventure you are having. Wonderful photographs.
Howdy Mike and Carol!
We just arrived in Suva from Tonga and will be in Fiji until June 10 when we will fly home for our son’s graduation from Stanford. Then back to Fiji in late July for more touring.
When will you be here – it would be great to see you two and get some pictures of Avatar and Iron Lady in the same anchorage.
Best
Pete and Debby
Hi Pete and Debby
,
Sounds like we will be out of sync! I fly to Nadi arriving June 9 and Mike arrives a couple-three days later from Australia. We depart for the US on July 19. Any chance of overlapping before we go home in July? Avatar is currently in New Caledonia; as soon as Rod gets back from vacation he’ll be looking for a weather window to cruise over to Fiji and we’ll meet him there.
Hope you’re having a great time – sounds like it was an exciting trip over. And congrats on your son’s graduation.
Cheers
Carol