On Thursday, we bought a used car. This has opened up all sorts of amazing opportunities, including doing laundry, going to the big grocery store, and visiting Parc Riviere Bleu. The park is a 20,000 hectare nature preserve about an hour outside Noumea. It's a beautiful, prehistoric-looking place, and home to the Cagou (kaa-goo), a flightless bird native to New Caledonia. We met this one on the side of the road. The French bikers in the video tried to feed it bread, but cagous are very picky and it spat it on the ground. It also hissed at me when I got too close. Cagous mate for life, so maybe it thought I was trying to get some ornithological action in front of its partner, who was nearby.
A giant kaori tree. Its over a 1,000 years old and 2.7 meters across. For those who have been to New Zealand--its the same kind they have there.
Chris (this is Tate writing now) in the "Drowned Forest" of kaori trees. They were all submerged after a dam was built nearby in Yaté. The same dam supplies most of Nouméa with it's electricity today. You may notice there isn't any water. For the last 2 months there has been a big drought due to unusually dry weather in the area. It kind of makes the landscape look even more creepy. Or as our friendly park guide said, "C'est un paysage lunaire."
The soil all over New Caledonia (but especially in the south) is red. This is because it's full of nickel and iron. Hence the huge nickel mining industry.
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