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Our Noumean Holiday It's been a cold, wet winter so far and the thought of a trip to a tropical paradise has just about kept us going through the short days, biting wind and soggy lawn. We set off for Auckland a few days before the flight and drove to Otorohanga where we spent the night then visited the aviaries and took a short walk at nearby Waitomo. The walk was something of a revelation, winding through a limestone gorge and past caves and pristine native bush. Highly recommended and completely free. We caught up with a few friends in Auckland before flying out early on Saturday morning. After a near disastrous start that involved misprinted and non-existent tickets, missing passports, torrential rain, swine flu screenings ridiculously understaffed customs and a hangover, we finally go to the hotel, which thankfully was really nice. When the weather cleared up, we ventured out and soon discovered that many places were closed for the Bastille Day long weekend and/or the off-season. So the holiday was off to a rough start. Thankfully things did improve. We spent two days snorkelling and with my brand new PADI open water certificate, I was able to book a morning's scuba diving. Jane got up close and personal with one of the "poisonous but friendly" sea snakes, we got checked out by a couple of 2 metre reef sharks and we saw an abundance of sea life each time. Perhaps the most amazing encounter was at the end of our last snorkelling trip when we found a sea turtle who, after a couple of minutes of lying still 4 metres below us, rose up and swam off while chased by a dozen or so eager snorkellers. We also spent a magical night in the centre of Noumea for the Bastille Day celebrations. We joined a parade of several thousand people carrying lanterns into the central plaza for a fireworks display then an evening of music and dance. Sadly, the holiday was all over before we had the time or opportunity to do everything we had planned so I'll finish with my top five travel tips for New Caledonia
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