My day started with a walk in a new direction from our accommodation – towards an area known as Parc Ouen Toro, and a fancy hotel called Château Royal, which had its own private beach. Well, really it had just built a big fence around the headland to keep others out.

Just before the château was an interesting looking series of restaurants built over the water.

I stopped and perused the menu for Le Roof restaurant and realised it was too far for us to walk to for a meal. That, and the fact that a cheese platter would cost $50AUD, not to mention the price of a meat dish.

Edward has told us we should keep an eye out for a local delicacy – Civet de Rousette – which is a stew made with charred-looking pieces of fruit bat. Mick is very keen to try some. Me, not so much! Le Roof certainly did not have any on its menu.

The area adjacent to where we are staying (at Baie des Citrons) is called Anse Vata, and it is undergoing a massive re-development.

Much of the beachfront at Anse Vata is cordoned off as the pavement is replaced with beautiful tiles, seating and soon to be green spaces and recreational areas.

After breakfast, our main excursion for the day was a trip into Noumea using the local buses. I had read that a one-way trip would cost us 300 francs, and an all day ticket would cost 900 francs.

The bus stop is less than 200m away from our apartment, and despite there being no obvious timetable, we did not need to wait very long before a bus picked us up. Sadly, the full day tickets are not available to purchase from the driver, but we managed to pay for a one-way journey into Port Moselle, near the city markets. Once there, we were able to purchase the tickets we wanted for 900 francs from a ticketing machine, and we will use them on another day.

The city markets were not open today – which we knew – but we decided to get off at that stop and headed in the direction towards the Place des Cocotiers (the Square of Coconut Trees).

This public space (Place des Cocotiers) is right in the heart of the city of Noumea, and we spotted quite a few people enjoying the shaded and grassed areas in the park. Right in the centre of the park was this beautiful fountain.

Since we have arrived in New Caledonia, Mick has mentioned more than once that this country reminds him a lot of Papua New Guinea, where he has visited many times. But with one obvious difference.

This morning the comment was made again, particularly about this fountain. Mick thinks that New Caledonia is much more organised and better maintained than PNG. He reckoned that a fountain like this would be vandalised pretty quickly in PNG. But, he has not been there for more than 15 years, so a lot may have changed in that time.

Another thing that reminded him of PNG was the smell. We walked past several local people smoking the same tobacco as they do in PNG. (Mick knows the smell as he has tried it a few times.)

During our meanderings, we stumbled across St Joseph’s Cathedral, right in the heart of the city.

I was on the lookout for the Quartier Latin – supposedly a good shopping area. I was not looking for anything in particular, but it gave us a ‘destination’ to focus our attention. We are unsure if we actually found it, because if we did, it was a huge disappointment. Again, there was a lot of re-development happening in that part of the city.

After making it back to the bus stop where we got off a few hours earlier, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our bus. We made it home just in time for lunch.

One last job for the day for me was an excursion to the butcher’s shop in search of some meat for dinner – as many restaurants are closed on Mondays. This job turned out to be a little more challenging than I had expected.

After telling the butcher what I wanted (two pork chops) in French, he started chatting to me about Australia and how expensive it is to visit there, in French. I could understand a fair bit of what he said, but certainly not all of it.

Ten minutes later, I was exiting his shop and bidding him farewell, my head still spinning trying to understand some of our conversation. Anyway, the chops look amazing.