New Caledonia: Loyal to Lifou

Travellers and locals mingle on one of Lifou's idyllic beaches. Photo / 123RF

Time slows for Liz Light in New Caledonia.

After busy Noumea, stepping off the plane at Lifou makes a pleasantly laid-back change. The people wear flip-flops, the women have bright, floral neck-to-calf-to-elbow missionary dresses and hens with chicks stroll in the carpark.

Our hired car is a little white Renault van and Paulette, our guide for the first of our three days in Lifou, sets a sedate pace - she doesn't try anything as racy as fifth gear - as we trundle the 76km length of the island.

Lifou is mostly flat, the roads often straight and an oncoming car rare enough to wave at. We pass villages straggling around a church. Some have a primary school, playing field and a store. The old churches are stone, and along with the women's ubiquitous full-length dresses and a general passion for cricket, form part of the imprint of the London Missionary Society that arrived in 1840 to spread the gospel.

Hibiscus hedges edge the road and village gardens are enormous. Trim lawns are dotted with coconut trees, fragrant frangipani and dazzling oleander. Large vegetable patches are lush with yams, cassava, sweet potatoes, pawpaw, bananas, avocado and citrus.

Each property has a case, the traditional conical wood and straw houses that the Kanaks have lived in for centuries, and many also have a Western-style cottage. Paulette explains that when a couple first get married, they will live in a case. They cost nothing to build as the bush provides the materials and village people get together to construct them.

About 5000 people live on Lifou; that many again have left in search of work or education. Three district kingdoms each have a high chief and the 135 villages each have a little chief. The chiefs have many roles: leader, policeman, councillor and mediator. There are also gendarmes - "real policemen" - in the main town, We.

We straddles the point where the three kingdoms meet. It's bigger than a village, with too many cars to wave at, a couple of supermarkets, two churches, the district high school, administrative centre and port.

With baguettes and sandwich-makings, we picnic under trees next to We's trump card: a perfect beach. It's a 3km half-circle of fine, white coral sand with palms along one side and greenish blue, perfectly clear, sunshine-filled sea. A place to swim, sleep in the sun, then swim again.

Paulette leaves us and my husband Sam drives the van in the Lifou manner: slowly, with his left hand resting on the steering wheel, always ready for a low-key, fingers-spread wave.

For dinner, we head to the only restaurant open this Saturday night. Thai Siam has faded Christmas decorations, fans black with time and grime, pictures of puppies on the wall and an old fluffy dog shuffling about on the floor.

There's a table of seadogs drinking beer and telling yarns outside; young, dreadlocked local men drink beer inside and Kanak families dressed in their best enjoy steak and chips. The ambience is pure Somerset Maugham and the sweet and sour prawns are the world's best.

On Sunday, after lazing away the morning while everyone else is in church, we drive north to Jokin to visit Chez Felix, the garden of Felix and Jeanine Bole. In this beautifully groomed jungle a tree canopy filters harsh sun, turning the air chlorophyll green. Prisms of light shine on palms, ferns, orchids and dangling creepers.

We snorkel in a marine reserve below the Virgin at Easo. This is a garden of a different kind: big brain corals, lacy fan corals and others are underwater trees providing a home for fantastical fish. Iridescent blue, rainbow-hued, tiger-striped and elegant angels; the fish go about their business as I glide by. Seaweeds sway, anemones wave and giant clams, corrugated smiles open wide, show their purple and green innards. It's busy and beautiful down there.

Driving down a deeply potholed road that threads through a tunnel of verdant green jungle, we head for a beach called Peng. Butterflies and dragonflies avoid the van as we bump along. Kingfishers are looking out for them and swallows swoop on smaller insects. Peng is paradise, too, with white sand, a scattering of exotic shells and glassy calm, pristine water.

The rustling of a gentle breeze in the palm trees is just audible above the sound of lazy waves barely turning. Its dream-like loveliness inspires Sam to stretch out, arms spread, and sleep. I walk and, like Robinson Crusoe, the only footprints in the sand are mine.

CHECKLIST

Getting there: Aircalin flies from Auckland to Noumea. From there, Air Caledonie has several daily flights to Lifou, which take 40 minutes.

Where to stay: Drehu Village Hotel is on a perfect beach. There are numerous one- and two-star home-stay options.

For more information: Visit iles-loyaute.com

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What I love about New Caledonia...

Maree Joll from Flight Centre Mt Eden shares her 'must dos' during a holiday in beautiful New Caledonia!

• Plan a Trip to the Isle of Pines - one of the most picturesque islands in the world!

• Do a French cooking class - learn from a local chef the fine art of French cuisine.

• Head to Duck Island - take a 20-minute boat ride out to Duck Island, also known as Ile aux Canards - which sounds much more exotic!

• Check out the Amedee Lighthouse - New Caledonia might seem an unlikely place to boast one of the biggest buildings ever constructed, but the lighthouse on Amedee Island is one of the tallest lighthouses in the world.

Call your local Travel Expert on 0800 338 228 and start planning your New Caledonia escape today!

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