IN PICTURES - In the heart of the Pacific, Pine Island owes its name and fame to the unusual landscapes offered by Araucaria set up along the coast bands. A forest lagoon as rare as fascinating.
The greatest explorer of the Enlightenment he crushed black that day? After the Marquesas and New Hebrides, had he seen too much not to drop anchor at an armful of paradise? When in September 1774, James Cook sailed along the island pocket, located south of the main island of New Caledonia, he was not only legitimate fear that his ship aground on coral reefs, but he was also the victim of a seeing things sacred. A native of Yorkshire, probably more accustomed in his youth to tread the wild moors of his beloved England to go up a coconut tree and took by far the slender silhouettes and insolent columnar pines lining the shores to the mast of a menacing alien armada. The two naturalists who accompanied Foster father and son, were little more savvy, who saw the presence of basalt columns similar to the Giant's Causeway, Ireland. It is only upon his arrival to the island bitter for wetting the crew realized it was trees. Specimens of such rare and endemic majestic pines that the English captain decided to baptize their name this piece of land of beauty to believe mirages. More than two centuries later, it is not uncommon, moreover, that after seeing the Isle of Pines, one is tempted to speak of a mere illusion, a hallucination or, better yet, conceal his existence just to keep for yourself this discreet hideout Robinson reduced on a world map, the size of a pinhead stung on the Tropic of Capricorn. Here, no charters or resorts. We can not with impunity Kunié (name of the island in Melanesia), there walks slowly after traveling more than 17 000 km for metro, made a stop in Noumea before embarking on an ATR 42 or fast catamaran. If, in high season, the dock of the Bay of Kuto - a new ferry terminal must be born in 2016 - can become the podium by a parade of Australian and Japanese cruisers, walking on the beach Kanumera enough to experience dear printing Rilke to be "irresistibly alone."
Invariably, the body jettisons. The hours stretch. A soft waiver announcement. Given this landscape of tropical Tuscan whose reliefs bristle strange exotic cypress, eyes linger. It follows, blossom water, languid lines lagoon heckled by the verticality of the araucaria planted to guard you along the coastline. He plays the hieratic posture of these giants - up to 60 meters high - umbrella a funny tuft of brush-brush: a pointed crown composed of "scales on twigs arranged in dihedral" would correct a scientist. Do not mess with these worthy archaic survivors vegetation Triassic, dating back to the beginning of the era of the dinosaurs, there are 230 million years. Plant emblem of New Caledonia, belongs to the columnar pine immemorial heritage that the island was anxious to preserve shows by including evidence of a kind of resistance to the excesses of extreme modernity. "We are not against the development of tourism, but we do not step on the scale of our island, says Hilarion Vendegou, former mayor, senator UMP and great traditional chief ... If we see too large, we runs the risk of undermining our environment. We do not want to. All that is done preserve our natural resources, our beaches, our beautiful forests ... And the smile of the population. For we are all richer for what nature gives us. "Eight tribes (Ouatchia, Ouapan, Touété, Youwaty, Vao, Gadji Comagna, Kere) perpetuate exchanges initiated centuries ago by their ancestors. If Lapita pottery fragments discovered at Vao, testify to a former attachment of Kunié to an area of Pacific communication, probably 1500 years BC, the remains of circular structures in the ground and shot iron found on the board, the presence of piles of fossil coral in the forest area attest to the settlement of the island at a time extremely remote. Fishermen and farmers had settled on the coast and inland, well before the arrival of Polynesian catechists Protestants from the London Missionary Society in 1840, even today, even though they are becoming more living from tourism, 2,806 inhabitants of the Isle of Pines remain deeply attached to the Mother Nature, the land to which they belong ... and not vice versa. "We Kanak, we were environmentalists before the time," like repeating the footballer Christian Karembeu, born on the nearby island of Lifou. Respect for the environment, the worship of the old, the importance of traditional authorities have effectively avoided backhoes property developers - years of palaver preceding the construction of the Hotel Meridien - the privatization of beaches, the mass of vegetation which, after being improperly exploited by sandalwood in the nineteenth century seems to have finally reclaimed its destruction.
Coastal savanna to the limestone forest, nature provides new gross disarming. On the East Coast, in particular, it explodes, measurement exalted blue lagoon, green mesh in a lush, dense garden without grid and safe, but access, lack of footpaths - except one Upi Bay connecting to that of Oro - often remains difficult. What ever! This almost circular island, the show is over. Bay Kanuméra in Kuto Bay, an arbor, born interlacing branches of secular bugnys, transports the visitor into a Forest Dark Forest. To the north, near Gadji, the view of the bay beach crabs reveals a typical postcard of the "closest to the paradise island" with its blessed pines up like pointed skyward index. To the south, a climb to the peak N'Ga (262 meters), to discover other perspectives: the distance, the island Brush and yet another stand of Araucaria, closer, close to the tribe of Comagna few specimen more isolated if the play alone. A configuration that is no coincidence. Traditionally planted on the aisle that leads to big boxes, the columnar pine is the oldest residential witness, usually erected for men of high rank. Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Noumea, a "Kanak Path" perfectly illustrates the symbolic plant in Melanesian culture. Consisting of many species, this course includes a history of the founding hero Tea Kanaké first born of all men whose origin is rooted in the earliest oral tradition of the area paicî-cèmuhi.
The five stages of its existence refers particularly essential plant: the giant taro is associated with the origin of beings, yams, symbol of man and his female complement, water taro represent Mother Earth The columnar pine refers to the land of the ancestors, the banyan, ancient burial ground, brought to the land of spirits, ironwood heralds the rebirth ... Between life and death, there are no boundaries nor between men, land and minds. A relationship between the visible world and the invisible world which Kuniés do not speak little or: "The spirits of our ancestors, our families, our clans are there in the sea and on land. You feel it is proper to each, "said Grand Chief Hilarion Vendegou. A veiled, some fishermen evoke taboo places in the forest where coconuts fall from nowhere, where traces erased repeatedly reappear without explanation ... Difficult to know more. A native of the tribe of Gagdi where was located the first chiefdom, Adriano Vama prefer to recall the beauty of trees - kohu, banyan, blue cherry, sandalwood, Ralia, acacia ... - the forest where he grew up. He often accompanies the curious tourists to see other treasures of the island as well known as the chromo sublime beaches Kuto, the whiter than talc sand or unreal image of the natural pool of the Bay of Oro. His former playground, the young taxi driver knows every corner, any medicinal herb. Beachfront, a first umbrella-shaped shrub holds his attention: "It's called the false tobacco. His prepared infusion leaves are very effective against the guitar - a foodborne illness caused by eating fish contaminated with ciguatoxin. No need to go to the clinic when we hurt all over, a decoction of the bark of melaleuca (eucalyptus) relieves rheumatism and pains. It is all here! "At the entrance to the cave of Queen Hortense, even found a plant shampoo that grows near the river.
With over 3000 species of plants, New Caledonia has one of the world's richest biodiverse land after the Amazon basin. A few yards away, Adriano car stops near a huge banyan. In this miniature jungle, any kid would have used the vines from the tree to imitate Tarzan, but we do not play around this behemoth which represents the image of the ancestors. "The vines are like their long beards," he says. He added: "Here, nature carved and often draws faces on trees. We must look everywhere! "Open the eye and, when the light gradually uncovers the shadows still lurk in the woods, do not hesitate to ogle under leaves which houses another curiosity of island, a potbellied gastropod endemic: the bulime. "This is pocket money for women who are traditionally responsible for collecting says Christine Pollabauer, president of the environmental organization Mocamana-The Natural spirit ... But in recent years, this economic resource tends to decrease. The Bulimes have a very slow growth. You have to wait 3-5 years for them to reach adulthood and are edible. The breeding method is developed but it still customary that undertake discussions to define the location and the tribes concerned ... In the meantime, there has to Pine Island that can consume. This is very good prepared with parsley! "It should not go without tasting this delicious culinary specialty or fun to discover, Vao Market every Wednesday and Saturday, other local products that are the yam, sweet potato, cassava or taro, whose domestication is older than that of cereals ...
In this small village straight out of a document from the archives of the League of Pacific Studies, stands the beautiful Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, built in part by deportees from the Paris Commune arrived metropolis in the late nineteenth century. September 29, 1853 Kaoua Vendegou, Grand Chief of Kuniés, evangelized for years by the Marist Fathers, had signed the official decision of the Isle of Pines by France. Among the deportees were many art, carpenters, cabinet makers, even the Companions of duty workers. Their hatred of the priests did not prevent them from working, against a modest salary for Father Goujon, who was especially entrusted with the construction of the tabernacle of the pulpit and baptismal font ... "It's the ones who made the big cross, the star, the prosecution point of Hungary, said Jean-Christophe Deret guide on the island for fourteen years. They only used local trees, different species to play with colors. Benches, however, more recent, has been made by kohu Joseph, whose son also works on wood as boatman. "Bay St. Joseph has another construction site canoes traditional pendulum. In 1991, organizers of the Raid Gauloises had ordered more than forty. We still remember here, as the program "Koh-Lanta" tour on nearby islands in 2005 Douépéré Alexander, 67, is one of the last to make, old, these iconic boats.
Since his first boat, the Saint Gabriel, built twenty years ago in the trunk of a columnar pin 10 meters long, little or nothing has changed. Although kohu, stronger, replaced the Araucaria and saw the use of fire for the slaughter, the technique remains the same: "Once you spotted the tree, usually in the deep forest, we custom made - ritual exchange - with the tribe in question, then it is cut 3 or 4 days after the full moon, when the sap down into the roots. It rots slower. Wood is allowed three weeks in water, before drying with salt from seawater, and after only one can work at the machine and by hand. And set sail "Essentially used for fishing, outrigger canoes have become the last thirty years the equivalent of Venetian gondolas on which ascend tourists to discover not the Grand Canal but Upi Bay. A inland sea where boats plying between strange coral rocks at the foot carved by erosion (the "potato"). In this paradise to divine grace, preserved by a protective option, nothing is quite like yesterday nor today.It is a time other, a frail point of tangency between eternity and the present. James Thomas Cook, Pine Island has not become the island pinup and oligarchs. Zero armada of boaters or three-masted billionaires ... Just this immemorial landscape where spin, inflated by the trade winds, a few white sails of boatmen up the bay pre tight ... A hallucination perhaps a dream, surely.
TRAVEL BOOK
Helpful
In Paris, the New Caledonia Tourism (01.47.03.14.74;www.visitenouvellecaledonie.com ) will make the most of this long journey which the city takes about 25 hours to Noumea. On the Isle of Pines, an information point is located in the cultural center of Vao (687.46.10.27).Getting there
Aircalin (0.826.621.320; www.aircalin.com ) offers daily flights Paris-Noumea through partnerships with France / KLM Air Group, Finnair, Alitalia and Singapore Airlines. From € 1461, in Economy class and € 4,244 for business class. Air Cal édonie(687.44.88.50) serves the Isle of Pines (about 25 minutes), at least twice a day from the airport to Noumea-Magenta. From 133 € round trip. By sea, the Betico 2 (www.betico.nc ) makes the crossing from Noumea in 2 hours 15 From 89 €.
Accommodation
Residences(687.26.06.66; www.hiltonhotels.com ) near the center and throw a flip of the beach at Anse Vata, is ideally located. A wide selection of apartments, pleasantly arranged and well equipped, make this address a perfect base for a family holiday. 143 € to 294 € Studio apartment for 6 persons.
A Bourail, we only talk about the opening in early August at the Sheraton New Caledonia, Deva Resort and Spa (687.26.50.00;www.sheratonnewcaledoniadeva.com ). Built on the protected area of Deva, this new luxury hotel offers two in one, lagoon and bush, unique in New Caledonia: direct access to 13 miles of beaches, hiking and horseback riding, and opening in January Golf 18 holes (contact@exlusivgolf-deva.com) ... The comfort and decor of the 180 suites, private bungalows and rooms perpetuate excellence Sheraton. From € 206 (opening bid).
On the Isle of Pines, Oro Bay, Le Méridien (687.46.15.15;www.lemeridien.com/iledespins ) can lay claim to being the first and only luxury hotel on the island. Built of wood and stone of the corner, this hotel dream of a perfect architectural discretion, in an idyllic setting offers stylish accommodation where romance - celebration and renewal of vows on an island getaway ... privatized - and exoticism Never flirt with sentimentality. Y spend a night not to be forgotten. From 268 €.
Bay Kanumera the Oure Tera Beach Resort (687.43.13.15; www.tera.nc ) is a friendly and nice 4-star lodge. If the bungalows overlooking the beach (€ 499 for two people, breakfast included) allow you to enjoy the sunset, all rooms (from € 308) have their charm.
0 commentaires:
Enregistrer un commentaire