Blue Planet Journey

Caroline sitting at the Snout after an intermediate mountain bike ride, Picton, NZ. In Picton, NZ, Caroline and I rented mountain bikes and headed out for the local headlands, or "Snout."  The track is well-known as a day hike or ride, but you can't get there by car.  Round-trip, it took us about 4 hours, and that includes the slight detour as we slipped past the sign telling us that we were entering an alternate spur rated "advanced."   Pay attention, Robert!  An advanced mountain biker I am not! Note to self... pay attention to those little signs that designate how difficult the trail is! We had great bikes (Scott) that performed well.  When we arrived at the rental facility, the bikes were already set out, with our names on them.  Thank goodness for a bike with well adjusted gears and brakes!  I needed both on this trip! For the most part, the trail was well-marked, although we did go the wrong direction on a ...

Araucaria columnaris, New Caledonia New Caledonia is a French island territory (an “overseas collective”) east of Australia and north of New Zealand.  It is in the process of getting its independence, which I believe is scheduled for a binding vote in November, 2018.  I wouldn’t call it a speck in the South Pacific, but there had to be some luck in early explorers finding it (both Kanak, the original people, and European). We had 3 days in New Caledonia... 1 in the capital city of Noumea (the most populated city),  and 1 each on the island of Lifou , and the Isle of Pines . Noumea is the largest city in New Caledonia, with about 200,000 residents.  I don’t know how the wealth is distributed, but New Caledonia has about a quarter of the world’s nickel reserves, so mining exports are important.  No excursions were offered to the nickel mines, but I did get 1 photo from a distance... the gray clouds emanating from the smokestacks made them pretty visi...