Hello New Caledonia

We planned our New Caledonia sojourn which included wanting to go to the Loyalty Islands which meant we would not be legal. We should go to the mainland and check in but to return to the Loyalty’s would be impossible with our time frame and point of sail.
We decided to do what the French do and just go and worry about explaining it later to the authorities if we were challenged. We are used to French sailors not paying attention to “the rules”---Canadians are the most law abiding but this time as we were sailing into French territory we would emulate them.
We had a fast passage and arrived to go through the pass into the lagoon of Ouvea in the middle of the day. It is a low lying atoll surrounded by sandy lowlands on which grow the native pine as well as coconut palms.
It was a Friday afternoon so we felt safe from authorities—the work week in all of the South Pacific does not go much past lunch on Fridays. Saturday morning we ventured onshore to find the chief who we hoped would OK our stay so we could justify our being here to the French Navy in the unlikely event they showed up.
We found the chief’s brother at the sports field where the villagers were watching a local version of cricket game —apparently the chief was in Noumea—he told us we were welcome to go anywhere. With his almost non existent English and our almost non existent French I think he wondered why we had bothered. The local people are more Polynesian than Melanesian, having relocated from Wallis Island and are very friendly. None spoke English so am having to search my brain for the little French I remember.
The Atoll has a huge white sandy beach along the shore and a paved road runs parallel. There is a huge difference from Vanuatu—they have power, cars and boats with outboards, and are well dressed—oh to be a French protectorate!!! The huts are round with thick thatch walls and roof rather than the square woven huts of Vanuatu. They have ornate carved poles in the ground which are very interesting—hmm one more thing for Salt Spring??
We were offered a ride and ended up at a very fancy hotel for lunch--$500 a night rooms!!!
The lunch was lovely—a crab for appetiser with one enormous claw. On another table was an ice bucket with champagne and white wine and red wine beside it---there was no charge for the wine---oh to be a French protectorate!!! The 3 course lunch was about $35 so I assume they felt the wine was covered.
We hitched our way back to the boat and decided to leave on an overnight passage to the mainland as there is a big storm forecast in 2 days and this is not the anchorage to sit out heavy winds.
It would have been fun to have had another few days here but such is the life of a sailor!!!