Matias?”, I said.
He swallowed a bite of food and faced me. “Yeah?”
“What is the thing you are most looking forward to when we get back to Raglan?”
He thought hard for a while. “Bob”, he said. “I miss Bob”.
Bob. The real cat. Who had probably forgotten all about us, happy as she was with the company of Thea, who was house sitting for us.
“Yeah”, I said. “I miss her too”.
“What about you, Lukie”, said David.
“Erm. I’m looking forward to getting back to my lightsabre, you know, the one that pulls out, do you remember that one, Daddy?” Clutching an imaginary lightsabre with his two hands, Lukie hissed, fighting off an invisible Sith launching a surprise attack on our dinner table.
“What about you?” Matias asked. “What are you looking forward to, Mummy?”
I thought for a while. “Having a washing machine”, I said. “And an oven that works. And a fridge that is dry”. A bit sad, really, that it was all appliances, but when you spend all your days in a beautiful place doing wonderful things, handwashing and cooking in a campervan type kitchen remains the only things to be dissatisfied with.
“You know, we can easily get that on the boat”, David said. “I mean, we can just install a washing machine and a new fridge and oven – we don’t have to go home to get that”.
“I know”, I sighed. “I never said I wanted to go home…” I took another bite of my lunch.
“But I also do miss our friends, of course”, I added. “And the vacuum cleaner”. I rested back in my seat, imagining a vacuum cleaner, just sucking up the dirt, hair and sand. No more dustpan and dirty brush, hairs sticking to the bristles, crumbs hiding in the depths. I smiled.
“What about you?” I asked David. “What are you looking forward to?”
He leaned forward. “Internet”, he said without hesitation. “Unproblematic, instantaneous internet, available around the clock. So I can get weather, and news, and look up random stuff when I feel like it”.
So there it was, the luxuries of home, spinning their web to reel us back in from foreign shores. Given how much we loved life on the boat it was good that we each had something to look forward to, something to take the edge off the sadness of trading in a mobile life full of freedom and adventure for the daily grind of work and school.
We were back in Noumea after having a spent a few days in the southeastern end of Grande Terre on our way back from the Loyalty Islands. Where the islands of New Caledonia are light and sandy, surrounded by clear waters and sharp coral reefs, the mainland of Grande Terre is heavy and severe, steep slopes covered in verdant jungle rising from a mangrove fringed shoreline plunging into untold depths of muddy water. Little inlets carve up the coastline where rivers discharge their load into the sea, and on our way back we visited deeply carved riverbeds sporting dried out rapids in Anse Toupeti, Yate and the Bay of Prony, three large bays providing calm anchorages off dark sand beaches backed by steep jungle.
In the Bay of Prony we anchored off the idyllic Ilot Casy and explored the prehistoric Cycad forests growing there.
“Watch out, Lukie, there’s a dinosaur behind that tree”, shouted Matias, leaping over some enormous tree roots to get to a vantage point up the hillside.
“But I can’t, Matias”, cried Lukie. “I’m getting attacked by a giant dragonfly”. Grabbing a stick, he fought off an enormous flying predator.
“Weirdos”, said David.
I nodded in agreement. “But it is quite prehistoric”, I ventured, “I can understand where they got the idea from”.
A precursor to flowering plants, cycads are ancient. Resembling a cross between a fern and a palm tree, these prehistoric plants have survived unchanged for over 200 million years; it is thought that they were grazed by herbivorous dinosaurs once. Interspersed with tall araucaria pines and truly enormous pandanus trees whose thick knotted roots made walking difficult, the cycads fully completed this alien, beautiful forest, thriving just metres back from the white sand beach.
Stunning and vulnerable – about a third of the island was burned down when a yachtsman inadvertently left a fire unattended on the island twenty years ago. The damage is still clearly visible, providing an astounding change from the established forest, with the burned bit resembling a minesite, its unvegetated dirt mounds stretching from the sea to the hilltops. A sign said that the vegetation is expected to establish fully over time, and in the meantime visitors were reminded to mind their fires.
For a couple of days we frolicked in rivers and bays, lounged in natural hotpools and washed under cool waterfalls, and climbing hillsides and cooked fresh fish over open fire. But soon enough it was time to return to Noumea, to provision and tank up with diesel and water, before setting off for New Zealand.
There is so much to see in New Caledonia, so much diverse and wonderful nature, so many friendly people. But the weather is looking favourable for heading to New Zealand tomorrow, and so we will depart, even if there is still lots to see here. If the winds remain fair and we don’t stop in Norfolk Island we should be there in five to seven days; if we stop at Norfolk it may take us seven to nine.
SV Bob The Cat 