From August 12 to 24 I made a bicycle tour of New Caledonia, a province of France just a three-hour plane journey northwest of Auckland, New Zealand. My 840-km (525-mile) trip began at Les Paillottes de la Ouenghi, a golf resort just south of Bouloupari. I rode an anticlockwise route through Thio on the northeast coast, then up the coast to Pouebo, over to the northwest coast at Koumac, then down to Les Paillottes. This resort is about 20 km (12 miles) north of the international airport at La Tontouta, so one can avoid Noumea, the capital of the province. The route I took on Grand Terre (as the island is called) is not generally used by tourists, so the logistics of the tour were quite complicated, especially for cycling; click here to see details of my trip.
  Orange dots on the map show where I stayed during the tour. Click the thumbnails to see picture descriptions and larger views; click the Back button to return to the Tour de Nouvelle Caledonie.