[password] zara1010

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After the wonderful snorkelling at Gadji we were invited ashore to meet the chief, offer him some token gifts and be welcomed into the community. He made us delicious tisane from lemongrass leaves pulled from the wilderness around his hut, the water comes directly from the river and took a while to boil over the open fire, meanwhile he got out the chainsaw and cut us off a slice from a sandlewood tree trunk which smells wonderful, they distill the wood, send it to France and supply Christian Dior with the oil.

I remember the first time we had tea in a village made from water boiled on an open fire, I thought we had been made tea from Lapsang Souchong type leaves, little realising the obvious - it is the open wood fire that imparts the smokey taste. This lemongrass tea with it's added depth of smokiness tasted so exotic, and drunk on a headland overlooking the beautiful lagoon was hard to beat.

There is another raw material that is collected on Isle de Pins, so far we don't know what for: we dinghied round a headland and found a new beach, the soft white sand was hidden in waves by swathes of perfect miniature shells in rust and auburn. The shells are everywhere and you can scoop up armfuls, with millions more beneath the ones you see, and in places on the edge of the beach are sacks filled with them. We haven't seen another beach like that and we've gone the whole way round the island.

I also found a small furry white crab and had him as a pet for about 20 minutes, he was very cute and soft, no idea what type, he preferred hiding in the nautilus shell I gave him to being held - but seemed happiest when I put him back as we left.

Yesterday we arrived at the place Simon discovered on Youtube, the place that inspired the trip to New Cal, a perfect windsurfing spot called Ilot Maitre, it's very close to Noumea so as it's the weekend it's heaving, but the wind was perfect and the lagoon is plenty big enough for everyone. It's also a marine reserve and has pretty coral, fish everywhere, and so many turtles it's wonderful, not quite as common as seagulls, but certainly easy to see a dozen in an hour.

Went paddleboarding this morning as the wind was light, and it's almost a dry vertical version of snorkelling with the glass clear surface.

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