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Looking for a holiday destination that is truly extraordinary? You might be thinking of someplace that provides beaches and sailing opportunities, plus the cuisine and atmosphere of a metropolitan city. A perfect vacation that provides all of this is a trip to the French colony of New Caledonia, situated about halfway between Fiji and Australia.

This island is located farther south compared to other South Pacific islands, benefiting from southeast trade winds, lots of sunlight and balmy weather. If a sailing holiday is what you fancy, New Caledonia is based in a part of the Pacific that has the greatest coral lagoon in the globe. Sailing charters are freely available and with the help of the trade winds you can sail out of the capital city of Noumea along the coastline, past the many small islands that dot the ocean around the New Caledonia. There are also heaps of other outdoor activites such as scuba diving, snorkel diving, horseback riding, canoeing, and kayaking.

If you were thinking of a gourmet holiday, New Caledonia has almost everything you could want. New Caledonia’s capital city, Noumea, widely known as the Paris of the Pacific. Noumea offers fine gourmet French food and wine along with the other benefits of a active cosmopolitan town. You can find some of the South Pacific’s best restaurants here. Colonized by France in 1853, New Caledonia has a distinct French influence when it comes to food and wine.

Noumea has well over 100 restaurants, ranging from sidewalk cafes to high-class bistros. French cuisine is easy to come by, but other selections include Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and African food. Seafood is a specialty of the Island, including spiny lobster, prawns, crab, and mangrove oysters. One of the national dishes is Bougna, which is fish or chicken, combined with sweet potatoes and bananas wrapped in banana leaves and then grilled covered in sand on hot stones. For the adventurous traveller on a epicurean holiday, you can try out a dish favourite with the locals, bat stew.

You can make a vacation to New Caledonia anything you want it to be: a sailing holiday, a gourmet holiday, or a time to just relax by the beach.