After the field season ended, we signed up for trip to the French overseas possession of New Caledonia. It is a somewhat popular place for beach vacations, but what we were after was a very special bird....(and a few days of scuba diving!)
These first couple shots of from the
Parc Territorial de la Riviere Bleue the last home of the kagu. We somehow in broken french convinced the park guards to open the gate at 4:30 in the morning for us...
so we could see this beast... the KAGU. Found only in New Caledonia. Once almost extinct, the kagu is making a slow comeback. Let's hope for the best
Tjibaou Cultural Centre
Mudskipper, an arboreal fish
Along the coast. We went diving twice. Day 1 was in Noumea Harbor, it sucked
Noumea
Amadee Island. Tremendous scuba diving
Sadly there are still tremendous threats to New Caledonia's unique ecosystem, the foremost being deforestation and nickel mining