Why this ride
543 km from Nouméa to Koné, about 7 h 26 of riding. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
New Caledonia Grand Terre West Coast: Noumea to Kone
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 543 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 7 h 26
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Noumea
Nouméa feels like a small French provincial city that was picked up and set down on a Pacific peninsula, and the combination is oddly charming. About ninety thousand people live here, almost half the territory of New Caledonia, and the town sprawls around a set of bays on the south-western tip of Grande Terre, with the lagoon, the second-largest in the world by reputation, stretching out in the turquoise light.
Read the complete Noumea write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Noumea is where the day begins. Next is Bourail.
2. Bourail
Bourail is the main town of the middle section of New Caledonia's west coast, a cattle town of about 4,800 people that feels more like rural Australia than the Pacific. The surrounding plain is ranch country, dotted with niaouli trees whose pale peeling bark gives the savanna a ghostly look, and every August the town holds its big agricultural fair, a sort of country show with horses, cattle and a lot of barbecue. The Pacific side is only a few minutes away, and the coast here has long white beaches and a famous rock arch, the Roche Percée, with a standing stone beside it called the Bonhomme.
Read the complete Bourail write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bourail comes up about 323 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kone.
3. Kone
Koné is where New Caledonia stops looking like a holiday brochure and starts looking like a working island. The town sits on the west coast of the Grande Terre, about halfway up, in a dry plain of savanna and cattle ranches, and it has been the administrative centre of the Northern Province since the province was created in the 1980s.
Read the complete Kone write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 543 km.
Leg by leg
Noumea to Bourail
Noumea → Bourail is 323 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bourail to Kone
Bourail → Kone is 220 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.