LIFOU. A LIFE EXPERIENCE
After a couple of weeks’ surfing and exploring, we were feeling pretty settled in when we were invited to visit the Loyalty Islands, in particular, the commune of Lifou, home of the largest atoll in the world. Up until that point we’d never really heard of Lifou but on the five hour ferry ride out there, we noticed that for the first time since our arrival in New Caledonia, we were surrounded purely by locals from the Kanak culture – brown skin, rasta hair and bare feet. We were both thrilled at the chance of getting to know the local culture more and excited that we had the chance to stay with a local family to experience it first-hand.
At the ferry port in ‘Wé’ we get greeted by our guide Ingrid, who promises to take us all around the island and tell us the stories we are dying to hear, but first we head to our new home, known as a ‘case’, a traditional round wooden hit with a straw roof. Lifou is totally unspoiled and extended families live on massive plots of land in a collection of cases called a ‘tribu’. Each case has a high ceiling and a fireplace for colder nights; the whole family – kids, parents and grandparents – sleep together on the floor, and we would be joining them during our stay in Lifou.
