Post #543014 by Club Nouméa on Sat, Jul 17, 2010 12:39 AM

My dream find is a bit esoteric, but here it is anyway.

Some years ago I got to talking with a retired broadcaster in a restaurant here, called Hugo Manson. He used to appear a lot on NZ TV and radio in the 70s/80s. He was telling me about his first trip to New Caledonia, and this eccentric hermit bohemian he met who lived on Anse Vata beach. This was back in the days before the Anse Vata was turned into the Waikiki of New Caledonia, and it was still just a sleepy bay beyond the city limits of Noumea.

This was also back in the days when France's leader was President de Gaulle. Now this bohemian friend of Hugo's hated de Gaulle. He thought he was a pompous old twit, so he went around looking for coconuts shaped like de Gaulle's head, carved them into wicked caricatures of the President, and mounted them on sticks all along the wooded drive leading up to his bungalow. It used to annoy the hell out of the local Gaullists.

I dream that one day, somewhere, I will find one or more of those coconuts....

CN