Plage de Mahamat - New Caledonia
Posted by: waiiti20
S 20° 17.732 E 164° 29.228
58K E 446451 N 7755731
James Cook's landing spot in New Caledonia
Waymark Code: WMP6TJ
Location: New Caledonia
Date Posted: 07/11/2015
Views: 4
On 7 September 1774, Captain James Cook, the great explorer of the South Pacific, disembarked in Balade, near the Pouebo River, onto the land that he had just named New Caledonia. Nearly 70 years later, on 21 December 1843, Monsignor Douarre followed the same route and disembarked from the Bucéphale to celebrate the first mass in New Caledonia, on the edge of Mahamat Beach. Some days later, the first Christmas mass was celebrated not far away, under the banyan tree which still shelters a chapel and an altar today.
On 24 September 1853, in Balade, Rear Admiral Février-Despointes signed the official deed by which France took possession of New Caledonia.
Several hundred metres off the beach, a stone rises above the crystalline lagoon, commemorating the navigator Huon de Kermadec, another great explorer, who died from tuberculosis when he put in at Balade in 1793 on his route searching for the lost Lapérouse expedition.
This highly symbolic place historically is also a pretty, pleasantly shaded beach bordered by secular banyan trees which have seen all the events related above occur.
Genus/Species: Banyon
Height: 70
Girth: 30
Method of obtaining height: Reliable source
Method of obtaining girth: Reliable source
Location type: Other public property
Age: 170
Historical significance: As per page write-up
Parking coordinates: S 20° 17.688 E 164° 29.154
Walk time: 1
Planter: Not listed
Website reference: Not listed
Photograpy coordinates: Not Listed
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Visit Instructions:
A closeup picture of your GPS receiver in your hand, with the tree in the background, is required. If the tree is on private property, this closeup photograph with the tree in the background may be taken from the nearest public vantage point without actually going to the tree.
The required photograph does not need to show the entire tree, but the individual tree must be recognizable.