Sandalwood Bay

From Drueulu Bay in the south to the Easo cruise ship reception site in the north, Sandalwood Bay has no shortage of features to recommend it. With a little imagination, when one looks at the contours of the island of Lifou on a map the bay resembles the (open) mouth of an imaginary animal. It was in Xepenehe ("arrival of the boats" in the local Drehu language) that the sandalwood trade began in 1842 between New Caledonia, Australia, and China. In the Drehu language, Easo means "the smoking fire" as during the years 1860-1870, whalers lit fires there to melt the fat of the whales that they had caught to make oil. Today a newly inaugurated tourist complex welcomes cruise ships on the same site and you will have the opportunity to buy local products representative of the culture and know-how of the people of Lifou at the stands there.