NOTRE VOISIN FRANÇAIS

There’s a moment, flying low over The Heart of Voh, when my pilot takes his hands off the control wheel to turn up the volume. We’ve been circling the world’s most photographed mangroves listening to Journey, and as the chorus to ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ kicks in, the captain cranks the music and sings along. It’s an apt soundtrack to the experience, which sees me strapped in a tiny two-seat Pipistrel plane exploring the postcard-perfect west coast of New Caledonia, a patchwork of intensely hued blues and is a spectacular sight, hemmed between coconut palms on land and water so clear I can see manta rays and turtles gliding between coral outcrops.