It is not just a zoo or a city park for walking. Michel Сorbasson Botanical Park is a place for walks, picnics in the open air and the study of animals and birds.
There is no feeling that you come to the natural reserve… It looks like you enter the dense rainforest. Close your eyes for a second, open and drown in the variety of green color.
Gorgeous peacocks calmly stroll along the stoned paths, and somewhere is heard the cry of a raven. But be careful, huge spiders can hide in the bushes! There is very fresh and calm. The city stress passes after a few minutes. Some of the visitors choose this park for meditation, sitting on a bench or green lawn. They can come even after work because a huge park of 36 hectares is located in the center of Noumea.
You do not find there a lot of animals, mainly birds, and reptiles. Nice donkeys, brindle deer, pigs, donkeys, rabbits, and hens – it seems that you come to the grandmother in the village.
But there are a lot of birds. Some of them stroll along the paths like peacocks, some of them are kept in a separate pavilion, which has a special entrance. There are hundreds of different birds, hundreds of voices and so many feathers! Some of them, like the parrots, can be fed but only under the supervision of an employee of the park. And the pavilion looks like a palace with walls of glass and the roof… like a castle on the East.
One of the must-do things is to close the eyes and, enjoying the silence, inhale the incredible aroma of flowers. There is a big number of plants: palm trees, cacti, orchids.
The locals come there to do sports, walk with a child or have a picnic in a pleasant company of friends. Because in the park there are sports grounds with different exercise machines, special gazebos for picnics, and the spots for children. Everything you need for a good rest.
The park was created not so long ago. The main goal was to preserve the animals and plants living on the territory of New Caledonia. At the end of the 19th century, the parks of Noumea and all local forests lost almost all the kinds.
Someone died because of hunger, someone was killed by poachers. So, in 1972, Michelle Corbasson made that park. The study of endangered, rare species is still taking place. The specialists take care of animals, grow plants. For its 60-year history, the local scientists reproduced and saved several rare species from the extinction, which can be seen just on the island of New Caledonia.
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