Distances

New Caledonia is a faraway archipelago for people living in Europe, 20000 km from Paris, 22 h flight.

It is for Europeans the other side of the world. Its big neighbors are Australia (1500 km at the nearest point) and New-Zealand (1700 km) which is almost antipodal to France.

Tahiti is 5 000 km away.

The exact antipode of New Caledonia is in the Adrar Soutouf in Western Sahara (Morocco)

New Caleonia archipelago compared with France area, "Grande Terre" would have the size of the Pyrenées mountains

Sizes

Compared areas

With a total area of 19 100 km2 the archipelago has an area equivalent to four French Departments. The Grande Terre covers 16 890 km2, the smaller islands 2 310 km2.

But New Caledonia has a large Economic Exclusive Zone or E.E.Z. (200 nautical miles zone) with an area of 1740 000 km2. This ocean area is three times bigger than France!

The Metropolitan France has an area of 550 000 km2, New-Zealand 270 000 km2.

The Australian continent with 7 682 000 km2, would contain 14 times France and 400 times New Caledonia.

The main island "Grande Terre" is 400 km long and 50 km wide in average. It is a mountainous arc which can be compared to the Pyrénées mountains in size but for the maximum elevation which is only 1639 m at Mont Panié.

The islands (Loyalty, Kunie, Belep, etc.) are much smaller.

The complete archipelago (barrier reefs and islets included) is about 800 km long.