Houaïlou

The valley of Houaïlou as well as the commune of the same name are in the Northern province of the New Caledonia.

Geography

The commune is located at approximately 3 hours of Noumea. To reach it, it is possible to pass by the collar of the Dogfish, a very sinuous road which connects Bourail to Houaïlou, to pass by Kouaoua and thus to arrive by Poro (tribe of Houaïlou) or to pass by Ponérihouen to north.

The valley of Houaïlou was, for a long time before the construction of the transverse road Koné - Tiwaka, the single way of passage to go east coast to the west coast by the collar of the Dogfish.

Places and monuments

In Houaïlou, one counts four mini-markets of which the LBK (Kuter self-service) and Kavirhovo, a pharmacy, a bakery which produces delicious viennoiseries, and a dispensary. One finds also a gendarmerie squad made up of 6 warrant officers. In the middle of the village, as in all communes in New Caledonia a war memorial rises dedicated to the combattnats of the two Great Wars.

Several schools are present, of which the college and agricultural college of C Neva, college of Wani, the Catholic school of Wani, etc… like several tribal schools.

With the Ba tribe (at the western northern end of the commune) is a cascade, ideal to bathe there. There also exists of splendid sites with Houaïlou as well at the seaside as in the valleys and a diversity of landscapes, mining landscape while passing by the wet forest.

The stopping of Néaoua, perched in, the product assembly line of electricity and feeds the east coast the Thio one in Hienghène.

Economy

Houaïlou is famous for its Letchi S which it produces in abundance and its famous Fête of Letchi which takes place the every years in December. The letchi had been introduced by the colonist of origin réunionnaise Jolimont Kabar. It is possible besides to visit oldest feet of letchi with Waraï. The municipality of Houaïlou is made a will to develop tourism in its area, one finds there some infrastructures tourist dilapidated, but no effort is carried out in this direction. However, one can camp in the tribes of Kaora and Kua located in seaside.

The local economy is centered exclusively on the production of ore. There are two important mines in the sector, the mine from May in Poro and the Ballande mines in Bâ. A training center with the trades of the mines is present at Poro, training center with the work of the mines and careers CFTMC.

There is a landing strip closed down, built by American during the Bataille of the Pacific, close to the littoral. It is sometimes used for races of karting.

Tribes

The common one belongs to the usual surface Ajië-Aro. It is subdivided in five usual districts made up of 33 tribes.

The tribes are distributed along the valley or on the littoral centered around the village éponyme, center administrative of the commune.

The language kanak spoken in Houaïlou is the Ajië, language that Maurice Leenhardt which lived many years in the valley with Do Néva described at the beginning of the 20th century and which helped of its catechumens kanak, it translated the Bible.

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