New Caledonia

[Intro] Waves on the reef, wind in the pines [Verse 1] In the South Pacific, east of Australia's shore, Grande Terre rises long and green, a mountain spine and more, around it runs a lagoon among the largest in the world, a barrier reef of coral where the turquoise waves are curled. Nouméa is the capital, sailboats in the bay, French and Kanak voices meeting every day, the Loyalty Islands, Lifou, Maré and Ouvéa, and the Isle of Pines, its columns standing tall above the sea. [Pre-Chorus] Three thousand years ago the Lapita sailed in, their pottery named for a site on this island, where the story begins [Chorus] Grande Terre, New Caledonia, bamboo beating in the kaneka sound, the carved spire on the great house points up to the sky, the kagu calling from the forest ground [Verse 2] The Kanak people, Melanesian, keepers of the land, the yam is sacred in the garden, planted by hand, custom spoken with a gift, the clan's respected way, some twenty-eight Kanak languages still spoken here today. James Cook sailed by in seventeen seventy-four, named it for Scotland's hills he saw along the shore, France took possession in eighteen fifty-three, now many peoples share these islands by the sea. [Chorus] Grande Terre, New Caledonia, bamboo beating in the kaneka sound, the carved spire on the great house points up to the sky, the kagu calling from the forest ground [Bridge] Nickel in the red earth, among the richest stores on Earth, columnar pines like spears against the blue, the lagoons a World Heritage site since two thousand eight, the reef and all its life protected through and through. [Final Chorus] Grande Terre, New Caledonia, bamboo beating in the kaneka sound, the carved spire on the great house points up to the sky, the kagu calling from the forest ground [Outro] Waves on the reef, wind in the pines, Grande Terre