Blue River Provincial Park

Parc Provincial de la Rivière Bleue covers roughly 9,000 hectares in the Southern Province of New Caledonia and is the most visited nature reserve on the archipelago. Established in 1980, it protects one of the last large continuous tracts of New Caledonian rainforest on the main island of Grande Terre. The park's signature resident is the Kagu, New Caledonia's flightless endemic national bird — a silver-grey creature with a dramatic crest found nowhere else on Earth and currently listed as endangered. Well-marked hiking trails trace the banks of the Rivière Bleue through dense humid forest, offering some of the best chances in the world to spot the Kagu alongside other endemic bird species and rare reptiles. Early morning walks give the best odds of hearing the Kagu's distinctive haunting call echoing through the canopy.