My name is Bruno, an amateur trail runner, and I’ve been based in Nouméa, New Caledonia, since January 2025. Located in the Pacific, some 17,000 kilometres from the mainland, I find myself in the southern hemisphere.
After a three-year break from sport, this change of scenery has really helped me get back into it. The almost constant good weather and the incredibly favourable environment – whether in Nouméa itself or on the surrounding mountains – allow me to train daily, motivated by the splendour of the landscapes.
In this context, I therefore took up running again without any specific goal in mind; I signed up for my first 10km trail runs, then 15km, then 24km… Taking care not to injure myself – so progression above all else – I continue to increase the distances. And then there are the ‘Tribu’ trails, which transport us into the Kanak world. So I combine trail running with travel, discovering a variety of cultures in New Caledonia: Kanak (Melanesian), Caldoche (white settlers who have been here for several generations) and Zoreille (metropolitan French)
My first major goal is in December 2025: the UTNC in Dumbéa, north of Nouméa, a 50 km race with an advertised 2,700 metres of elevation gain. Although I’m starting to structure my training a bit better, it’s not quite right yet, but I still managed to complete the race without any particular difficulty, and that’s excellent news. This is where my long-distance goals really begin, as I set my sights on ultra-trails. The very next week, I signed up for the Ultra-trail Tarawera in New Zealand for the 100K, which is 102 km with an elevation gain of 2,400 metres.