I was a little underwhelmed by New Caledonia - watching a cheesy island version of show girls doing a dancing in the rain number in the casino was a real low point! LOL
Then you weren't in the right parts of New Caledonia.
The big hotels near Noumea and the Isle of Pines are magnets for package tourists. If you aren't a package tourist and don't want to be around them, don't go there.
There are a few great restaurants and worthwhile things to do around Noumea. We were happy to skip the Isle of Pines and had a great time in the northern part of New Caledonia and especially on the Loyalty Islands which may be just what the OP is seeking. Ouvea has one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever experienced--Barbuda beautiful, Havelock island beautiful--on an island with a complicated history. It's the only French place I've ever been where the hotel de ville doesn't fly the tricolor. (Also there weren't any men my age, because they had all been killed by the French army.) Ouvea takes patience but is well worth it.
Lifou is a much bigger island--larger than the island of Tahiti but with a tiny population and no industrialization. We stayed at Chez Jeanette's in a grass hut a few meters from the beach. We were the first Americans who'd ever stayed there (this was November 2007).
In the north of the mainland I stopped by the pizza place in Poindime one evening to order a pizza. When I returned half an hour later to pick it up I was surprised to find my name on it, even though I hadn't given my name. "Oh," the pizza girl said, "my sister works at the petrol station and got your name off your credit card. We don't get many Americans here." I'm fully confident that by the next morning many people in Poindime knew that we had ordered a Texan pizza (which was very good).
New Caledonia is much more than casinos and cheesy dance shows. Rent a car, fly Air Caledonie to the Loyalty Islands, and step back into an uncrowded, unhurried, amazingly beautiful part of the world. And if you're like me, months later you will still have the Kaneka music in your head.
P.S.
Does sbhonline give any prizes for most years between posts? Thanks for prompting me Erma!