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Published: February 13th 2010
We left beautiful Bora Bora after a spectacular day and set sail for Samoa, only now the seas were not quite as kind as they had been. We encountered high winds and 30+ foot seas that lasted for a couple of days and since that slowed the ship, we were informed that we would have to skip our call to Apia, Samoa and continue on to Fiji. In fact, we were on the edge of a cyclone, one of two that hit the area just after we left!
We crossed the International Date Line on Friday, January 29th, thereby losing the 30th forever and skipping to the 31st when we arrived in Lautoka, Fiji, the second largest city in Fiji with over 45,000 residents. We took a boat excursion to Savala Island for a day of snorkeling, coconut and basket weaving demos. After Bora Bora the snorkeling was quite disappointing … very shallow water and not many fish but it was still a nice outing. It always amuses us that we seem the same groups of people that tend to lean towards the same types of excursions. We, of course, are in the group of people who tend to get
Savala Island, Fiji
Snorkeling to Shoreoff the ship and get on a smaller boat to spend our day … the “water people”!
Our next stop in the South Pacific on February 2nd was Port Vila, Vanuatu, an archipelago of 83 islands lying between Fiji and New Caledonia. Port Vila is the Capitol with a population of 38,000 residents. Once again, we hopped on an old sailing vessel for a day of snorkeling and “native education”. While still not in the league of Bora Bora, the snorkeling here was much better than in Fiji, with lots of colorful fish.
Our last stop (February 3rd) in the beautiful South Pacific was Noumea, New Caledonia, colonized by the French in 1853 and host to thousands of American servicemen and women during World War II. We spent the morning wandering the town and then took an afternoon scenic tour of the island, ending with a stop at their new Aquarium. This really was quite a beautiful and charming island and a new place we’d consider re-visiting!
So we are now at sea once again for a two day journey to Sydney, Australia where are scheduled to arrive on Saturday, February 6th.
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mary swift
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dallas report
You probably heard aready about our record snow in Dallas. 12". It was beautiful but dangerous. Lots of power outages and tree damage. Today it's all just a memory. Everything back to normal. Valentine's day was fun. Dave and I had dinner at Oceanaire and told Mason hello from you two. The NBA alstar game was on so the Westin was packed with very tall people. It took us 45 minutes to get to the restraunt. Lori and Dustin joined us and we had a lovely meal. I'm having a little "procedure" done on Thursday. A little laser resurfacing. I'll be hiding out for 4-5 days. Dave will be in AZ at his niece's wedding. Work is still a little on the slow side but we are making the best of it. We love the blog. It helps but we still miss you lots. Mary