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Published: October 14th 2012
9 October 2012 Tuesday. We arrived at Lifou Island of New Caledonia shortly after breakfast. The weather was overcast once again. Nevertheless, Linda and I lined up on the sixth deck for the pass to get on the tender which would take us to shore. The island looked interesting from the ship…a low lying limestone and coral island with plenty of palm trees and some stretches of white sandy beaches. A church was located on the hills on either side of the beach we were headed for.
Upon landing we walked to the grass shacks that sold souvenirs, and Linda bought a lava lava or sarong or whatever they call it in New Caledonia that our daughter could use as a table cloth. Then we walked to the top of the ridge which formed the backbone of the island and towards one of the churches. We were told there was a nice snorkeling beach on the other side below the church. We got there and found nice snorkeling, but no beach. We walked back to the beach where we had landed and proceeded to walk along it looking for a nice spot to sunbathe. While Linda continued along the beach
looking for seashells and coral, I tried the water which was cold. I could have endured that, but the sea bottom was limestone and broken coral fragments, which was quite painful to walk on without aqua shoes. I retreated to the beach towel. There was an occasional sprinkle, which we avoided by hiding under the palm trees. But by 10:30 am a fierce rainstorm which we had seen approaching most of the morning finally arrived. The palm trees provided no protection so soon every person along the beach was drenched. Linda and I realized that there was no difference between standing under the trees and walking in the open, so decided to walk in the torrent back to the tender along with everyone else. Somehow we got separated, so after looking for Linda, decided to just catch the next tender.
Upon arriving at the ship I checked with security who confirmed that Linda had arrived on board. After warm showers we dressed and went to the top deck for lunch. As most passengers were back on board with nothing to do the cruise director added an afternoon matinee at 1 pm. “Real Steel” about robot boxing was perhaps the
dumbest movie I have ever seen. I wanted to leave about 2 minutes into the movie, but Linda wanted to stay…oh well. The rest of the afternoon was just relaxing and talking to fellow passengers. We watched them raise the tenders back on the ship and fire up the engines to turn the ship to the south. Isle of Pines is only 120 miles away. The weather forecast is for more favorable weather, and the island is supposed to have more white sandy beaches fringed with coconut palms.
The day ended again with dinner and a show. They have activities until 1 am, with a movie under the stars at 10 pm and dancing, etc after that, but we have never had enough energy to stay up that late.
10 October 2012 Wednesday. The sky was cloudy as we approached the Isles of Pines. We resigned ourselves to another cloudy and rainy day. However, over breakfast the clouds started to dissipate with patches of blue sky. Our hopes were rekindled, and we quickly finished breakfast, put on our swimsuits, and caught the first tender to the island.
The Isles of Pines was discovered by Captain Cook in
1774, and naming the island wasn’t difficult, although the pines here are very different…almost like feathery Monkey Puzzle trees. By 1853 the island came under French control. They used it as the Pacific equivalent of Devil’s Island in the Caribbean.
Upon landing we were presented with palm headbands and a welcome dance. Linda and Betty didn’t come to swim, but to look around. Mike and I were here to take maximum advantage of an increasingly sunny day. We found a beautiful white sand beach with headlands of eroded limestone cliffs on each end, and dove in. The sand extended quite far into the sea, so we didn’t have the problem of sore feet from coral that we had the previous day on Lifou. The water was cold but with the sun we got used to it. Most of the time I just relaxed on my towel under the palm trees; casting an occasional glance to make sure the coconuts were firmly in place.
The girls finished exploring about 10:15 am and decided to return to the ship. I really could not understand why as this was the first nice day in many days, and the quintessential South Pacific
Island. Mike and I let them go, and stayed on the beach until 1 pm. We returned to the ship, changed into regular clothes, and had a quick lunch. After trying unsuccessfully to get the girls to join us, we then returned to the island to do some exploring of our own. We walked the length of a adjacent mile long beach, taking our time, before returning to catch the last tender to the ship.
This was our favorite island thus far, as it was perfect weather for perfect beaches.
11 October 2012 Thursday. We arrived in Noumea on the main island of New Caledonia at 7 am to another gorgeous day. We hurried with breakfast and disembarked to catch the first shuttle bus into the city center. We were not allowed to walk because this was an active port with a lot of activity, and they didn’t want a passenger to be run over by a forklift truck.
As Mike and Betty had signed up for a shore excursion which required them to be back by 11 am, we decided to walk around the main part of town starting with the Place des Cocotiers (Coconut Square).
Noumea is a very French city, reminiscent of a French Riviera seaside town, with a promenade along the sea front lined with palm trees and flowers and a harbor filled with yachts. This was our favorite port city on the cruise. We stopped at the market in the Quartier Latin where Linda made a few purchases for the kids.
Mike and Betty returned to the ship for their tour, so Linda and I thought we would walk to the Aquarium to the south of town on the Baie de Citrons. But first we had to stop at McDonalds for a frozen Coke to give us energy (and a medium fries thrown in for good measure). We then started to walk but soon fund our way blocked with construction. We decided to go with Plan B by returning to the Tourist Information Center where we got round trip bus tickets and entrance tickets to the Noumea Aquarium for $15 each.
Once we got to the aquarium we were happy with the choice to go with Plan B as the walk would have taken at least an hour if not more, and in the heat of the day we would
have died of exhaustion. The aquarium was fantastic…one of the best we have been to including the aquarium in Monaco! We then walked across the street to wait at the beach for the next bus. While waiting, we watched the windsurfers racing across the waves helped by a very strong wind. It was pleasant, despite the wind, as we were protected by the sun by the palm trees.
The bus eventually arrived 30 minutes later, and we returned to the tourist information center and then the ship for a late lunch and showers. I tried to use the internet to read my email and post some travel blogs, but the connection was terrible, and I accomplished nothing. I then waited on the stern of the ship for them to cast off at 3:30 pm for the non-stop cruise to Sydney.
After dinner and a show Linda and I went on deck to see if we could find the Southern Cross. We had to find a dark deck which we eventually found at the top deck at the front of the ship. There we met an Australian couple, Tracy and Ian, who were also start gazing. We asked them
if they could identify the Southern Cross. We all looked, but couldn’t see it. We talked to them for awhile and eventually whatever clouds were blocking the view cleared up, and we could see it vividly directly in the path the ship was taking. We also saw a shooting star. We then returned to our rooms for the night.
12-13 October 2012 Friday and Saturday. We had two more sea days before arriving in Sydney on Sunday. The weather became very bad and the sea conditions worse from about 8 pm on Friday to 8 am on Saturday, with the waves from the bow cascading against our cabin window. The sea was so rough, with the bow rising and then crashing into the next wave, that I had difficulty sleeping from being tossed around on my bed. Amazingly, the Sea Bands worked and I didn’t become nauseous, and neither did Linda. This was the only rough sea conditions we had during the entire cruise, which was very fortunate.
We played the final round of Progressive Trivia on Saturday morning. Our team won by one point with 166 correct answers over the 9 days. We had great fun; particularly
meet the others on the team and cross paths throughout the cruise when we weren’t playing.
We cleared Australian customs and immigration on board…the Australian officials boarded in Noumea so made the process quite painless.
As the cruise draws to an end, a few observations about Cruisers are in order. Linda and I are not Cruisers. We much prefer traveling on land to see other countries…to stay in their lodgings and eat in their restaurants, and see everyday life played out around us. We met Cruisers who were on their 40
th cruise. Their idea of visiting Europe was to take a Mediterranean cruise stopping in a different port and country every day for a couple of hours. They place a high priority on not having to change hotel rooms every day, and the convenience of having everything paid for up front, with the transportation, food, and entertainment provided without having to make decisions all the time. We cruise only when it is the only practical or cost effective way to see what we want to see…like the Alaska Inside Passage or South Seas Islands. We will likely do other cruises, like the Caribbean and maybe from Valparaiso, Chile
around the southern end of South America to the Falkland Islands, Montevideo, Uruguay and Buenos Aires, Argentina; but we don’t consider ourselves to be Cruisers.
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anonymous
non-member comment
Great Job