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Published: March 22nd 2012
There were two full days at sea after Sydney, and like day one day two was pretty busy as well with dancing singing crafts and eating. We decided to eat on deck at lunch time as a) the weather was lovely and b) we couldn't be bothered with our table. Great choice of food, we had a couple of beers lined up and guess what, apart from one, our table found us and came to sit with us - bless them!
We discovered a bar at the top of the ship we had so far not found, the observatory which was lovely to sit in and float along, the sea is so blue. Fred Olsen has a dress code which you follow which we quite like. It wasn't posh posh all the time but they have formal, informal and smart casual evenings which for the latter still meant no shorts, vests etc. and they adhere to this strictly which is good. You also have a choice with eating if you don't want to do formal or informal, there is another restaurant which we can use. And we decided again, we would eat away from our normal table and go to the garden restaurant, we had a very nice meal but Gusty our waiter came to find us as he was worried where we had got to!
Day 5, can't believe that many days have gone by already and we arrive at our first port of call at lunch time today, however, time to squeeze in a quick Sunday lunch before arriving, very tasty as everything is. Noumea is the capital city in the group of islands called New Caledonia, we are on cigar shaped Grande Terre, nearly 1000 miles away from Australia, founded by Captain Cook in 1774 but Napoleon grabbed it in mid 1800s and this little dot in the pacific comes under the control of France and looked like a good place to live. Called New Caledonia as Captain Cook thought it looked like Scotland. We took a tour on a bright yellow land train for a couple of hours which was interesting, the guide was an American, there are 25 of them living here though 1 million gi's passed through during World War Two and built much of the infrastructure. Total population is 250,000 they can retire at 55 on 80% of their salary, sounded good. Gorgeous beaches, smart houses loads of boats. Nickel was discovered here and they are still one of the largest providers in the world today and that is where their wealth comes from. People are extremely friendly, ready for a chat and everybody waves as you go by.
Temperature was 31 degrees and humid, they had a traditional welcome ceremony for us on the quayside with music and dancing and the same when we left with Col being dragged up by one of the young ladies and having to do a lot of knee trembling which was how he could tell her that he like her!
Day 6, at sea, busy programme as ever but we failed to make the line dancing and spent the rest of the day being told off by other participants, most of whom we had no idea who they were! We are probably two of the youngest on board and therefore perhaps people remember us but a large amount of white heads of a certain age blend into one for us! Most people are from the UK but also a lot of Swedes and Norwegians, a few French, Italian and German too. One of the Swedes stopped us today to tell us that we had nice tempers!
Singing clashed with a lecture so Col sang and Sal listened. The lecturer is a doctor who generally works as a coroner but also advises for TV programmes like Waking the Dead but this talk was on Joseph Merrick The Elephant Man and he was excellent, the talk was good and the photographs he had access to also.
Having done a couple of ballroom dancing lessons, we decided to quit whilst we were ahead for the moment and before we got confused we would practice our basic steps which were getting us around the dance floor in quite a tidy fashion, so, it was sunbathing time or perhaps frying time would be more appropriate - it was hot, hot, hot! The swimming pool has sea water and that is also very warm at about 30 degrees, Sal lasted about 5 minutes in a deck chair before retreating to the pool then shade.
As an alternative to the main restaurant there was a curry night going on which we joined in, huge selection of dishes all very good, the head chef came over to talk to us who is German, we told him we like being in the middle of the Pacific eating a curry cooked by a German, but this lot had been cooked by an Indian chef.
Day 7
We are in Port Vila today which is the capital of the republic of Vanuatu in the Melanesian group of islands. Captain Cooks name pops up for all of these islands as he was sent by the British Admiralty to observe the transit of Venus across the sun but amazingly in just 3 voyages discovered virtually all there is to know about the Pacific and of course Australia and New Zealand. Most of these tiny islands are so spread out and were in habited by cannibals and when missionaries arrived they were often eaten by them and in fact if you were eaten by the chief you should consider it an honour (even though you were dead!)
Vanuatu was unique as until independence in 1980s it was jointly ruled by France and UK and apparently they never did agree which side of the road to drive on! It is probably the most laid back place we have ever been to. We did a tour in the morning to a traditional village and though they were trying to make us believe that they still lived this basic simple life, we would lay money on our tribal guide putting on his Levi jeans and going to pick up his emails from his Apple Mac as soon as we had left. However saying that it was interesting to hear about how they had survived and lived, tattoos play the part of engagement rings to say a woman is taken, depending on her village, that could be on her face, the alternative was they punched her teeth out so that told you she was spoken for - charming! There are about 80 islands in this group, we are on Efate, with over 100 dialects spoken, usually a village can't understand their neighbouring village.
On the quayside there was about 50 market stalls, nearly all selling the same stuff, quite disappointing really and nothing that interested us but they weren't at all pushy and very happy to chat. One lovely lady called Hazel was working away in her stall sewing but sitting at the back and her view was spectacular of the sea and she was there to braid hair, as I hadn't got enough she just wanted me to sit with her and view her window on the world which was rather lovely. A bit of lunch and a cool down had us ready to tackle the town in the afternoon, we got a taxi and like most vehicles it was fairly beaten up but nice young chap driving, he had the radio turned down low so we asked him what music he liked and he turned it up full blast and it was a sort of African/Calypso mix and we went to town with him dancing at the wheel!
We found the indoor market which was sweltering and full of little sectioned off stalls all selling the same stuff, bright and patterned shirts and dresses all being made by very lovely smiley ladies beavering away on their singer sewing machines. We headed towards the beach in search of a beer to watch the world go by, which happens here slowly, we can't imagine they would rush for anything.
The fruit and veg market was interesting, they make money here from bananas and coconuts so they were in abundance, full of ladies running the stalls, half of them asleep behind or under the stall, it really was very hot and it is not their hottest time yet!!!
The ship sailed at 5pm and as it was hot and sunny they have sail away (!) the band are out on deck with a great singer and people are up dancing - all good fun! The ship has its own 6 piece orchestra who we are really impressed with, they seem to be able to play anything and accompany anyone. Every night there is a show of some sort and they are playing for hours on end sounding terrific. In the various bars etc there are other musicians, we love a 3 piece that plays in the lounge, piano, bass and violin, again their repertoire is enormous, they pay during afternoon tea, very palm court.
Day 8
At sea today, clocks went forward an hour and we got up in time for line dancing - still useless, 2 ladies held Cols hands to 'help' him, it simply meant they were closer to him for having their feet trodden on! Again we have had loads to do today and had to decide what to choose to do, however we are now the proud owners of 2 trays, painted and decorated by our own fair hands, so a new project will start at the next craft class. Our restaurant table has been interesting, Benidorm Benny was so miserable at being on this ship that he'd complained about everything and a couple of evenings ago had blown up at our little waiter about his pudding which he didn't like, Sal said hang on its not his fault and BB stormed out.... He hasn't uttered one word since, his loss as the rest of us seem to be getting on great without his input and we only have to sit with him for dinner. However, so funny this evening as we get to dinner and he is sitting there with his iPod on!!! Everyone is stifling a giggle and just laugh when he makes his early abrupt exit as he always does, our waiter has a great sense of humour and seeing us laughing, comes over and says he hope he wears a helmet next time as well as his iPod.
Day 9
We get up at 6am as we think it is about time that we photographed some sunrises, bad day to chose as the decks are wet from the pouring rain we have had all night and there is so much cloud that we ain't going to see the sun for a while, so back to bed for an hour and when we get up again, a different picture, the sun is out, it is already extremely hot and we are just coming into Fiji.
No tours had interested us so we got a cab and negotiated a tour with Mr Sunil Kumar. To say his cab had seen better days would have been an understatement, air con was of the analogue style - open the window. We said we wanted to see some beach, some countryside and the city and that is what he did and we really enjoyed it. In the afternoon we took a walk into the city and had a look around and did a bit of shopping having run the gauntlet of the many souvenir stalls stationed just outside the port - during the morning we had felt sorry for this old boy and bought some awful wooden knives with our names carved on them! Again, we loved the fruit and veg market with lots of things we didn't recognise and bananas from the size of your thumb to the size of a marrow. There were no scales, you just bought things by the heap! Busses are the main form of transport different colours for different routes, their air con is pre analogue as they have taken all the windows out! Again, everyone very friendly, as you walk past people say bula which is hello. An interesting mix of old colonial buildings and modern buildings, McDonalds have also made it here. Men look very smart in their sulus, wrap around skirts and the police wear white ones with a zig zag edge. Many women wear flowers, on your left ear means you are single, on your right ear you are married and behind both ears you are desperate!
4 days at sea now which we are looking forward to as there are so many things to do and a bit of feet up will be appreciated. Line dancing, singing, crafts, lecture on Jack the Ripper which was very good, sitting on the deck with a Pimms in hand literally watching the world go by is just the most relaxing thing to do. 17th March is St Patricks day which is well celebrated on board and in fact we will celebrate it twice as we are having two 17th March. Last night we were 11 hours ahead of UK and during the night we crossed the international date line so we are on 17 March again and now 11 hours behind UK and somewhere in amongst this our clocks went forward an hour as they will gradually do as we sail towards home.
Crafts class on to the next project which is embroidery which was one step too far for Col but Sal is giving it a go and enjoying it.
Evening entertainment has been very good, there has been singers, comedian, magician, cellist, flautist, and the ships own company of singers/dancers which have been really enjoyable. There is a cinema and always something going on - we are loving it and working out how we can do this again :-)
Day 14
We sailed into paradise this morning, Bora Bora, part of French Polynesia in the Society Islands and is known as the pearl of the Pacific. The different colours of the water just blew us away, it is crystal clear and if you were to paint what you saw, somebody seeing your
Painting who hadn't been to this area of the Pacific just wouldn't believe the colours were true. It really is picture postcard. We were only here for the day and wanted to make the most of it so,booked two tours. First was on Le Truck a sort of coach come lorry with no windows and decorated with gorgeous bougainvillaea is everywhere, huge bright red flowers and this is what our truck was decorated with and so were we.
Being a lagoon in the middle of an extinct volcano there was no harbour for the ship so they anchored in the lagoon and two tender boats went to and fro all day taking us over to the island, a welcoming party of traditional music and pretty girls with lots of flowers were there and everyone was given a flower, we both got a bandana made of palm as well. There is only one road which runs around the island, mostly legacy of US army in second world war. The views of the sea and beaches were stunning. One problem, us two budding photographers managed to take out 2 camera with almost flat batteries! We stopped at a little place where a family make sarongs, very colourful tie die, the finished products hanging on rows of washing lines so that you could see the full colour and pattern. The pretty flowers on Le truck were thrown out of the window for the land crabs that live down holes, as the flowers landed, loads of them popped out of their holes in the ground and then dragged the flowers down to eat. Good tour with the most fantastic photo stops and a drink stop at their famous hotel Bloody Marys.
What was to have been a leisurely lunch ashore before our afternoon tour turned into a mad dash back to the ship which involved the tender as well just so that we could get some juice back Into our cameras!
The afternoon tour was on a boat which took us out of the lagoon passing several motus which are the many idyllic islands around. The crew were singing allow the way there and back which was fab. We went some way into this beautiful blue water and if we wanted to we could get in and swim with stingrays..... Did we want to? We were first in! However there was a delay getting in as a small shark went by, ok, so we let some others get in first! The crew had something to feed them and within minutes we were surrounded by these huge stingrays, they were swimming all around us, we had snorkels on and they came up to your face, which was a bit strange, but they swam through your legs and were as soft as silk. The guy was also chucking bits of food into the air which some gull like birds were catching - brilliant to watch. We then moved on to a private motu where again we could snorkel, some pretty coral and loads of beautiful little fish, we loved it. One of the crew gave us a demo on opening coconuts which we could then drink/eat and he had a great sense of humour, so good demo. Apparently more people die from falling coconuts on Bora Bora than any other cause! Heading back they served a beautiful selection of fruit, juice and cake and of course they were singing. We sailed at 6pm and were still smiling from such a wonderful day spent in such a beautiful place.
Dining table update:- we have had enough of Benidorm Benny, therefore the remaining 5 members of our table have moved to the next table and left him on his own, what a stupid man wasting such a fantastic holiday, history as far as we are concerned.
Amazingly we are uploading this from somewhere in the middle of the Pacific and it would take an age to uploaf photos so Col and his coconuts will have to wait"
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Jane & Daryl
non-member comment
Enjoying your experience
Can't wait to see your photo's. Have a mental image of Col and his coconuts! Also the knee trembling and Line dancing! Will he ever live it down! We await your next destination!