Final entry and some ship photos

Great trip, especially sharing it with the family. Our daily routine would start when William and Elliott knocked on our door at 7am because their parents and Felicity liked a little sleep in.  We'd go topside and have a game of pool, ping pong and have a swim then have breakfast.  The sleepin crowd would meet us around this time.  We'd go all different directions during the days at sea, meeting up for lunch and dinner.  Felicity found a group of girls her own age so she hung out with them a bit and in between bingo, trivia, coffee, shopping, comedy club, wandering the ship and eating, we all found ourselves busy on the days at sea.

Harley and Amanda and the children had connecting cabins on deck 6, Pam and I were on deck 5, we all had balcony cabin so the fresh air was very welcome.  The cabin were spacious enough with plenty of storage and we only ever went there to sleep.

The three excursion days were very busy, the snorkling was sensational so we were a little weary by the end of each day.

The food in general was good.  We did breakfast and lunch at the buffets.  Breakfast could be pancakes to bacon/eggs and all things in between.  Lunch goes from hotdogs, Asian, pizza, burgers, sandwiches.  They are all served by staff so sometimes at peak times the lines can be long.  We had dinner in the restaurant and enjoyed a complimentry 3 course meal every night.  Very good choice and good quality food, we didn't go in to the 'pay as you go' restaurants.

Just a few hints for future reference -

Parking at the Brisbane International Cruise Terminal starts at about $80 for the week and should be organised online before you arrive.

Take a stubbie cooler, most beer is served in cans so you know it makes sense.

Take your own snorkel gear and you can snorkel to your hearts content and the island you visit.

Take some cash to tip your room attendant and dinner waiter, Aussie dollers are fine.

All the stopovers take card and/or Aussie dollars so no need to convert any cash.

Enrol any children in the Kids Clubs available, they don't need to attend all day every day but it's a good backup for any bored kids.

The drinks package was horrendously expensive ($120 per day each, and both passengers had to participate)and we'd be hard pressed to get our moneys worth even if we started having beer at 8am, cans of beer start at about $8/can with fancy cocktails at about $20 each!!

Most shore excursions are about $100; we went solo on Lifou Island and did the tours on Mystery Island (Drift Snorkeling) and Noumea (Duck Island for some and Noumea Choo Choo Train for others), it seemed expensive but in the end we thought they were good value for money.

Lifou Island and Mystery Island are serviced with tenders - if you haven't got an orgainsed excursion you should get the tender tickets as early as you can so you're early off the ship.

Noumea - passengers must be back on the ship at 11.15am for early departure - you could get a water taxi to Duck Island where the snorkeling is the best but you run the risk of missing the departure time.  Otherwise do the paid excursion and get 2 hours on the island and snorkel for free with your own gear.

Don't be in a big hurry to get off the ship at the end of the cruise.  Get your luggage collected the evening before, get the last 'debarkation ticket' and then relax with breakfast and wander off after the initial crowd lines up through security/customs and you'll avoid the lines of eager passengers wanting to get home.

Some of the pictures we bought from the ship photographers.

Last day

 This will be the second last post.  Sailing back to Brisbane today and tonight for disembarking at about 9am Sunday morning.  I'll do another post when the dust has settled at home to remind ourselves all the good, bad and ugly of the cruise.

Did our sporting challenges with the boys again this morning.  Wore ourselves out with the ping pong and pool.  The pool was perhaps the most entertaining due to the rocking and rolling of the ship, I tried to upload a video but the satelite internet was not quite up to the speed required (check back later), not sure who won or whos balls were sunk or in what order, we gracefully called it a draw then had a very competitive game of ping pong, the boys don't need any more practice, amazing how they've improved in just a couple of days, not sure I'll be playing them again!

Another big breakfast before a dip in the pool by the boys while Pam supervised our gear.  Seems the pool attendents have mastered the chlorine levels and all was well with the world.  It did get a bit choppy in the pool, nearly got beached on the side a couple of times.

The boys then spent the last of their allocated budgets in the games room.  Met all the gang for lunch, all but Felicity and I went for the $5000 bingo jackpot, Felicity went to the Pitch Perfect trivia with a group of girls she has met.  I offered to help but it seems she had a better offer.  I was left to the arduous task of blog and beer.

Well they didn't win anything so it looks like we'll return home with our tail between our legs.

Dinner tonight - decided to dress up and as you can see by the photos - not a bad job!  Now we have to pack ready to get kicked off in the morning, already thinking of what we could do on our next holiday.

Couple of interesting prolems for pool players at sea.

Finish the way we started!!

Dinner at the back of the boat

Very fancy?

William obviously spent his limited spare time and budget wisely!!

Noumea

Docked at Noumea (the capital of New Caledonia) this morning. We separated today, not in the divorce sense, just that Pam and Amanda chose a train/trolley ride around Noumea, the rest of us opted for a Zodiac ride to Duck Island.  In the end both groups thought they'd made the better choice so it all worked out well.  The downside to the zodiac ride, had to get up at 6am for breakfast as we were heading off at 7.15 for our tour.  We all managed without any complaints.

We had a short bus ride to the zodiac, the ship is docked in the port and a large bay is across a narrow stretch of land and we left from the bayside.  Straight in the zodiac and out through the mouth of the bay for about a 15 minute ride across the open ocean to Duck Island.  It's a small island (took 7.5 minutes to walk around), and there have never been any ducks on the island, it's not shaped like a duck so that's another mystery?

Decided to rent some snorkel gear as the locals have marked out a snorkel route with bouys to take you on the best way to see the largest variety of wildlife.  What a treat!! There was no drifting today, no tide or current, we could just lie on the surface and watch the activity below and I've never seen so many fish in one spot.  Lots of coloured coral in all shapes and sizes. Highlights were a turtle spotted by us all and an octupus spotted by William and 400 million fish of every variety annoying us constantly.  Stayed in for an hour (except Harley who got very waterlogged in the 2 hours he swam).

Zodiaced it back to the bay, onto the ship for showers and lunch.

Pam and Amanda had a highlight tour of the city and have decided they're coming back for a couple of weeks because it was so beautiful and I'd have to agree.  They learnt some of the history and waved at all the locals.  We have thousands of photos which I know you can't wait to see?

The lesson for the day - the currency is the Pacific Franc.  It was created in 1945 after the war and was designed to protect the French colonies (African colonies got the African Franc) from the devasting debt caused when France had to devalue their currency after WWII.  The Greater Noumea area has a population of about 150,000, about the same size as Toowoomba.

We met up for lunch and the ship left Noumea at about 12.30, on our way home with a fun day at sea tomorrow.

They tried to get Duck Island in the background - almost a win!

Police patrol

Friendly locals along the bay

A couple of the more than 140 islands making up New Caledonia

Duck Island

WWII defensive instalation

Couple of minor mechanical issues?

Noumea Town centre

Zodiac time!!

Out through the mouth of the bay

Wind in our hair

Our island

Our camp

Snorkel shop

Bar and relaxing area in the centre of the island

Ready to snorkel

Tough on the feet for the walk to the water

Walked around the island after a snorkel, not much to look at

An exclusion zone where hundreds of seagulls are nesting - they are as angry as a nesting plover

Small seawall made of coral rock

Came back to one exhausted man

Leaving the island

The snorkel map, follow the numbered bouys for maximum viewing

Our ship - view from the bay

Mystery Island

 Great night sleep (the eyes have recovered from the chlorine assault from yesterday morning), early morning activities with William and Elliott, a round robin competition of table tennis and I was the only one who couldn't win a game, generous of me I know.  I made up for it at the pool table. Dropped anchor at Mystery Island, part of the Vanuatu island group, it is a short distance from Aneityum Island.  Noone lives on Mystery Island (local taboo forbids residing on the island) and people from Aneityum Island come across to help with tours. Incidently Aneityum Island had a population of about 20,000 before western influence brought disease and blackbirding which decimated the population which currently stands at about 900.   Languages are principly French and English.

Delicious breakfast of omlette then back to the room to prepare for our guided snorkel trip.  We got the tender to the island, we were a bit early so had a swim in the ocean before our tour commenced.

Our tour was described as a 'Drift Snorkel Tour'. It involved us (the seven of us and a ring-in, so 8 in total) being met by a local guide who did a safety briefing (ie - Can you all swim?....good good), walked across the island and met by three other locals, one to lead the snorkellers, one to trail the snorkellers and one to follow in the boat.  Couldn't find a more relaxed group of guides, not a care in the world.  In to the boat out to the reef, we jump off the boat with our snorkel gear and 'drift' back to shore, should be there in an hour.  Jump in and head off, seems we are actually drifting towards Hawaii.  

Pam was close to the front guide, in the water 5 minutes and he turned to Pam and said, "How many is there supposed to be?"  It was hard to tell because we were scattered everywhere and he'd forgotten to count before we started.  Sanity prevailed and we got gathered together, counted 3 times and finally found eight of us.  Swim towards the beach.

What a magnificent experience, we saw every type of fish and coral in existence, the guide knows his stuff and showed us a family of giant clams and blue star fish.  He knew exactly where to take us for the best viewing of all the types of coral caves and aquatic highlights, money well spent.  Finally made it to the shore, I felt like Robinson Crusoe being washed ashore, threw myself on the sand exhausted.

Decided we'd seen enough and walked back through the open huts where they were cooking fresh lobster on open fires and wrapping them in banana leaves and selling them to the tourists.  Local lads playing a few random instruments and singing some traditional songs.  Walking across the coral beach to the jetty, on the tender, showers and a late lunch.  Went down to the lounge after lunch for trivia where a couple of the party were well on the way to having an afternoon nap.  Only kept awake by the riverting repartee of the compere and the crowd.

Mystery Island, jetty on the left

Aneityum Island

Might have got some coral in his eye

Holcombe trivia team, doing their best

At least William and Elliott have found a fun way to spend the afternoon

You can maybe see the tenders at the bottom centre of the ship, these tenders hold 120 people for transport to the islands, it gives you some perspective of how huge this ship is.