I am composing this
off line while at sea half way between Sydney & New Caledonia.
The weather is perfect, the sea calm and almost a purple blue. Yvonne
is having a little middle of the day nap after spending the morning
in the spa in the adults only section. 24Hr a day food at no cost can
be a problem as we are eating a lot & not exercising much at all,
just a lot of walking as the ship is really big. The shows in the
main theatre at night have been excellent & the outdoor cinema on
the Lido deck is fun.
2 days later we are
in Noumea & have just returned from a segway ride around the zoo
& tropical gardens. It’s HOT! & the city is quite smelly &
it’s good to be back onboard the cool ship. It’s almost sailing
time & we will be in our next port by tomorrow morning.
Stacks of pictographs because of our inability to post, The cruise was great for the first 5 or 6 days & then after we left the last port to cruise home I caught a terrible coughing chocking flu from someone, which made the trip home a misery. Yvonne got it off me the next day. Sydney is just as smokey as when we left & we took the new light rail, which only opened to passengers 5 days ago, to Darling harbour.
Our ports of call-:
Isle of pines.. A perfect tropical paradise with a fascinating history.
Lifou............. Just another perfect picture book tropical island
Noumea.....Total shithole, we should never have stopped there.
Another night in the 'Rocks" hotel & fly home tomorrow.
This is the last post for this blog.
We did a lot of eating.
In the 'Black Pearl' restaurant.
Show night every night,
Spending some time in Margaritaville.
From our balcony.
Near our balcony ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
Home
Approaching Noumea.
The best view of Noumea.
From our dinner table at the restaurant.
Lifou had to be accessed by life boat.
Going ashore.
Leaving Sydney, at bit out of sync.
Bridge climbers.
North head.
Looking back at a smokey Sydney.
From our new home.
Outer reefs approaching Noumea.
Zinc mine, main source of income
Approaching the port.
Native dancers welcoming the ship, looked like ants on a hotplate.
It looked better than it smelled.
The botanical gardens / zoo.
We explored the gardens for 2 hours on segways.
US
2 ducks shagging.
Coming into Lifou.
Going ashore.
In the life boat.
We explored around the island & reef in a glass bottomed boat.
The island is rising up out of the ocean every year, the cliffs show the progress.
.
A hot walk around the island.
One morning we got up & the main pool had a different towel animal on every deck chair
Approaching Isle of pines by life boat.
Graves of convicts. The French moddled the penal colony on the Australian system.
Back on the bus, Yvonne waving.
Prison ruins.
Cow guarding prison entrance.
We went to the chiefs house & he gave us a feed & a drink.
Chiefs back yard.
Chief John on the right.
Fertilising a vanilla plant.
He keeps 3 beehives in his yard in trees.
Paddys market Sydney
Walking to Darling harbour, the smoke was stinging our eyes & burning in our throats.
Refresher stop, its 41 degrees outside.
A lot of the new light rail line is only open to pedestrians & cyclists.
Circular Quay light rail stop.
A pano out of sync.
