OK so ……

The cruise itself (as in the boat) was pretty shoddy and about as old as your great great grandma, but I don’t want to rant for the whole blog as I don’t think you would appreciate that and I have already written a very strongly worded letter to P&O about it, but that is a story for another day. Anyway what is important is the beautiful islands we were able to visit, the gorgeous places we were able to experience and the lovely people we met along the way – So I will mostly write about lovely things, as we did have an amazing time overall and I didn’t complain too much (Ryan may not agree with that)

Next on our trip list would include New Caledonia and Vanuatu – places we would definitely not have included in our itinerary if it weren’t for this cruise and whilst eating food that made me sad, I had to keep reminding myself how lucky (blessed – Yolanda) I was to be going to visit four islands in the South Pacific I would probably never see again.

After we were actually found on the system and got on to the cruise, we visited our room which was a little pocket of the Antarctic (FREEZING) so we called reception to sort it out whilst taking part in the safety briefing and actually paying attention because the weather was going to be very bad tonight – you can imagine my reaction to this (poor Ryan)

This was shortly followed by dinner, after a stiff G&T, another cold visit to the Antarctic, we finally sat down in the very pleasant restaurant. Now you really are getting a quick summary of how I felt about the food but I think I may have shed a small tear after the three courses and not because it was SO amazing – lets put it that way. I think by this point, Ryan was probably slightly regretting proposing to me…..

Anywhoo, we drank lots of wine, watched some live music and had a laugh, whilst the boat rocked from side to side. You could see the swell rising outside but it wasn’t that uncomfortable at all, so I was quite pleased, after expecting to be thrown from side to side as I had never been on a cruise before. We returned to our room with fingers crossed that it would be nice and warm – or at least just not freezing. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case, and even by 1am it still wasn’t the case, but long story short, after the manager brought down his thermometer (I didn’t think it was necessary) and agreed it was way too cold, we were moved to a lovely large room with a sea view. I slept very well !!

We were told that the room would have to be vacated the following day (as our room was due to be fixed) because another couple would be joining the boat. Now I don’t really know how they were joining the boat as we were due to be at sea for three days but hay ho. After no update the following day or even the following the morning after that, I unpacked our bags and decided if they wanted us to move back to our old room, they would have to move us themselves. Luckily for us or/and them, they kindly let us have the room for the duration of the cruise and so we were staying put. Thank goodness!

Three days at sea went quite slowly and we were looking forward to seeing some islands and better weather (crikey I sound like a moaning old bag) The onboard entertainment was great and that along with the good coffee shop and its scrummy chocolates were probably the highlights of being onboard – that and the free bevy package obviously!!! Oh and our lovely friends Rob and Daryl!

On day two Ryan convinced me to do a cocktail making course, which was obviously so much fun and the best suggestion he had since suggesting a cruise! We made a capriosca, Pimms (which Aussie’s barely even know about) a grapefruit cosmo and for dessert a mudslide. Well we were rather jolly by lunch time and so we just carried on with the cocktails. My fave being the toblerone and my saviour after dinner because dessert wasn’t much to write about home about – don’t even get me started on the cheese and bickies.

I did feel quite like I was being a spoilt child after a while, so I did have a word with myself and sorted myself out. It didn’t matter that the food was average – I would just put on less weight than first thought, which was a big positive, though I would drink a lot more than first thought which was probably a negative but hay, why not, we are on our holiday on holiday after all. The positives outweighed the negatives by far and we had got a lot more than we had paid for – that was for sure! I just couldn’t wait to get to the islands !!!

By the third sea day, the weather had really cheered up and we were starting to feel the sun on the south pacific. We sat outside and enjoyed the views of endless ocean and it was so peaceful – absolutely nothing but water in sight. Our first island stop was the capital of New Caledonia and it would be a large port town called Noumea which was a French settlement. Ryan was very much looking forward to being French again and chatting up the locals. By the early evening, Ryan’s brother Dan had kindly got in touch with the spa and got us free access for the duration of our stay which was amazing and a relief really. We went down to the bottom floor, donned our dressing gowns and went and sat in the relaxation area whilst sipping on champagne. Thank goodness for this we thought – phew and breathe. (Thanks Dan!)

We arrived into port at about 7am and just made it to breakfast like usual and joined the queue to depart. There were local markets as you got off the ship and we wandered through before walking in to town. As we had decided not to do any of the expensive ‘shore tours’ we weren’t sure what to do, but we had been given quite a bit of advice by people who had visited Noumea before. So, we jumped on the local bus and took a water taxi over to Duck Island with our new friends Rob and Daryl. They, like us, had booked the cruise last minute and flown down from Bellingen (a lovely town, which we would visit post cruise, so we will tell you a bit more about that later on)

Duck Island was a small sand island and we had heard raving reviews about the snorkelling. We had a bit of a sunbathe and then with two masks and one snorkel, we set about looking for fish. The water wasn’t overly clear but it was great to see lots of little fishies and Ryan went a bit further out along the snorkel trail and saw lots of different things. It was so good to relax on the beach and soak up the sun and fresh air after being on the boat. The water taxi took us back to the mainland and we went in search of lunch – now with Noumea being French, we were in luck! We found a local boulangerie and bought some gorgeous bread and then went to the casino (supermarket) for some cheese and ham. It was DELICIOUS and probably the best lunch I had in a few days! I was so EXCITED for bread, ham and soft, blue cheese! I mean it really is that simple P&O!

Happy and very satisfied, we bought a postcard that we probably wouldn’t send for months and boarded the ship. After a happy day, we watched the sunset as the boat sailed away and had a few in room bevys before dinner.

The following morning we arrived at Lifou and the colour of the sea was absolutely breathtaking! We were anchored at sea and took one of the tenders to the port and just gazed at the water whilst making our way to land – the colours were just beautiful! Lifou was a small village and we were welcomed by the lovely, friendly locals. They had various market and food stalls, selling items they had made, braiding kiddies hair and giving massages. We walked past the first beach and over to the other side of the hill, where we had been told you can see turtles if you snorkel out far enough. We didn’t realise you had to buy tickets on board to go snorkelling, but luckily Ryan chatted up the lovely French men (in French) and got us in to the water for free. Score! So with our wristbands on, I got into our swimmers and I was ready to go. Ryan looked in his bag, looked at me, and then in his bag and said  ‘where are my swimming shorts’ now you can imagine my reaction, because I don’t think that I am in charge of Ryan’s swimming shorts, but anyway he hadn’t packed them, or I hadn’t packed them! He couldn’t not go in though, so he donned his bright orange boxer shorts (thanks Adam) and went for it. He did look rather camp and I did walk a few steps behind him, to pretend we weren’t together.

I cannot describe how amazing the water was and the snorkelling was some of the best I have ever seen – and we have seen some amazing reefs on our travels. So many pretty little fish, so many colours and the coral was beautiful. Lifou was defo my fave place so far! I just couldn’t stop taking photos.

As we only had the one snorkel, I let Ryan have it and got out to dry off in the sun. I asked one of the men where the turtles would be and pointed Ryan in their direction. After drying off I stood on the balcony overlooking the shallow water and watched Ryan snorkelling in his orange pants, I mean it wasn’t difficult to point him out. Most of the people were snorkelling in the shallows and he had gone a bit further out as the turtles tend to hang out on the edge of the coral towards the deeper parts. He gave me the thumbs up, so I presumed he had been lucky enough to see one which was awesome. After a while he came back in and I delivered a towel to him at the bottom of the steps so he didn’t have to walk up in his pants.

He got some shots of the turtle on the GoPro and even though I was a bit disappointed I didn’t get to see one, I was so pleased he did and it was also nice that there weren’t lots of people around when it showed its little face.

We walked back over the hill and up the beach, away from everyone else and found our own little bay. The sun was still on us and it was so peaceful. That’s what I find crazy about cruise holidays, everybody rushes off to then be surrounded by everybody in one place. So it was nice to spread out and find our own little place. We stayed in our little bay until the last few tenders were called and then purchased our postcard and headed to the queue to get back on the boat.

Now tonight we had booked in at the fancy restaurant ‘The Salt Grill’ and we were SO excited about having a really scrummy dinner. This did not disappoint and we were SOOOO happy! I had scallops to start with blue cheese polenta which was amazing and Ryan had duck which was equally delicious. For main we had the Rib Eye to share and it was massive and amazing. So tasty and I definitely had to undo my jeans as I ate so much. We teamed the dinner with gorgeous wine and had to have a good break before dessert as we had crammed so much in. I had a chocolate cake with chargrilled bananas and honeycomb ice cream and Ryan had the tiramisu. Oh it was so good and after pretty average dinners on the other nights, it just tasted so much better! We left happy and v v full!

The following day we arrived in to port and took a water taxi over to the town. We passed an island (Irikiri Island) that had suffered a cyclone a while ago and it was apparent that the clean up was still on going. Shipwrecks crashed up against the verges and boats over turned. It looked as though it had also taken out a solar farm which was a real shame but they were getting past it and rebuilding houses etc. They had also just rebuilt a gorgeous resort that looked very fancy, so we went past that and headed ashore to the mainland. We wandered around unsure of what to do as the original plan was to get a quad bike and go exploring but all of the hire places were closing soon (part timers) so that wasn’t going to work out. After seeing the resort over on Irikiri island, we enquired at the small kiosk about heading over there. It was cheap as chips to go and you got your food included with your crossing, so we got on the little boat and headed over there. It was clear this was where the entertainment crew hung out, so we had a good time chatting with them. We chilled by the infinity pool had some beers and a yummy lunch. So nice to chill and read books in the sun (though thats what we did most of the holiday really, so no change there)

We were back on the cruise before we knew it, but watched the lovely sunset from the back again with a few beers and cocktails before dinner. It was good to catch up with a few people and hear their stories about where they had been for the day and few people knew about the hidden place we had gone to, so it was nice to tell them about that.

Dinner wasn’t overly great but the drinks and cocktails were lovely and I delved in to my secret toberlone collection that Ryan found in my clutch bag. Oopsie! Well everyone needs an emergency toblerone now and then – and on this boat, it was a necessity !!! We watched the live music by the ‘Dueling Pianos ‘after a few games of scrabble and headed to bed ready for tomorrow’s exciting trip to Mystery Island. Now whether we would wake up next to this island was also a mystery, as the crew had told us that they had only managed to get there once out of four attempts so far because of the weather and the coral formation near the island. So who knew where we were going to wake up, but we had our fingers crossed!

We woke up and I looked out of the window to see a big island, so first thoughts were that we hadn’t made it, but luckily for us we had and the small, sand, uninhabited island was on the other side of the boat. We rushed for breakfast again, grabbed our coffees and headed for the departure queue and boarded the tender boat to shore. The water was absolutely beautiful and we even saw turtles popping up on our way to the pier – we just wanted to get on the beach and get in to the sea to snorkel with the fishies!

The sand was just as amazing as the water and we walked around the island in about 15 minutes, the colour of the water was insane and there were SO many shades of blue it was unreal. It would have been silly to book a shore tour today as the only options were snorkelling and the boats were literally metres off shore – seemed like a bit of a waste of money, but good for families I guess!

We bumped in to Daryl and Rob who had set up camp on the less windy side of the beach and set our towels down next to them. Rob was running round the island a few times and put us to shame as we sat and just watched the world go by. After getting warm and ready to head in to the sea, Daryl and I snorkelled in the shallows and watched an aquarium of fishies of all colours, shapes and sizes. We were happy to just swim around and admire the sites, whilst pointing at everything new we saw and checking there were no sharks behind us. The boys had swam off in to the deep, Ryan without a snorkel and fins but ah well he’s a strong boy! We left them to explore and be men and eventually got out to warm up. The boys eventually came back after seeing what they described as a MASSIVE fish and having a good swim around!

Back on the beach, we had beer and nibbles and almost got our hands on some lobster, but unfortunately it had all been eaten by the greedy cruise goers! We chatted, chilled out and then went for another quick dip before heading back to the boat. It was sad to leave our last island and we definitely didn’t want to leave this one as it was so gorgeous and peaceful. No one lived on Mystery Island but the friendly locals from the island next door came over on the morning of cruise days to set up their little stalls ready for the tourists. Gorgeous school children sang and greeted us and everyone was so friendly and jolly. This was probably my favourite day as it was just so colourful and beautiful. Ahhh bliss!

Back on the boat and sad we would be leaving the south pacific, we had a few cocktails to make ourselves feel better and headed out to dinner. I think this may have been one of Rob’s karaoke nights, so being the great fan club that we are, we cheered him on! Had a great night with lots of laugh and lots of cocktails – lovely!

The following days would be full of as much entertainment and spa as possible as we were sad to be back at sea and away from island life. We had another amazing dinner at the Salt Grill and drank way to many cocktails. We had amazing massages on the last day, which were very relaxing but it was hard to not notice how much the boat was moving and creaking whist on the bottom floor as the weather got increasingly worse on the way back to the Tasman and one night was filled with Wimbledon tennis rather than sleep. As the captain said – we would be dancing! The boat was banging and crashing and picking up speed so we could get back to shore quickly as an elderly man had a heart attack – oh dear, poor man, hopefully the captain had everything under control! We enjoyed another night of karaoke with Daryl and Rob, more cocktails, quizzes, entertainment, cocktails and we danced the night away on the last night – lots of fun!

Anyway, we got back to Sydney 12 hours ahead of schedule so the poor old dear could be transferred to the hospital (hope he is ok) and we had dinner next to the opera house which was amazing. It was also v nice to sleep and not be rocked around in a washing machine like the night before. After our routine 1am tea with Daryl and Rob we had our last night on the cruise, slept well and got our daily coffees (and last chocolates) and left the Pacific Pearl!

Well, it was an experience! I wasn’t sure about it to start with but we did have an amazing time. We met some amazing people, had a great time exploring the South Pacific Islands, drank a lot and made lots of memories!

E & R xx