Yellow Fish cruises: Day 48: Lifou, New Caledonia

This is another of those nights when I’m typing these first words at 11pm, so you know it was a fantastic day. Luckily, I’ve already uploaded all the photos during our wait in the Princess Theater for tonight’s show, so the post is half done. Go me!

Today was our first-ever visit to the island of Lifou (say LEE foo), New Caledonia and, based on information I received from reader Chez about how to spend our day there, we were really looking forward to it. Our arrival was scheduled for 9am, and, to save time, we had breakfast in the Horizon Court Buffet before we caught one of the first tenders to the island. The 10-15 minute tender ride was a welcome change from those long tenders in Queensland.

Where in the world are we?

Lifou Island is one of the Loyalty Islands grouping of New Caledonia

We didn’t go to breakfast in the DaVinci Dining Room but I ran down

to get this photo..

We tendered into the Lifou Pier, and spent our day snorkeling at Jinek Bay, climbing up

to Notre Dame de Lourdes church and enjoying the beach near the tender pier.

A beach, a hill and a snorkeling spot; we couldn’t have designed a more appealing

island for us to explore.

Notre Dame de Lourdes church as seen from the tender

The beach as seen from the tender

The tender pier

There were several vendors offering local crafts and hair braiding

Some things I can’t explain. ;-)

Items could be purchased with Australian dollars or French Polynesian Francs

We walked up a small hill and back down to reach Jinek Bay on the other

side of the peninsula where we would snorkel.

Destination Expert Hutch had advised us to purchase the AU $15 marine reserve tickets through

Shore Excursions on the ship, and I did this yesterday. According to Trip Advisor,

the number of snorkelers is limited to 100 in the morning and 100 in the afternoon.

We saw several people turned away for not having a ticket and they were not selling

them at the marine reserve.

There was an underwater path marked by buoys, but we were free to snorkel anywhere.

Our first look at the marine reserve. Check out that coral! It was gorgeous.

While I was laid up last summer, I ordered a lot of things we’d need for our cruise from Amazon. Two of the items I bought were mask lens defogger and post-swimming ear drops to prevent ear infections. While we were pulling our snorkel gear out of our bag today, I applied what I thought was the lens defogger to our masks. It was a brand that was new to us, but it was highly recommended on Amazon. As I was snorkeling the first time, my eyes were burning and my lenses were constantly fogged up. I got out for a short rest and grabbed what I thought were the ear drops...without my reading glasses, I had mixed up the containers. I had put the ear drops, largely alcohol, on our lenses. This is SO me. When I finally got the right stuff, the defogger did an excellent job. And G may never let me forget about the time I almost blinded us.

Entry was via stairs, and reef shoes and sandals were not allowed to protect the coral.

Limiting the number of snorkelers really enhanced the experience.

The coral, especially a little further out from shore was in excellent condition.

I found Nemo almost immediately, lots of Dorys too, and the largest

parrot fish I’ve ever seen.

There were limited places to keep our bags while we were in the water, and

no beach here at all.

We snorkeled until noon when our time was up (the afternoon session ran from 12:30pm to 4pm). Our tickets had cost AU $15 per person on board (about US $10), which was a bargain. Several reviews I read on Trip advisor stated that Carnival cruise ships charge AU $26 per person for the same ticket. As we were leaving, we ran into several waiters, including Ricky, who wanted to snorkel. We loaned them our gear and advised them to use their crew status to gain entrance for free since they didn’t have tickets. It worked. ;-)

Our next mission was to climb the hill up to Notre Dame de Lourdes church. I knew this might be tough on my foot, but I was determined. It helped that the beautiful views started early in the climb.

The Ruby Princess at anchor

The 100 shades of blue water we’d come to see.

I call this one Perseverance.

The view toward the ship from the top of the hill.

Notre Dame de Lourdes church

It was really more of a chapel

Looking toward Jinek Bay and the marine reserve from the top of the hill.

The climb up and down was a little rough going in places. It helped that there was

a handrail along all the tricky parts, but that metal rail was scorching hot.

Given a choice between tripping or burning my hand, I chose to burn.

Postcard-perfect

Once we were down the hill, we continued our walk back toward the tender pier and the beach that ran next to it. We passed a few homes along the way, with typical island architecture, and one even sported a pig in the yard.

The family pig

Typical architecture

I was quite happy get into that beautiful water to cool off from our climb, and then soak in the views from the beach tarp. We had taken just one float and took turns using it.

My favorite way to spend a day

My favorite photo of the day, a palm tree shadow in crystalline blue water with

our cruise ship home in the background

We arrived back on board at 4pm, rinsed everything out quickly, set or hung it all up to dry (we have to walk very carefully to the bathroom overnight!) and showered even faster. We had a few minutes in the Elite Lounge before we went to dinner in the DaVinci Dining Room. We were starved, having spent the day in or near the water and skipping lunch. It’s such a good feeling on a cruise.

Day 4 dinner menu, page 1

Day 4 dinner menu, page 2

Day 4 dessert menu

I could easily have been convinced to skip the all entertainment tonight and return directly to our cabin after dinner, but neither one of us wanted to be the one to cry uncle regardless of how tired we were. Instead we arrived quite early in the Princess Theater for Patrick McMahon’s new show tonight. He had been such a hit two nights ago when he performed that the Princess Theater was standing room only 30 minutes before his show began. We talked with Entertainment Director Rich Joseph after the show; Patrick will be on again next cruise. Yay!

G must have caught a second wind, as he wanted to go to the Explorers Lounge to hear party band The Sound do a Beatles set. He didn’t have to twist my arm too badly. I love that music, too. But as soon as it was over, he was asleep and I was...typing this post. An hour later, it’s my turn now.