Day 36: Noumea, New Caledonia

The ports are now finished on this 28-night transpacific crossing after we spent the day in Noumea, capital of New Caledonia. We’ll disembark in Sydney on Tuesday, after two days at sea. 

I love Noumea. We’ve been there several times in the past, but not for nearly seven years. I’ve discovered that fact made us rather dangerous when it came to finding our way around. Though we were often correct, at times we were absolutely wrong. At the end of the day, I’m still convinced that at least three major buildings were dismantled, moved and re-constructed in a new location a block or two away. Really!! 😆

Part of the reason we enjoy Noumea so much is that there are numerous ways to spend a day there, but faced with lots of options, we were of one mind about what to do today, and I purchased tickets on Viator yesterday for the HOHO bus and tickets to the Aquarium. It is a surprisingly good one, and we had enjoyed it immensely in the past. Of course, my preference is always to go to an aquarium, but certainly appreciated the fact that it was G’s top choice also. 

We went to breakfast at 7am and walked off the ship with nothing other than IDs and a little cash about 8:30am. Because all large ships dock at a freight port, and despite being right in the city center, shuttle buses take guests to a visitor center just outside of the port (one of those buildings that had moved in the past 7 years, just across the street from where it used to be 😉). Funnily enough, the super marché across the street must have been moved, too, so after trading in our digital coupon for the HOHO bus for two wristbands, we walked across the street and G bought two sodas and I bought bought a baguette for 103 CFP to carry with us for the day. Because that’s what everyone in Noumea is carrying on a Saturday morning. 

The baguette became an ongoing joke between us as I pointed out (in response to G’s questioning look) that it was a very useful item to have on hand. Not only could we eat it, we could fish with it, and eat the fish. And fight off wild animals and bad guys. And when he later proposed we sell everything and live on a yacht moored in Lemon Bay in Noumea, I helpfully suggested we could use our baguette to row our dinghy out to our yacht. Or to fly our flag. Or…you get the idea. We got our money’s worth out of that baguette today in humor alone. 

We spent quite a bit of time at the Aquarium, and sat and gazed a full 30 minutes at the outdoor turtle and shark tank. These sea turtles were massive; one was more than four feet long. 

We still had a little time to spare (it was a short day, with an on board time of 3.30pm) and crossed the street and sat in the beach for awhile, chomping on the baguette. It was getting quite windy and I was glad we hadn’t gone with our second choice for the day, to take the ferry over to Duck Island, as the water looked rough. Amadee Island is even further, 45 minutes away, and we had friends going there for the day. I suspect that was a rough ferry ride. 

We got back to the ship about 2:30pm and went to the Horizon Court for a quick bite to eat. Then we rested for a short time before dinner. I am still mesmerized by this La Villa Vie Odyssey and every day brings a few new videos about it on YouTube. I have a feeling I’ll be binge watching when I should be packing on our way to Sydney. 

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was the Australian Beatles. They were great, and will be back again the final night of the cruise with a whole new set. G claims we’ve seen them before, but I don’t recall them. I remember seeing the British Beatles, the American Beatles and the Italian Beatles but not the Aussie Beatles. But they’ve all been fantastic. 

We’re skipping the Halloween party in favor of bed. It’s really rocking back here in our cabin tonight. I’ve already put duct tape on the drawers to keep them closed overnight. My water workout tomorrow may have to be in a midship pool. Things are pretty sloshy in the Terrace Pool. 

Halloween decorations around the ship

Day 35: At Sea

Another restful sea day with sunny skies, not-to-hot temps, three wonderful meals, Thursday Night Football starting at 11am and my favorite production show Born To Dance) this evening. A very good day. 

We have been so fortunate with our weather this cruise. We had very brief, early morning showers a few times, the kind that happen just before sunrise. But, in general, it’s been dry and warm. It hasn’t even been that windy lately, which has made my pool workouts so much more pleasant. It’s more than made up for being chased around Mexico by two different hurricanes a month ago. 

Speaking of a month ago, today marked the exact halfway point of our journey. I  have been mathing all day, figuring out if I need anything while we’re in Sydney and the answer is no.  Well, Tim Tams, of course, to take home, but nothing aside from that. But, just halfway!! I can hardly believe that. It feels as if we’ve been gone for a lifetime. And what a wonderful lifetime it’s been. We have certainly loved these cruises, this ship, this crew. I am so glad we didn’t let the age of the Grand Princess scare us off. 

We spent some time on the Terrace Deck after I worked out this morning, but I was in the cabin in time to watch the first half of the Green Bay v. Carolina game. Not a great game, but football is football. We went to lunch at halftime, then returned to the cabin for the second half. Hot tub time, dinner and a show finished the day. 

We ate in Noumea, New Caledonia tomorrow and I booked an excursion through Viator while at lunch today. We’ve been there several times, but still we love it. There arts plenty of options for things to do, the weather is supposed to be good and I’m just relieved their intermittent political unrest has calmed down again and we can stop there. 

Day 34: Port Vila, Vanuatu

We had every intention of taking a ferry to Iririki Island today, buying a day pass and hanging out pool side and snorkeling, but we didn’t sleep well last night. When G was up early wanting to be on the first tender again, I wasn’t having it. Instead, I slept for another couple of hours and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in Sabatini’s. Before I had even finished up, he had returned, joined me and said it was pretty hot and humid today. 

Decision made. I was staying on the ship. We’ve been here several times in the past and done all the things. This port is the absolute opposite of Mystery Island yesterday. It’s a city, the pier was taken out by a landslide and tenders are required to go ashore. Pass. 

I had also, over breakfast, read about the residence ship La Villa Vie Odyssey shutting down and stranding its residents in Cambodia, requiring them to pack up and leave the ship with only a few hours notice. Shocked!  Shocked, I say!! (😉). All I wanted to do today was to go down some YouTube rabbit holes to get all the fresh tea, and that’s exactly what I did, and G joined me. Actually, he was caught up watching documentaries but I would send him the most interesting dirt, so we were both doing what we loved best. 

And that is how it came to be dinner time and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and didn’t do one darn thing today and didn’t feel at all sad about it. 

G had gone to the Princess Theater for tonight’s entertainment, described as “ ….a hit with people of all ages- his insane skills include circus tricks with chainsaws, knives, golf clubs and industrial leaf blowers. He climbs ...”

I think he’s looking to pick up some new leaf blower skills to impress the neighbors (judging from our yard views in our security cams, he’ll have plenty of opportunities to perfect them). Me, I’ve got more rabbit holes to go down yet tonight. 

Day 33: Mystery Island, Vanuatu

Today started out so perfectly. In fact, at one point this morning, I told G that this was the kind of day that a person was lucky to experience even a handful of times in their life. 

Then it all changed in a minute. 

We ate breakfast and were on the very first guest tender to Mystery Island. It was a gloriously beautiful day, another day of clear skies and low humidity, in the high 70s. We packed for a beach day, but were uncertain exactly how the day would unfold. In the past, we’ve hired a boat for a snorkel trip, snorkeled on our own, walked around the island and had lunch there. 

From Wikipedia:

Inyeug island, also known as Mystery Island, is a small uninhabited island in Tafea Province of Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean. "Inyeug" means "Small Island" in a local language.

Inyueg is also called Mystery Island by the cruise ships that regularly visit the island.

The island was visited by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip in 1974, with the name "Mystery Island" coined to generate a more interesting headline of the report of the visit.

The island has an area of about 15.9 hectares and is located only 1 km south of the island of Aneityum. Inyeug is flanked to the west and south by the coral Intao Reef, that extends further south, and, albeit submerged, is the southernmost point of Vanuatu.

The island has the airport for the neighboring inhabited Aneityum Island. The airport is basically a grass airstrip, which gets small plane flights twice weekly from Port Vila via Tanna Island.

Back to me…

We’ve actually been on the island when that twice weekly flight landed, deposited packages and a few passengers, loaded up and left again. When you see the pics of nearby Aneityum Island, you can see why they used Mystery Island for a landing strip. 

Aneityum Island

We chose to first walk around the island, about a 40 minute stroll, but were so preoccupied taking after photo after photo of the beautiful water in a hundred shades of blue that we finally just settled in the shade under a palm tree to savor the scenery while there were few people around. In fact, we slept on the beach for a bit (I put my ear buds in to listen to an audiobook and that’s better than taking an Ambien for me).

My view

The sound of people yelling finally woke me up and I looked up to see two women yelling for a lifeguard and emergency help. I looked out onto the shallow water to see if I could see anyone struggling- I’m not a lifeguard but I am a strong swimmer- and didn’t see anyone. But when I looked slightly to my left about 50 feet away I saw a small group forming around someone on the edge of the beach. 

A fellow guest came running by saying she was a nurse and it didn’t take long before l could see her doing chest compressions and I couldn’t believe this was happening. G woke up and was soon running over (he was an instructor) but at that same time life guards started to arrive with an AED and soon after that the ship’s medical personnel started showing up and…they all worked so hard for a very long time but to no avail. 

I was just glued to my spot on the beach trying to pray the Hail Mary (it’s what we Catholics do at times like these) and I couldn’t remember the words. I’ve prayed a million Hail Marys in my life and I couldn’t get past the first two lines. Over and over again…it wasn’t working. I was shook, and even more so when a couple of guests near me were talking about their plans for the evening. Right there, within sight of it all. And another took a photo.  Cold. 

We eventually left to return to the ship- that joy I had felt just an hour or two earlier was obviously gone, and it seemed wrong at that point to have any more fun. 

When we got back to the ship and had walked up the stairs to Deck 4 from the tender pontoon, I could see the hatch on the opposite side was wide open and more medical personnel were there waiting, so I knew they’d be bringing him back that way.  We went directly up to the Lido Deck for grilled chicken sandwiches, used a hot tub on Deck 16 and then returned to the cabin in time to get cleaned up for the evening. 

When Captain Ravera made his usual departure announcement just before 5pm, he started out by acknowledging that a passenger had died on the beach about noon and asked for a moment of silence. That was all he said, that was all he needed to say. To those of us who had seen it all, this wasn’t a surprise, but that closure was appreciated. We know that on the average transpacific crossing, three passengers die. It just doesn’t usually happen on a beautiful beach surrounded by fellow guests. But then, while this was going on, I looked out at the water and decided that this really was a perfect gateway to the afterlife. 

Tonight’s Princess Theater entertainment was Irish-Australian vocalist Peter Byrne doing a tribute to Neal Diamond. I know the timing was purely coincidental but his was exactly the show the guests needed to see tonight. He was funny, it was basically a huge sing along and I’m guessing I’m not the only one among us who felt the heaviness in my heart lift a little. 

Laundry I’d sent three days ago was finally returned tonight. Robert had told us that Fijian discharge regulations put them a day behind. I’ll need to keep that in mind for our return cruise.