Foiled again in New Caledonia!

So, our second day in Fiji brought us to Lautoka/ I had been to this general area before – the international airport, Nadi, is nearby/ As we docked, I could tell we were in a much more rural area – much preferred to the big city of Suva/ Not that it mattered much, as the agenda for the day was to catch a catamaran to another small island and spend the day swimming with the fishes/ For some reason, I was operating under the assumption that the boat ride to the island would be short; I was wrong;)

However long the boat ride was, it was gorgeous the entire way and aside from being super eager to get my face in the water, it wasn’t a bad way to spend some time.

As we rolled up to the dock, we were told that we were the first cruise ship passengers to this brand new tiny private island resort/ What an incredible place/ The staff came out to greet us with singing – it reminded me of a very special time on a old wooden “cruise ship” called the Tui Tai – weaving around the smaller Fijian islands, the crew often singing/ A wonderful memory of a wonderful trip many years before.

It was a wonderful day – swimming, chasing after fish, eating delicious, local cuisine, trying the Fiji bitter beer I remembered/ We chatted with a nice couple from Orange County / a good lazy day with a spectacular view/ Hard to beat/ They named the place Malamala Beach Club/ If you ever find yourself in this area, check it out.

Swimming and being in the sun all day is tiring, and we figured we wouldn’t be up late – so true
The next day we were back at sea on our way to New Caledonia/ I had so much curiosity building about this tiny island nation (French) that I really couldn’t recall ever even hearing of prior to seeing this cruise/ I’d since learned it was the newest “must go” in the diving community/ I brought my dive card – unsure of whether I’d go or not, but I didn’t want not bringing my card to be the deciding factor.

I love diving, which still surprises me/ Never thought I would/ It’s the freedom to breathe under water, I think/ It’s the most other worldly, mesmerizing experience/ It is also a dangerous hobby/ You have to follow some pretty specific rules/ I’m slightly spooked by 3 things: a dear friend dying while learning to dive, the loss of my all-time dive buddy (who is now my ex-husband), and having a very bad last dive myself in which, in retrospect, I feel happy that I didn’t die from my own stupidity/ Anyway, I figured I could at least do a shallow dive, even without a dedicated buddy and just pop to the surface if the proverbial poo hit the fan.

Before I get into telling you about our 3 days in NC, let me pause to tell you about our next sommelier wine tasting and our wine master dinner/ I know you are dying to know/ Unfortunately, both of these things took place on the same day, so we were attempting to stay hydrated all day which meant we pretty much just drank and peed all day/ I realize that isn’t eloquent, but there you have it/ The tasting that day was around California blends/ I think/ See, I’m already losing it/ This being totally relaxed thing is bad for the memory/ I noticed some familiar names – and one of my old favorite daily drinkers – The Coppola Claret. There were also two from Franciscan – the Equilibrium, a white blend that was lovely, and the big, bold Magnificant, which was, in fact, magnificant/ Is that a word? We also had the Moet and Chandon champagne, which was awesome/My brain has let go of the other white, so it must have not rocked my socks.

The best part of the tasting was sitting near Mark and Rod again/ Mark is from Adelaide so we started picking his brain/ We found out he and his wife were going to the wine dinner, too, so Rod asked them to seat us all together/ I’m so glad he did.

So, later that night we meet up for the wine dinner/ This was hosted in the Pinnacle Grill, where we hadn’t yet eaten because it is an additional fee and we already paid to eat the regular food;) The usual gang was there and it looked to be a good night/ We started with a glass of sparkling rose, that I really enjoyed but Jason found a tad too sweet / Before long, we were seated in the dining room with lots of glasses on the table! Things were looking good/ Our favorite sommelier, JoJo, was in the house and ready to rock / I apologized to all in advance for being that annoying American who photographed everything but, hello, I have like 3 dedicated blog readers who will want to see this stuff/ You know, one day when I have enough bandwidth to successfully transfer images between devices.

When enjoyed many delicious courses – including the absolute best foie gras I’ve ever tasted/ The main was a tender veal chop/ Quite good – all of it/ And the wines were lovely, not that there was any doubt/ However, the best part of the dinner was talking with Rod and Louise and Mark and Elizabeth/ R&L are Canadians and M&E are Aussies/ They are all highly educated, acutely aware of world politics and affairs. We had the kind of conversation that, in my personal experience, you only ever have in this sort of setting/ Indeed – the only other similar experience I’ve ever had was on another ship in the south pacific/ I recall discussing the immigration problem with a bunch of Australians/ That is the Australian immigration problem/ Which of course I didn’t know was a thing, much less a problem/ But, I digress...

Among topics of conversation were euthanasia – both of their home countries allow limited  forms of this and a current law is on the table now in Australia, marriage, travel, presidents, import and exports, wine storage, “wild game” meat in Australia, American dolls (seriously)/ the best ports (wine) in the world . It was a lovely, warm, spirited discussion among people of varying ages, countries, life experiences, and perspectives – and it was good hearted and open minded/ What a treat.

In addition to all that – Mark and Elizabeth rattled off a lot of wonderful ideas for us while in Adelaide and I frantically took notes on my iPhone trying to not forget a single suggestion/ I’m looking forward to that portion of the trip immensely.

And so, let me tell you about New Caledonia/ We visited three of their small islands and saw 3 remarkably different places.

Day 1 was in Lifou, and we came ashore in a tiny little place called Easo/ The water was incredibly beautiful and I was bummed out all day because we couldn’t get in it/ The night before, we’d all received word from their government (The Lord Mayer Weinie himself) that a severe black algae had washed in and could give the skin quite a nasty burn/ They advised not getting into the water at all in a certain area and strong caution for the rest/ Poop/ So, we set about walking and enjoyed the exceptionally sparse population and general lack of damn near everything/ Unfortunately, we hadn’t traded for any Australian $ or Francs, both of which were widely accepted in the few tiny little “shops” and the one little “restaurant” (in quotes because both are far too big of word to convey what was there) – we’d really wanted to buy something and enjoy a local beer, but, thwarted again! We did a nice hike up a very steep hillside to see a tiny church build on a sheer cliff/ Is it weird that I felt intensely proud of my fellow passengers (you know, all the old people) for attempting and making the same hike? Bam! It might have been slow, but they made it! After, we continued walking the other way and found another church and a tiny cemetery/ We saw a few locals along the way – most offering to sell us a coconut with a straw for about $1.50 US – would have paid it because it was hot as blazes but, alas, thwarted again/ The people seemed happy and kind and welcoming. I’d like to think that the cruise ships won’t ruin this tiny little gem – but I think I know better/ With sadness, we talked on the tender ride back to the ship that if we’re lucky to return, it likely will not look anything the same/ I felt so lucky for getting to see it.

A quick note on the tender ride – it was incredibly rough/ The seas were angry that day/ It was very hot/ And the dock was small/ So, we got loaded into the tender and then had to sit in the hot sun, violently rocking – waiting for the other boats to finish unloading the very slow moving passengers. I recall passing the time by praying to Jesus that I wouldn’t barf on anyone/ Mercy! So worth it – but sea sickness is no joke.

Day two brought us to Ils des Pins, or Isle of the Pines/ Our port was Kuto/ We again had to tender in, but the seas were happier, as was I! The wind was blowing like absolute CRAZY and we weren’t at all sure we’d want to snorkel so we didn’t bring our gear/ In retrospect, I wish I’d have just forced it and done it anyway, but we didn’t know how things would go/ I will tell you this – without even a split second of hesitation, this is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been or ever seen. I feel like God placed a piece of the Garden of Eden itself in the South Pacific and people called it Isle of the Pines/ The colors were so shockingly pretty – I think I walked around with my mouth hanging open for hours/ This island area was a bit larger – but not much/ We found a little campground/hotel/resort that I would give anything to come back and stay at/ Seemed to be a divers’ paradise – we saw many carrying their gear through the sand from the ferry// walking down the beach trying to find the camp ground/ There is a Le Meridien resort somewhere on the island, but we didn’t see it/ I am quite sure it is the most spectacular place ever/ We found a little restaurant and were ready for the local beer – only to see the no credit card sign at the window – the machines were down / We had been told they would accept US$ but they did not/ Darnit! Further down the road, we found a local handicraft stand and, incredibly, the woman there accepted our US$! Woohoo! She didn’t have any local beer for sale, but we were able to get some postcards.

So, now we were left with one final day in the incredible New Caledonia/ We had high hopes – wanting to get in the water, try the local beer, find a few small gifts/ As I watched us pull in to dock, I started to suspect we wouldn’t get to do all those things;) One thing about cruise travel is that you tend to either arrive in a very large shipping port or absolutely nowhere at all/ Which makes sense, of course/ You need space to park a large boat/ At Noumea, we parked in a very large shipping port – it is their biggest city, international port, and government center/ But, still, very small!

The rules here were no walking through the port (bummer!) so we had to take a shuttle bus outside the port and right to city center/ Once we got there, we had lost our bearings, thinking that the (rather subpar)  map the ship gave us was marked from the ship, not from the shuttle drop/ We wasted a few minutes getting ourselves situated before realizing the map we had was for where we were/ Bam! Off and running.

We ran into Rod and Louise waiting for a hop on hop off bus – we briefly considered that before deciding to first walk to the spots we knew we wanted to see/ We’d heard about a large park with cafes, free wifi, beautiful coconut trees, and the general bustle of the town/ The Noumea city museum was also there, and I was interested in perhaps seeing the WWII exhibit/ We quickly found the park, enjoying several city blocks on the way/ We found the city to be pretty darn cosmopolitan, very clean, very safe/ A simple pleasure to walk through

At the park, we noticed they were setting up for a decent sized local market --- but it wasn’t to open till 11 (so late!) and it was merely 9/ We didn’t need to eat yet, so there wasn’t much to do to kill the time for 2 hours/ Even with free wifi—which was too slow to count for anything at all/ We sat on a nice park bench for awhile and people watched/ The people seemed very friendly – often hollering in delight when they spotted a friend in the park, greeting each other in the typical French manner (kissing on the cheek)/ We saw no hint of homelessness, “bums”, “thugs”, any of the other things that would be typical to see in a large city park/ The other thing we noticed there was how strongly the wind was blowing! Holy cow! It was crazy strong – I gave up on my hair and just let it be stupidly wild/ Seems the wind must be common as it in no way bothered the locals.

We decided to walk on and eventually (accidentally) found another market that I was hoping to find/ We were just in time to see the rest of the morning’s catch in a large, fresh fish pavilion that would rival Pike Place Market any day Yum!

Adjacent to that, was another large open market with clothing, local handicrafts, etc / We noticed that it seemed that every booth accepted francs, Australian $ and credit cards/ To our surprise and delight, they also all accepted USD when we asked/ I marveled on our walk home that they all speak so many languages, and can quickly convert between 3 currencies in their heads/ Mad respect/ We also really enjoyed that the markets were friendly and simple – no one was pressuring us, begging, following us around/ It was really a nice experience all through the South Pacific/ Finally, we noticed a farmer’s market towards the back of the handicraft area and really enjoyed walking through that – so many things we couldn’t identify! But beautiful, organic produce sold cheaply/ All clean and yummy looking/ What fun!

We walked back to city center and I wanted to go through the grocery store/ I’m weird, but it is one of my things/ I love foreign grocery stores/ Man! All kinds of interestingness in there/ They even sold fabric! Our hunger was getting the best of us, though, so we found a spot in the shade to enjoy some local fish and – finally—a local beer! We got the meal and beer for $15 australian, which is something like 12 USD/ It was marked up because we were back in tourists central, but hey, when you are hungry, you are hungry/ They had actual working free wifi and we were each able to get a wifi call through to our moms for a few minutes, which was a nice treat/ Our fabulous Hawaiian waitress, Mona, had told us about a free app called Vibr way back in Waikiki at the start of our trip/ What a great tip! We did call internationally for free! Yay!

Anyway, it was a nice day of walking and exploring in Noumea, but I wasn’t able to get in the water – again! Absolutely craziness!! I’m adding Ils des Pins to my “must return to” list and will swim with the New Caledonian fishes then/

At that point, we returned to the boat and settled in for 2 final sea days before reaching Australia/ I was so excited/ One surprising thing has been how much I’ve been enjoying the days at sea/ We were a bit worried about them because we have a lot – especially at the front of the trip/ We have been filling them easily – some days we are busy all day long and others we relax, read, nap/ Each is different and hasn’t felt monotonous or boring/ I’ve certainly been cranking through a lot of books/ I would download more, but, that whole internet thing!

The scoop on the internet access is that it is decent on the boat – but costly/ We bought 1,000 minutes for $250 and are making it last over the 31 days on the boat/ If that sounds like a lot of minutes to you, it comes out to a shared 20 minutes a day/ We usually each spend several hours a day between reading, texting, emailing, Facebooking, looking up sports scores, Pinteresting – whatever/ So each getting 10 per day has been interesting/ And, several minutes of that is lost to slowness each time/ I will say it has been easier that I thought it might be/ What I miss most is being able to quickly google something – mostly, maps of wherever we are (the ship ones aren’t detailed enough and we’re always wasting time trying to figure it out) and recommendations for local places/ But, I also miss getting pictures of my nephews, checking in with my parents, and daily hilarious texts with friends around the world/ It isn’t a big deal at all, but wish I had a little bit more time each morning over coffee for these things.

That said – spending time watching every sunrise and sunset has set my soul right again/ I miss that so much from California where I’d see both daily while out walking / Sure, the sun rises and sets every day in Texas – but with the weather you just never know if you’ll want to be out in it or not! Every single day, I’ve seen both sunrise and sunset and taken a walk near the ocean/ Mostly, this has been on ship, as we want to make sure we get the walk in before disembarking – but certainly we’ve had good walks on land, too/ Good for the soul.

Anyway, it finally came to the last wine tasting, a blind wine tasting, and the final dinner before Sydney/ We’re on a repositioning cruise, which is a bit different from a regular cruise where often everyone gets on and off at the same time/ At Sydney, half the boat would disembark and a new 1000 people would board/ Whoa! We felt a bit sad – having gotten used to our boat/ And, much of the crew was going to change over, as well/ We spent a lot of time running around asking everyone who was staying.

We had a great time in our final wine tasting but the best was the blind tasting/ Louise showed up for that one so Mark, Rod, Louise, Jason and I got to sit together with a couple others who often attend/ Elizabeth (Mark’s wife) was in the stateroom packing—they were disembarking in Sydney.

JoJo made us official sommelier tasting sheets – which was fasctinating to see and learn to use/ We had 6 glasses to try and we got something like 6 minutes with each to taste, smell, view and then rate/ We could try to guess the grape, location, year, and producer, too/ At the big reveal, we got to see how our score compared to sommelier’s scores, what our group average score was and then see if anyone was right in guessing what it was/ Oh man, was that a hoot/ In exact zero times did I correctly guess the grape! Hahaha/ Twice, I scored a glass exactly the same as the official sommelier ranking/ But don’t be impressed – that could be a total fluke as there are many categories and ranges of points/ I could have scored it completely differently from the officials and still ended up with the same points! Another eye opening thing was that we all had at least one instance where we rated a wine we didn’t really care for pretty highly/ JoJo told us that made sense – every sommelier doesn’t like every glass of wine they drink either, but they learn to judge on color, aroma, various types of taste, whether the flavor lingers, etc/ It was the perfect way to see that a) we don’t know anything at all about wine! And b) it doesn’t matter/ You like what you like.

Later that afternoon, we had the final Sip and Savor and everyone showed up/ We gathered our little crowd for a final toast with Mark and Elizabeth/ We’d already exchanged information with them and have plans to meet up for lunch in a couple weeks in Adelaide when we fly back to Australia/ What fun is this? They’ve been married for 50 years this year and Mark is set to retire in December from what seems to have been an incredible global career of pediatric and geriatric emergency care/ We are looking forward to seeing them in their city and reconnecting.

We all decided to carry on to dinner together and ran off to change and meet up in the dining room/ It was a lovely final meal as a group and we’ll miss that very much.

That meant, however, that we were about to reach Sydney! My excitement was continuing to grow and I really couldn’t wait to get there/ As I laid down too sleep, I kept thinking – tomorrow when I wake up, I’ll be in Australia! It’s so rare as we get older for life long dreams to happen – what an absolute delight to remember how it feels to be so excited about something/