Australia and New Zealand Cruise – Noumera – New Caledonia

 

Another port, another beach day. We arrived this morning in Noumea, New Caledonia. We took a local tour bus over to the local aquarium only to find out it didn’t open for another hour. Our intention was to do dry land things all morning and end the day with beach stuff but the water taxi was just a short walk across and it took us over to a nice little place called Duck Island. Peter has been bragging about his High School French language skills to ask a lady at the park where the water taxi was but honestly.. saying “WATER TAXI” and pointing to the dock next to us probably would have been sufficient enough to get her to nod yes and point. He’s been walking around saying things in a mock French accent ever since because he’s now convinced he’s fluent.

We took the water taxi over to Duck Island and threw our stuff on two loungers with an umbrella and went swimming. Peter and Henry got in to their knees and again decided it was too cold. Grant and I went out snorkeling for a bit and then we came in and dried off a bit in the sun while the boys dug around for seashells to bring back. There was an elderly woman who I’d seen snorkeling at a few other beaches and weirdly, in the ships small aft pool. Every time I saw her on a beach she was on the shore crawling around or had something wrong with her mask or snorkel or something.. there was always some issue. She was snorkeling around the shore, where there were no coral or fish anywhere.. just kids playing with toys and balls right around her. We were sitting on the beach kind of watching her and the water taxi drifted like right over her. Instead of standing up in the knee deep water and moving she just kept snorkeling around the boat while the wind was blowing the boat over her. Eventually she got up on all fours and crawled to the shore. Her husband tried helping her back to the lounger but she got mad and refused and just sat on the beach and eventually got up and crawled her way to a place where she could get up and walk. It was really weird. After sitting there for about 45 minutes a nice gentleman came over to tell us we could pay for our deck chairs we’d been using. So, our nice cheap little outing cost us 36 bucks. There wasn’t a sign in sight that mentioned they were for rent and the people next to us with more gall than ourselves just got up and left and didn’t pay.

After another long day on the beach the boys were super tired and we realized all the buses were full. We got the last 2 seats on the bus which meant Peter had Henry on his lap and I had to stand and try not to fall into everyone’s laps while the bus went around what felt like a million swerves.

We got back on the boat and had some lunch. Even after 30 or so days on this cruise ship people will still never fail to surprise me. During lunch I saw the snorkel lady’s husband go up and take two decorative display cantaloupes back to his table to eat.  These are the large elaborately carved ones….

A few other unrelated but worth mentioning stories:

Yesterday after we got back on the boat we heard about some people getting into a bit of a fight with the locals.  On the island there was a 10 minute walk up the road to this ladder for snorkeling and in the past 6 month an enterprising local had built a ladder down to the water and had started charging $15 per person to get into the water. So people who didn’t want to walk the distance ended up paying $15 for a cab ride to get to this place to snorkel and then find out they couldn’t get in without having to pay an additional $15. The guy who built the ladder started this enterprising business about 6 months ago and some people were annoyed with having to pay this. One guy started going down the ladder refusing to pay and the ladder guy got really mad and was yelling that he was going to break his leg with coconuts and then ran off with his shoes. Another couple decided that “ok.. that’s great you’re going to charge but we’re going to make our way down the shore and climb down these rocks into the water and we’re not going to pay your ladder fee”. The guy ran off with her bag but there were enough people there that stopped him. The people who witnessed the woman and the bag were our same friends whose long boat capsized a couple of days before. I’m not sure I want to be on the same excursions with them but I sort of want to follow them around just to witness the crazy crap that seems to happen when they’re around.

Just before typing this blog post I was responding offline to a friend of mine about something and I realized that even with the elevator days of the week carpets I can’t keep track of what day it is.. they seem to change like every DAY or something. I have no idea what the date is.. I know that Sydney is coming up and a lot of people are getting off then so we must be getting towards the end of October. I only know that it’s sometime after lunch and before cocktail hour. I’m not sure what re-entry is going to be like when I’m suddenly constrained and bound by the hours on a clock, the days of the week and the date on a calendar.. and also no beach in site for quite some time. I can’t make myself begin to think what it will be like to do my own laundry, cooking or cleaning.. I have never come back from a vacation thinking “ahhhh well it’s GOOOD to be back” and I don’t think this one will be any different. It’s sort of starting to feel like “cocktail hour” so I’d better sign off!

 

 

 

Aussie BBQ and apparently desert night on the cruise: