WEDNESDAY, FEB 3RD--NOUMEA, NEW CALEDONIA

Noumea was pretty much like any modern city and our tour, “Noumea and Its Countryside”, was just a drive around the city, no country about it! We stopped at Conception Church, café for coffee and cake, and lookout point on hill overlooking the city and bay. Will try to post those pictures tomorrow. I added the pictures from Vanuatu this morning. We missed our second tour, “Glass Bottomed Boat at Duck Island” as first tour got us back too late for it. New Caledonia is a French governed island and has large deposits of nickel, copper, chrome, cobalt, and manganese which are mined here. Most of their tourists come from Australia as it is only a 3 hour flight from here. The French also vacation here. The largest coral lagoon in the world is here. During WWII the US built the airport and added a lot of infrastructure. I will be adding pictures of costal guns that protected the harbor during the war. So, last night we dined in Prime 7. Only one little problem, I had oysters Rockefeller for appetizer and they had sand in them. Took a full glass of water to finally wash all the sand out of my mouth. Rebecca’s filet and my NY strip steak were perfect as usual. We arrived at the show late but did not stay long anyway as it was some magician doing card tricks. Was totally unimpressed with that so left. Not sure why all the cruise lines insist on having magicians. Tonight’s show is the violinist and cellist again. Another show that we were not impressed with for their first show a few days ago. We were thinking about dining in our suite tonight but sun is shining on our balcony and it is hot there. Ship is not sailing until 7:30 tonight. May still decide to do it. You can order from room service a selection of the same food that is being served down in Compass Rose, the main restaurant. So if you are too lazy to go out, you can dine in! Next two days will be at sea heading down to Sydney where we will arrive on Saturday morning, the 6th. This is the end of the first segment of the world cruise so probably half of the passengers will be leaving the ship and new ones will board. As I said earlier, there are only just over 300 full world cruise passengers. We will be in Sydney for two days. We are hoping for smooth seas!

                                                      Charlie & Joan

                                                        Jamie & Rebecca

TUESDAY, FEB 2ND--PORT VILA, VANAUTU

As I write this we are just sailing out of Port Vila on Vanuatu. This is the island where the “Survivor” TV show was filmed this past year, and also, thousands of US troops were garrisoned here during WWII. I must say we were impressed with the island what little we really saw of it. We were only here from 7:30am to 2:00pm. We were up early as we had to meet for our excursion at 7:15. We sat outside back of La Veranda for our breakfast as it was very comfortable sitting in the shade of an umbrella. We finally boarded 11 passenger vans for our 20 minute ride to the Ekasup Cultural Village. This was in the jungle where a tribe member of the Ekasup’s took us to different places to explain how they lived off of the ocean and jungle. There were also tribe members hiding in the trees and jungle as we walked down the jungle paths. They later danced and played homemade instruments for us. As you will see from the photos I will attach later, they were dressed in tribal garb. The guide explained and showed us how they trapped wild pigs and wild chickens, caught fish and lobsters, and made medicines from leaves, flowers, and roots of plants in the jungle. He also explained tribal customs and history. Cannibalism was practiced on the 83 islands of Vanuatu until the missionaries came here. Marriages are arranged by the parents and the man must pay for the bride with wild pigs. This is still done by the tribal natives living self sufficiently in the jungles. My words cannot portray adequately the story we heard on this incredible tour. It was definitely the best tour by a long way so far on the cruise. Back at the ship, other passengers on different tours also said they had wonderful tours on Vanautu. So this was a wonderful surprise today. Last night before dinner we had some wine up in the Observation Lounge on top of ship which is all window facing the front of the ship. We sat there listening to Jerry, the very talented guitarist, play as we watched the sun set over the peaceful Pacific. We both reflected on how lucky we were to be in a position now to enjoy doing something like this. God had blessed us during our careers and was now blessing us with the incredible view of his creation. Our requested veal parmesan dinner was once again very tasty. After dinner we were entertained by Donald Cant in the showroom. He is best known as one of Australia’s “phantoms” in “The Phantom of the Opera” and is one of their leading musical performers. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed his singing. We are looking forward to him doing another show for us in a few days. We will be arriving in the port of Noumea on New Caledonia tomorrow morning at 10:00am. Tonight we are dining in the steak & seafood specialty restaurant called Prime 7 again. YUMMY! Better go join Rebecca in the gym now though.