These are just a few last minute photos and memories of the ship.
On November 20th we arrived in Sydney, Australia!
We were only in Sydney for a short while – just long enough to catch a train to the domestic airport to catch our flight to Cairns, Australia to begin the next leg of our adventure.
Tom and I spent today in the pretty city of Cairns, Australia in preparation for our next leg of the journey – a great big check on our bucket list. Cairns is about 1200 kilometers (a 3 hour flight) up the coast from Sydney. It is also the main access point to the Great Barrier Reef, but more about that later.
We took advantage of the down time to wander around the city harbor area and get the feel of the city – clean, laid-back, and lovely. Here are some pictures from our walk-about.
This evening we dined at an interesting place call The Cock and Bull. We walked the five blocks in the rain (Cairns has just entered their rainy season. Since it is in the middle of a rainforest, it gets a lot of rain.) We were told that it was a great place and it turned out to be just that. We looked at the huge meals coming out of the kitchen and decided to share a meal. Tom and I decided to share a meal and even at that it was way more than enough. Traci, this is where you need to cover your ears/eyes. We opted for the restaurant special – the Croc and Roo special – yep a combo of crocodile cutlet and kangaroo steak and it was delicious! Crocodile tastes like a combination of lobster and chicken – interesting. Roo tastes like a good variation of a good steak. It was very much worth the rain trek.
Tomorrow we board the Coral Princess for seven day cruise along the Great Barrier Reef!!!! This ship is small – only about 40 passengers – and much more to our style. However, there will be no internet access – expensive or otherwise, so I’ll be off line for awhile. I promise to take lots of pictures and keep careful notes along the way and I’ll catch you up when we’re back among the connected. Till then, we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Love,
Charli & Tom
November 17, 2013 Noumea, New Caledonia
Our last big adventure of this part of the trip was to the island of New Caledonia. Before this trip, I had never heard of New Caledonia, and we were surprised at the size and sophistication of this place. It is a French possession and greatly due to tourism and nickel mining & export, the annual per capita income is around $39,000 as compared to the $5,000 for Fiji and the other islands that we have visited.
Our planned excursion was scheduled for the afternoon so we spent the morning on a short van tour of the capital city of Noumea. It is a fairly large, hilly city compared to the other islands, and reflects the wealth of the island. It boasts of beautiful white sand beaches and the world’s largest coral reef rimmed lagoon. It is a beautiful island.
At noon we began our tour – another checkmark on the bucket list. This was a tour of a botanical garden and wildlife preserve. Okay, you might say – been there, done that – BUT this one we did on Segways!!!!!
I was a little nervous at the beginning, but we had good instructors and they insisted that we practice a lot before they allowed us to head out into the general population. The trick of the Segway is all in the shift of weight – to move forward you lean forward, to stop you stand up straight, reverse lean back on your heels. To turn right you lean the handlebar apparatus to the right and left to turn left. As I said, we practiced for about a half hour on a small track – I only ran over one cone.
Once we were fairly competent, we set out and spent the next hour and a half zipping up and down the hills
and around the park stopping at various exhibits along the way.
It was Sunday and the park was very crowded, but no one was injured and the people seemed to enjoy watching us. We found them to be very warm and friendly waving and saying “bonjour” as we passed. The outing was very fun and we loved it. We were pretty tired by the time we got back to the ship, but the adventure was well worth the effort.
Next stop, Australia!!!!!
November 15 – Suva, Fiji
We spent today in Suva, the capital of Fiji. Fiji is actually an archipelago of 330 islands. Only a third of them are inhabited because most are sand and will not sustain life – just a bit of trivia. Suva is much more sophisticated than the other islands we have visited and has a busy port and city area.
We however, did not stay in the city but opted to go on a boating excursion which turned out to be another great adventure. The group started out in buses for an hour long bus ride through the scenic countryside. We passed huts and small villages along the way, and our guide, Joe, kept up a running commentary of the history and culture of the area. The average annual income per capita in Fiji is only $5ooo, but the soil is rich and families live on what they grow, raise or catch. According to Joe, the average number of children per family is 10 – 12, yikes! The new president of Fiji is attempting to establish free public education and to require all children attend school but this is not yet the law. Joe was funny and interesting and explained what we would be seeing along the way. He talked about Kava – a plant that is grown for its roots from which they make a drink that is used in their tribal ceremonies.
Much of our trip was in long boats up the Nauva River. Another bit of information that Joe shared in his talk was that although Fiji has very few predatory animals, they do have anacondas (you know the enormous snakes that they make movies about). In fact the movie Anaconda was filmed on the river we were going to be on. I wasn’t real sure that Tom was going to get in the boat after hearing that bit of info (not a big snake fan or a small snake fan), but he did and away we went.
The fact that it’s the rainy season and that it rained much of the way added to the dampness – but never-the-less we enjoyed the gorgeous, lush rainforest, flowers, and interesting sights along the ride.
Rather wet and windblown, we arrived at an inlet and walked along the narrow but pretty path to a large waterfall where many in the group got even wetter and the rest of us took pictures.
Back in the boats, we headed back down the river.
That trip was a lot faster since we were now headed down river. We were moving at a pretty good clip when we hit the rapids. Then it also got very rough and suddenly we began to take on a lot of water. The ladies at the front of the boat started yelling about a hole in the boat. Our driver quickly headed toward the bank of the river and we all slogged ashore.
Our vessel had a definite problem and after using a river rock to try to hammer our boat back together, we realized that we had major issues. Other boats were coming down the river and our lady alarms started waving and yelling for help. Several boats came to our rescue. Our group clambered into other boats and we were off again. While the whole thing sounds rather traumatic – almost drowning in anaconda infested waters – there was a lot of joking and laughing and we all decided that it had greatly enhanced our adventure.
We were soon at our next stop – a small village for a Kava ceremony and lunch.
We were herded into a large hut and seated on the mat floors – men at the front of the room and women in the back. It was rather reminiscent of Morocco.
Anyway after some history of the ceremony, chanting, dancing and sharing of the Kava – a bitter drink that made me a little dizzy and my lips numb – we were officially welcomed into the Fiji family. I think we now have dual citizenship. Well, maybe not.
Finally it was time for lunch which was a buffet of native dishes and delicious! Then back on the buses that were waiting for us and our home away from home. Goodbye Fiji and thanks for a fun and entertaining day.
CharliExplores 