Back in New Caledonia for our last port day today at Noumea, the capital. Mel was on a tour again, which left me, Robyn and Adam to do our own thing for the day. The ship was docked at a working pier so we had to get a shuttle bus to a nearby tourist information centre, rather than us getting into town by ourselves. There were lots of tour companies offering their services, and we managed to find an all day hop-on hop-off shuttle for $5 so we grabbed tickets. Th...

I didn't realise, when booking this trip, just how humid it might be in the places we would be visiting. Boy was it humid today! Our first port of call this cruise was at Lifou, on the largest of the Loyalty Islands. It is very pretty, with blue beaches and is very much the image you conjure up when you hear "tropical island". Palm trees abound, as do frangipani and hibiscus. Plus, there are little huts and beach shacks dotted along the main road. We were dropp...

Another day of not much. It's amazing how quickly the days pass despite not actually doing anything. The main highlight of today was seeing more flying fish from the balcony. Despite my best efforts, photos of them still elude me. Adam was luckier, so I am planning on borrowing some of his. Most of the rest of the day I spent reading, listening to some music or just sitting and contemplating the ocean. After dinner we all went and watched a band (the good one!)...