Mare…. This was a beautiful place a real unspoilt heaven on earth.



Originally Mare was not on our itinerary, we were supposed to be in Lifou today and Isle of Pines on Christmas Day however the locals on Isle of Pines didn't want cruise ship passengers there for Christmas Day as they are very religious and either didn’t want to or can’t work Christmas Day

This was our first tender day so we were woken fairly early with the crew getting ready for the boats to be lowered and the deck organized for passengers to board the tenders. We were still some way off from anchoring so I’m not sure exactly what all the noise was but we heard it only on tender days! Our cabin is one deck up and about 2 windows along from where the boats pull up so we watched people boarding and the boats coming and going. We knew everyone had to get the boats over and then wait for the shuttles so we weren’t really in any hurry, also we had all day and the only thing to do on Mare is go to the beach which as much as we enjoy we don’t need to be there from 8am to 4pm.

We thought we’d be smart today and go up early for breakfast again as we have every other day with great success however today everyone had the same idea… I guess they all didn’t want to spend the entire day on the beach either!! Really though with nearly 2000 people on board it wasn’t too bad ever in the buffet.

 I think if Mare is a planned port of call there would be more options available but as ours was a last minute change P & O had organised shuttles to Yejele Beach for all passengers, which was about a 15 min drive. When we got of the tender boat there was a long long line of people waiting to board the shuttles so we went for a walk down to the end of the wharf and there was a lady with her son there so she was nice enough to take a photo of us together. By the time we got back the line was a little shorter so we joined the end and only really waited no more than 10 minutes, the locals had a market set up and there was a coffee shop with music blaring so I just danced about a bit while we waited. We ended up in a van that held about 9 people in the back and we got to sit in the 2 seats upfront with the driver, he didn't speak any english but he could see we were trying to take photos of the coastline as we got glimpses, of course he knows the road and what's coming up and he would make gestures like taking a photo and point just before we'd come around a corner with a great view.... we gave him a tip when we got to the beach cos we thought that was pretty nice of him!!

Everybody off the ship went there as there is no other option so the beach was crawling with people. The locals had set up little stalls with cold drinks, beer, hot chips and other food and were also selling fresh coconuts with the top cut off and a straw! I had read Tripadvisor and found out if you walk up the road a bit and the find a track into the bush there is a private beach so this is what we did. It was lovely having our own private little beach. We snorkeled and swam around a bit, saw some lovely colourful fish so close to shore then walked back through the water to the main beach where we found a few beers and went for another swim. The current was quite strong here and I found it a little scary really but so long as you stayed where you could touch the bottom it wasn’t too bad. Awesome day!!

Back on board, showered and dressed for the night we were at Trivia in the Connextions Bar before it started at 3.30pm. Naturally we found Gary and Kaylene straight away and sitting there sipping my margarita ( by now my favourite drink ) I was looking around and spotted Paul, the guy that helped us on our first trivia attempt, and his wife Fiona so I beckoned them over so now we had 6 on our team... surely that would give us a better score!! Alas once again the questions were hard.. we got 15/20 which is ok I guess but we did have lots of fun!

We didn’t see any shows tonight, there was a pirate theme with Pirates of the Pacific on in the Marquee at 7.30pm and again at 9.30, Pirate trivia at 8.30 and a Pirate Party at 10.30 but somehow we missed all of that. We had Hamburgers ( well I had a salad roll ) from the Grill and then just wandered, from bar to bar and spent some time in the casino.. we had a pretty good run in the casino for the whole cruise, I started with $50 and won some, then the next night would lose a bit then next time win some more.

Dinner in the Waterfront Restaurant was really lovely, I had a really nice grilled vegetable salad, the vegetarian options are sparse but what they do have is very nice. We met Princess and Ginny, our servers, they insisted on calling Rodd "Sir Rodd" and me “Mum Liane”, it was so sweet. Princess told us she is newly married and had only spent about a week with her husband before she had to start her contract with P & O, Ginny had a small child she left at home so both of them whilst really friendly and happy were a little sad I think. Princess said she liked to be working 11 hours of the day cos when not working she cries a lot!! Poor things.

We ended the night in the Atrium with me once again dancing around the dance floor all by myself. Rodd got up and danced around with me a bit then would go off and start talking to random strangers telling them how beautiful I am and how much he loves me!! I think we kept everyone entertained for the night.