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 DayThis was our first tender day so we were woken fairly early with the crew getting ready f...

Noumea… First port of call, we docked at 8am and we're all filing off by about 9ish. There’s a terminal building you walk into which has some markets up on top and downstairs the tourist info booth and money exchange as well as tour operators. I would suggest changing money inside the terminal instead of onboard… we didn’t buy much in Noumea but I think it’s best to have some Francs. We found the people not very friendly or help...

Once again up at 6.30 and up at the buffet for breakfast before the crowds then sitting on the Oasis deck typing up the blog. As we were sitting there a lady came past and started talking to another passenger, when asked if this was her first cruise she replied "yes" then asked how she was enjoying it she said “ well I'm not really… I’m soooo bored, I just want to get on face book. If I can put up with these sea days I’m sure the ports...

First full day of the cruise so of course as usual we woke up at 6.30am and decided sincewe were awake we should hightail it to the buffet breakfast before the other 1954 people woke up! Good move as there was hardly anybody there which made it a far better dining experience ( you might have figured after the check in story that we're not much for waiting in lines with the rest of the herd! ). Once we’d had our powdered scrambled eggs we made our way ...

Finally had a little bit of a sleep in today as it was around 1am before we'd fallen into bed the night before. Checked out at 10ish , leaving our luggage with the concierge and went off to find some breakfast, we ended up at Kafe Kez where they had an extensive menu including fresh juices so I was happy! Rodd opted for a Bacon and Egg Roll with BBQ sauce, cos he doesn’t get stuff like that very much anymore and I had poached eggs with avocado, tomato a...