South-Pacific Cruise (Part 1)- New Caledonia

In January we went on a fabulous, 13-day South Pacific cruise with my parents. We had a blast and saw some beautiful places in New Caledonia and Australia. Here’s a recap of the first half of our trip in beautiful New Caledonia!We set sail from Sydney and spent a couple of days at sea, sailing to New Caledonia. This was really nice because it gave us time to get used to life on board and access many of the activities and amenities right off the bat. We spent some time at the pool and enjoyed lots of yummy food and drinks!

Emmylou quickly made some friends in the kids pool. #socialbutterflyOur first stop in New Caledonia was in Noumea. This is a fairly large port city (for such a small island) and proved to be a bit more metropolitan (I use that term very loosely) than we hoped. We spent the morning walking around town together, shopped at the little market and ended up back on the boat by lunch/naptime. This was a beautiful park we saw as walked around.In hindsight, a full-day excursion would have been a nice idea for this particular port. My parents did an afternoon biking excursion and really enjoyed seeing some beautiful beaches and sights on their excursion. Next, we sailed to the Isle of Pines, which is known as the, “Jewel of the Pacific,” and was AMAZING! When we woke up we were greeted with the stunning view of a tropical island covered in pine trees.  It was pretty unique and spectacular and definitely the most beautiful place I have ever been.  We had to tender into the beach and it was absolutely beautiful. We loved everything about our time on Isle of Pines- it was manageable with Emmylou and so beautiful. We walked a few steps to the beach and jumped right in; the water was crystal clear and warm. Everyone was happy on the beach!  

We wished we could have stayed longer…our time on this beautiful island went too fast!Next up was Lifou, New Caledonia. This was another tender into a beach. It was also beautiful and we spent the day playing in the sand and splashing in the water with friends. We also loved this stop!

She had a blast on the beach and wore herself right out; she passed out on our way back to the boat!After leaving, we heard Lifou has amazing snorkeling if you walked to another beach…the moral of that story is to do your research before getting off the boat! Cruising gives you opportunities to see many places but limits your time there, so planning ahead is crucial if you want to get the most out of your ports. We really didn’t do this and wished we had, especially in Lifou. We also found that booking the shore excursions through the ship is the easiest and most reliable way to see what you want to see on port days.

Phew!  The next post is about the second half of our cruise, along Australia’s Eastern coast.  We stopped in Cairns, Airlie Beach and Brisbane.  Stop by to hear about our time at the Great Barrier Reef and meetings koalas; it was quintessentially Aussie!

Cheers,

K, J, EL & P