Day Four - 9 July 2015 - Noumea, New Caledonia

We arrived at Gare Maritime Terminal in Noumea at 8.00am. We were up just after 6.30 and saw the first coral reef as we came into the harbour,

 

We slowly made our way past the buildings on shore, then the yacht club, it took us back to the time we sailed to New Zealand when we emigrated 48 years ago.

Every time the ship came into harbour we'd all be up on deck to watch the ship berth.  

There was a brass band to welcome us and the sun was shining, couldn't ask for more than that. 

We had booked a bus tour "Noumea in a Nutshell" so that we could at least get a taste of what New Caledonia was like.  As their main language is French we enjoyed all the shop signs 'Carrefour' and 'Plat de Jour' etc, which reminded us of our trips to France with James and Rach.  

Wellington isn't the only place where flags fly the opposite way at the same time!

We had a quick breakfast and then checked ourselves off the ship and into the terminal. 

There was a native Melanesian group of singers and musicians singing on the mezzanine floor of the terminal which sounded very like our own Maori performers, so nice.  

There were several stalls with local handcrafts for sale, but time for those later.

We found our bus and our tour guide 'Michael', we had a full complement on board and off we went to discover Noumea.  

Michael was so entertaining, and gave us a good overview of Noumea's City, hills, bays, beaches and the countryside. Plus all the anecdotes he has garnered over the past 20 years he has been doing this. 

Our first stop was the little church of La Conception, built by missionaries in 1847. Michael must be deeply into spiritualism as he was genuinely in awe of the Virgin Mary and told us of the miracles she had performed over recent years, especially the healing of several tourists he took through the church who now visit on a regular basis.  

These are plaques donated to the church in acknowledgement of Mary's miracles.

We went through to the other side of the city and up to Ouen Toro Lookout

 

which gave us lovely vistas of the beaches and the islands out to sea.

It was now time for coffee so we headed back along Promenade Vernier, 

where the airport is and on to the hotel Nouvata where we had a very pleasant stop for coffee and French pastry 

and visited the local market along the beautiful beach front.  

Then up the hill to the FOL lookout, where we could see our ship towering over the city.  

I was surprised how big the city was, it didn't look much from the ship, but is quite built up and extensive. 

Shopping is not great, clothing is mostly 'labels' and quite expensive.  We wandered around Coconut Square where most of the shops and restaurants are, but didn't stay long.  We ended up buying very little and went back to the ship and were checked on again. 

It looks like we all came back at the same time.  Our cabin is situated on the other side of the ship but is the same as the third balcony from the left above the lifeboats.

We had a late lunch on deck 12, it was very warm and sunny.  I took advantage of some spare time and took myself off to Charlies again to post my blog from yesterday.  Logged on, downloaded my emails, thanks everyone for your kind comments, and was just about to upload my blog when the system went down, no wifi - don't you hate that?  

Not the most flattering of 'selfies'!

However it did mean that I could go back to my cabin and join David, we spent a lovely afternoon just sitting out on our balcony in the sun watching the small boats go by. 

Then it was time for the ship to leave Noumea and we gently pulled away from the quayside.  

A surprise announcement over the intercom from the captain meant that we had to go back alongside the dock again, there was a medical emergency and they had to disembark one of the passengers.  

The tug manoeuvring us back into dock

Fortunately we had not gone far, so it added a bit of interest while we gently manoeuvred the boat alongside again and the gangplank was lowered, a medic came on board and the passenger was taken off.

Deck 7' "Showtime"!

The show tonight in the Marquee is Murray Raine and "It's Vegas on a String", he was very clever, and also a comedian of course.  His marionettes were all Hollywood stars, and they all sang their hearts out.  It's lovely having a show to go to every night, and as for the younger passengers there's so much choice of different venues with different music styles, lots of dancing spots and of course there's always karaoke!

Our cosy cabin - so nice when someone else keeps it tidy!

Well, we are now on our way to Lifou, which is an overseas territory of France in the Loyalty Islands, apparently we don't dock as such but will disembark by means of climbing down onto a tender which will take us to the Island for our tour.