Day 23 - Halfway between Fiji and Australia lies a bit of French Melanesia. Today, we were given the opportunity to taste a little of the picturesque South Pacific islands of New Caledonia. We have three days in ports but do not hit the largest island and capital until the third. Today, we spent the day on an island in a small chain to the east of Grand Terre.
We tendered for the first time on this cruise. The process went quite smoothly and we were on Lifou before 9:30 AM. The landing where the boats let us disembark is very sparse. We walked up to a little chapel on a hill, the Notre Dame de Lourdes. It was posted as being five minutes from that point, but those must've been for people in cars. We walked up the well-maintained trail to the structure built by Catholic missionaries in 1858. The amazing view included the open ocean as well as two major bays. After we walked directly to one of the bays. Jenik is a protected site for coral and a favourite for snorkelers.
After we walked back towards the MS Noordam. How ideal, it looked sitting in the Santel Bay! We walked a kilometer up the beach and swam in the clear water. A few of the staff from our ship had a few hours break and Aryan came out to 'our' beach near a big deciduous tree with orange leaves. Jay also walked a bit up the hill to see the cross in front of another church.
We came back to our floating home at around 1:30 PM. The ship's last tender was at 4:30.
