Sunday Nov 6- Nouméa, New Caledonia

We spent two days at sea and this started with an incredible send off from Tonga.  The cultural society representatives came to the wharf and sang traditional songs as we pulled away from their wharf.  They thanked us for coming as they recover from a natural disaster and said a moving prayer as we pulled away.  It was really very sweet.

Then the captain made a disturbing announcement...namely that there had been an "uptick" in illness on the ship.  Given our history to date we decided to lay low and avoid all people.  The only exception...we attended nightly trivia.  Ironically we won the sports trivia...totally unexpected!

What followed was two days of quiet reading on the balcony and planning for the next leg of our trip.  We have decided to leave the ship early, in Brisbane and start our driving adventure from there.

We arrived at our last stop before Brisbane, Nouméa early on Nov 6.  It is a large island and Nouméa is a city with all the mod cons. We quickly found an internet café and loaded up some books and made contact with family.  This island, New Caledonia is associated with France and so I was able to practice my French and enjoy delicious French cuisine.

We found a lovely park in the city centre where the song birds serenaded us on a very rainy day!  

We stopped for lunch and had a welcome break from the food on the ship which is getting a bit monotonous.  

We have two more days at sea and then Australia awaits!