Thursday, November 6 (Day 48)

At sea. Very smooth seas...just a teeny bit of roll. It’s still a bit coolish outside, but getting warmer as we head north. (Feels funny to type that!) Didn’t do much...just puttered around the ship.

By the way, I won’t be getting two birthdays this year as I thought I would. It turns out that someone somewhere decided on a schedule change, and they moved a sea day from later on into the space between Suva, Fiji and Apia, Samoa. Thus my birthday will not be doubled by crossing the International Date Line, but Armistice Day will. That’s okay also...any excuse for a celebration! Too bad I’ve finally “run out of” fudge that I bought at the winery outside of Melbourne! We’ll all go have lunch in the Pinnacle Grill instead.

At dinner this evening we got a full report on Mary’s ascension of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, complete with photos taken at the top! She said it wasn’t nearly as difficult as she imagined it would be, and the hardest part was the four steep ladderways at the beginning of the climb. They don’t allow you to take up anything but yourself and your sunglasses. They put you in a protective suit with a built-in safety line and hard hat. But they do take photos of both the group and individuals at the top. They usually take the individual photos with the Opera House in the background, but Mary asked that hers be shifted a bit so her background is the ship and Circular Quay. She said she’s do it again in a heartbeat! She’s one happy camper now!

Friday, November 7

At sea. The water here in the Coral Sea is even smoother than yesterday...at times almost glassy. The temperature is definitely going up as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn today. I even sat out in the sun for a while after lunch.

For the past two days, I’ve joined Jill’s trivia team since they lost a member who got off in Sydney. Both days we’ve come within 2 points of winning, so I guess I’m helping some. Actually none of us feel a burning need to win any of the geegaws they offer as prizes since most of us have most of that stuff already...umbrellas, luggage tags, photoframe/mousepads, etc, but we do have fun. Today’s kicker question (for which I can only remember the answer, not the question) was to tell what three impossible names had in common. It turned out that they are states in the United Arab Emirate. Sheesh! I can’t even keep the countries of Africa straight anymore, much less know something like that!

Last night’s “bedtime present” was a stuffed koala, cute and squishy. It gets added to the tote bag, travel journal, sweatshirt, umbrella, two delft-ware dishes, a really ugly coffee mug, etc etc that we’ve already received. We are still guessing that we’ll get some sort of piece of luggage toward the end of the trip to tote it all home in like we did on the South American trip.

Otherwise, it’s been a lovely peaceful day.

Saturday, November 8

Noumea, New Caledonia, a large, cigar-shaped island surrounded by the largest lagoon in the world made up of the second largest coral reef in the world at 930 miles long. In fact, it has recently been named a World Heritage Site. The island is also unique because it is actually a piece of Gondwana which separated from that supercontinent along with Australia and New Zealand 85 million years ago, and separated from them 55 million years ago. As a result, it is a treasure trove of the prehistoric Gondwanan forest ecology with tons of diverse and primitive plants and animals.

The island was named by Captain Cook because the scenery reminded him of the Scottish highlands. It is, however, a French territory like Martinique in the Caribbean. It is the world’s third largest producer of nickel behind Russia and Cuba.

I won’t send any postcards here because they would have to go to Paris before heading to the U.S., again like Martinique. I tried to brush up my minimal, marginal French because the people here have the same basic opinion of non-French-speaking tourists, yet again like Martinique. Bon jour! Fortunately, our guide on tour was a bi-lingual Brit, and the stall keepers that I bought a few souvenirs from were tolerant of my spotty French. The one I had some conversation with spoke to me mostly in French, and I mostly understood her enough to reply.

Our morning’s tour consisted mostly of a drive around the Noumea area and a visit to their aquarium which is only about a year old. The aquarium was fabulous! I could have easily spent the whole morning in there! And if I ever get back here, I will certainly go there again! Our guide told us that one of her tours recently was with a couple from California who are with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and that they had high praise for this one in Noumea. I can believe it!