Early this morning we could see land for the first time in two days. The ship anchored about 300 metres from Lifou Island. We dawdled over breakfast as we didn’t need to rush to go ashore. I took photos of two churches from the ship at 10x magnification. In the 1860s the Catholics and Anglicans battled for religious control of Lifou. The Catholics won.
Tender boats have to transport passengers to the small jetty. We got a ticket for the thirteenth tender. The seats were not designed to accommodate fat bottoms, tall people, or those with disabilities. As lifeboats, they take 150 passengers, but only 120 when tenders. It is a slow process loading tenders, so I hope we never have to hurry onto lifeboats! Today, they dropped off passengers and returned empty to collect more. It wasn’t long before people were coming back on board as there isn’t much to do or see on the island unless snorkelling.
The ship dwarfs the tenders.
We wandered around for an hour, then headed back to the ship. It was hot and humid and we hadn’t planned to go swimming.
The water is a wonderful deep clear blue beside the ship, and a lighter blue under the jetty. We saw a turtle come up from the bottom to breathe, then go back down.
Back on board we had our first swim in the adults only pool. It was very buoyant thanks to the salt water.
We caught up with Beccy and other Roadies before having dinner in the very busy main dining room.
Committed Travellers 