My blog continues...

...over on my new combined blog page

https://occasionalcruiser.blogspot.com.au

Our next cruise

Well it's 146 days since we embarked on our last cruise and I have taken the plunge and booked another for 2017.
To follow along check out my new blogspot at gbrcruise2017

Food photos on the Pacific Aria

We always seem to take a couple of shots of food when on a cruise. Not so many this time but here they are.

Firstly, Angelo's restaurant.

Desert menu

Zabaglione torte

 Crisp ricotta and semolina pastry puffs

Grana padano cheese

Italian wine

At the Salt Grill

House baked plain and zartar bread

Pan-fried gnocchi

 

Five-spiced cured duck

Luke's liquorice parfait

At the chocolate shop

As temping to Harrison these were, I couldn't let him have one. ($15.99 AUD)

Bars

Beers on tap at one of the bars

Champagne Beach, Vanuatu, 14th December 2015

Our arrival early morning was met with rather gloomy skies and low hanging clouds, however the weather did clear later on.

Unfortunately my son wasn't feeling the best and my darling husband decided to stay aboard with him so I could go ashore to meet up with the tour guide I had arranged prior to leaving Brisbane. I had no way to contact them and Champagne beach is a tender port.
Fortunately I made it ashore and met with Ednah, who had organised a driver for myself and two other passengers. I think we were the last or second last group to leave for the day.
The tour was to the Riri blue hole, about 40 mins drive from the beach.

This blue hole (there are others on the island) is very beautiful. The water is freezing.

I did actually attempt the rope swing out into the water. We spent about an hour at the hole before heading back to the beach area.

View of the Pacific Aria driving back down the steep road from the Riri blue hole.

View of beach from the jetty.

Tender boat jetty.

View from the jetty

Champagne beach bar.

Beach cricket

Markets

More markets.

There is no view of the ship from the beach as the anchorage is around the corner. I was lucky to make it ashore as the sea became too rough later on and the captain stopped the tender service. There were a few disappointed passengers unable to make it ashore.

I'd definetely like to return to Champagne beach and have some more time relaxing on the beach. I would also recommend a tour with Santo Irie tours.

Port Vila, Vanuatu, 12th and 13th December 2015

On arrival at Port Vila we could see a storm moving over the other side of the harbour so we delayed leaving the ship by about an hour as we didn't have a tour booked.
We had decided to go to Hideaway Island resort and use their facilities and snorkel. To get to the island I had intended to negotiate a water taxi, however the land based taxi and bus drivers were lined up about 6 deep at the gate all trying to get our business. I randomly picked one who had a taxi uniform shirt and negotiated a fee for the return fare to Mele where the boat leaves from. The trip took about 30 minutes and we paid him the single fare and arranged to have him pick us up about 3 hours later.

The boat trip to Hideaway is free and takes about 5 minutes. The fee to use the island is $15 AUD each. 

The snorkeling was even better here. The water is deeper, but the coral is growing only about 20 meters from the edge. You can swim over the coral or follow the edges. The amount of different species was amazing and we all really enjoyed our time here. We would definitely return if coming back to Port Vila.

We stayed and had lunch at the Hideaway beach bar. Burgers and fish and chips, cold soft drinks and sample of the local brew for my husband. 

Local brew - Tusker

Fortunately the weather held for us and returning to the main land we had a brief browse at the markets before meeting our taxi driver and returning to the ship.

The second day we caught a water taxi ($5 person flat fee) to the center of town for some duty free and a visit to the chemist as I had developed a sore throat.

We had a good look around before returning to the ship for a late lunch.

We noticed that there are still a lot of damaged boats left from Cyclone Pam.

Mystery Island, Vanuatu, 11th December 2015

Mystery Island is a tiny uninhabited island where the local bring goods to the market and conduct tours on cruise ship visits.
We had visited Mystery Island in 2011 and were interested seeing if it had changed any. Essentially it was the same with a lot more tours being offered and heaps of market stalls. I picked up a dress suitable to wear over swimmers so was pretty pleased with my purchase.
Once again we swam and snorkeled. There were a lot more coral and fish at Mystery Island. 

Mare Island, New Caledonia, 10th December 2015

Mare Island is accessed by tender at the port of Tadine on the west side of the island.
This was our first visit to Mare and we had booked the shuttle bus to beach and were in no hurry to get there as we had plenty of time.

On arrival there are a handful of markets, mainly selling sarongs and dresses. There is also a local bar where my husband sampled the local brew.

Local bar

Local brew

The beach is on the eastern side of the island and the bus ride took about 20 minutes (from memory). The beach is named Yejele Turqoise Beach. We swam for about two hours, snorkeling around crops of coral. There were quite a few different species of fish.

We decided to have a look at the market stalls at the beach. There are a few, mainly selling cold drinks and a limited variety of food. We had decided to have a late lunch back aboard so I didn't take too much attention of the food. We did find that walking to the end of the stall away from the bus set down that there are some covered cabanas which would of been handy if we had of known when we arrived.

We had a great time at this port and it was a most enjoyable day.