Well, we were right!

As we accurately projected in the last blog, we have been out of touch for just over three weeks!!!

Why! – Well, when we don’t have access to a secure WiFi, we turn on our iPhone ‘Hotspot’, then use that to access the web securely, its a bit slow, but better than not having access.

But, all the way across the South Pacific, we didn’t have a phone signal and not just the whilst at sea, but everywhere, every island we landed too!

”Mum, Dad, just get on with the blog, the readers don’t want to hear about all this signal rubbish” “Ahh don’t be bossy Millie, they might want to!” “ Ok then but keep it short” “Ok, will do”

Anyway, we have just been instructed to move on, so here we go;

After an uneventful drive back to Auckland, we dropped off the car and boarded our next Cruise ship, the Oceana Regatta, rather a small ship with only about 500 passengers, which was a first for us as we have always been on bigger ships before.

Our first port of call was back to the Bay of Islands, which we had stayed at a couple of weeks before, then it was back on board to set sail across the South Pacific.

 

BUT, bad news awaited, as when we set sail that evening, the ships Captain informed us that, because some cruise ships in Asia had contracted the Coronavirus that originated in China, then several Pacific Islands had closed their ports and were banning all cruise ships from entering – Ahhhhhh, still we couldn’t blame them and better safe than sorry, but it put a bit of a downer on the rest of the cruise, with all the meals, including buffets, being served by staff wearing gloves and passengers not allowed to help themselves to anything!

As well as this, every time we got off and on the ship at different islands, we had our temperatures taken, which was all good we suppose and thankfully, no one was detected as having any problems, which for an 18 day cruise was a very good thing!

Then we had a sea day, to relax and  drown our sorrows about the bad news in the pool side bar, just kidding, we spent the whole day swimming laps and running around the deck to keep fit – honest 😂😂👫🍺🍷

Ok, let’s go, after the bit of bad news, it was all systems go and we eventually arrived Noumea, New Caledonia, where surprise surprise, we did something completely different for a change, a Wine and Cheese tour, oh, nearly forgot and a tour of the beautiful island 😂😂

Then it was off to the beautiful island of Vanuatu, where we docked at the little town of Port Vila, where we jumped off ship – well we didn’t actually jump off, we walked down the gangplank!  To do an island tour on a bus with quite unique AC, well we thought it was unique there, only to discover later that it was almost universal around the Pacific Islands!

It involved putting the bus windows down to let air blow through as we travelled, how energy efficient is that 👍👍, it might even catch on world wide as energy prices rise 😂😂, or perhaps not!

 

Then it was cruising at sea for a day, until we arrived in Fiji, where we were really excited to be, as we had booked a Mud Bath, in a hot mud pool, followed by a dip in a hot spring, then a relaxing massage – Ahhh, this is the life 👍👍

That’s enough excitement for one day, more to follow soon 👍.