A couple of less cuddly residents of the Billabong Sanctuary.

 

G’day, mate. We’re at the Billabong Sanctuary in Townsville.

(file under: “didn’t taste like chicken”)

Crocodile sausage. I will resist the urge to say “tasted like chicken”, but……

 

As feared, Cairns weather has once again not smiled on us. Our train journey was wiped out, due to “flash flood conditions, which could trigger landslides on the train tracks.” However, the substituted shore excursion turned out to be terrific - “Skyrail” from Kuranda back down to sea-level Cairns. Barron falls ought to be more widely known, pretty impressive.

 

Today is our third (and last) sea day before reaching Australia. Then we’ll have several ports - Cairns, Townsville, and Airlie Beach. Weather still looks iffy according to the Captain, we’ll see. Meanwhile…..just livin’ the dream.

Pretty soggy onboard today - and apparently more to come. The Captain, in his usual noon PA address, said it looks wet for the foreseeable future. Cairns is next, in 3 days. The last time we were there, we took a catamaran ride out to the Great Barrier Reef, but the seas were having none of it. We bounced around pretty well, probably 10-20% of the folks onboard were seasick, the catamaran crew ran out of vomit bags. I strapped on the gear and went in, but only lasted a few minutes - I couldn’t see my own fins, much less any marine life. Hoping it’s not the same for Cairns II.

There’s a restaurant which is built over the water and has a glass floor, so diners can look down and watch fishies doing their thing.

Noumea is the capital of New Caledonia, and seems like an upscale, vibrant place. Memorials to WW2 abound, as it evidently was a key stronghold in the Pacific, for the war against Japan. As it happens, the beaches were deserted today - they had a fatal shark attack a day or two ago.

The welcoming committee at Lifou was a sea turtle.

 

Nice tour of Lifou Island, New Caledonia. Botanical garden, including the usual vanilla plants, and a pretty view of the Cliffs of Jokin.

My own personal taste buds tell me that a great piece of salmon sushi (or sashimi) is just about the best bite of food in the world. Takes me back to the bears (our sushi spirit animal) in Alaska. Took this last July - bears *get it*.

Anyway, the hamachi was just ok, the maguro was better, and the salmon was remarkably good. I have to think the logistics of fresh raw fish on a cruise ship are difficult - procurement, storage, and presentation over time.

Japanese at the informal restaurant tonight. The second I sat down, i realized I had to go back to the room to get our chopsticks. We have a smallish international collection going on, these are from Nairobi. I think they’re cute.

Interesting timing. This is where we are tomorrow.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/02/19/asia/new-caledonia-noumea-shark-attack-intl-hnk/index.html

Thomas Keller clambake

The weather has finally caught up to us. The last few days in Fiji have been pretty wet. In between thunderstorms though, we managed to visit a coconut oil mfg company, tour Savusavu, and see a brief local dance show.

mmmmmm!

Woohooo, tonight! Our favorite onboard dinner. Curries and pakoras and naan, oh my!

So, this was interesting - first time I remember seeing it onboard. Sounds like something I’d be interested in, but…10:30p? I guess they want it to not conflict with dinnertime hours, and only after the nightly 9:30p show breaks, but…..starting out with whiskey and a loooong cigar smoke at 10:30p? On a night with early shore excursions the next morning? Anyway, when I got there….

We’ve been extraordinarily lucky weather-wise, since the sailaway in Miami (almost hate to say it out loud, for fear of jinxing it). But it looks like that luck might run out in the next several days - our Captain said, in his usual 12:00 noon PA announcement, that rain is the forecast. Weather.com shows this for Suva, so when we get to Fiji, it might be a bit damp.

The main takeaway from this is, as always right after the Super Bowl……we are only a matter of weeks away from baseball spring training. The Holy Grail.

But (thankfully) we did see the end of the game, and (thankfully) there was no actual threat.

Inside the last 2 minutes of the game, there was (for the first time ever, on our 14 cruises) an actual alarm, not a drill. The Officer of the Watch, and then the Captain, did several announcements about a possible incident. So most of the last 2 minutes of the game looked like this, on our TV screens:

Super Bowl Sunday. They are screening the big game in one of the public rooms, with the requisite munchies, of course.

The view from the top of Taha’a.

One of the shore excursion tour guides.

So, today we docked at Raiatea, and then took a launch over to sister island, Taha’a. Visited a black pearl operation as well as a vanilla orchard & outlet. The ensuing snorkeling was not as good as previous days, mostly just 4’ of water over sand and far less coral, *but*, we did have 4-5 stingrays who were quite accommodating, letting us just drift with the gentle surge and watch them - alternately undulating those wonderful “wings” to glide along, and then just nuzzling the sandy bottom.

For our picnic lunch they dragged the tables into the shallow water - nice touch.

Our Captain was also the lunch chef - he prepared ceviche with fresh tuna & veggies, with coconut milk squeezed from the pulp inside a bit of thin tree bark. They were also the entertainment onboard the catamaran, with musical choices ranging from old traditional Polynesian melodies, to “You Are My Sunshine” and “When the Saints Go Marching In”.

From previous pic, you can see that the calm snorkeling area is only 3-4 feet deep. I wondered if the marine life would not be so great as a result, but it was quite good - there were lots of soft corals which were not abundant in Bora Bora. I also saw a triggerfish defending his/her egg-brood, chasing off all other fish seeking free caviar - the internet pic below is a Picasso triggerfish - the one I saw wasn’t I don’t think, but some kind of triggerfish, similar. I also use “his/her” pronouns advisably, as both sexes tend the eggs (which hatch in less than 24 hours), and misgendering something can get you in big trouble these days. 😳

Before we jump in for some snorkeling, this little fella tries to climb on my foot.

Another day of enjoying the big blue Pacific. A catamaran takes us to a remote motu for snorkeling and a picnic lunch.

Not a bad thing to pull open the curtains first thing in the morning, and have this be the view. We’ve arrived at Huahine-Iti today.

Ok, goodbye to Bora Bora. What an amazing place.

 

Many hotel chains (Four Seasons, St Regis, Hilton etc) have these kinds of properties, with individual units built out over the water.