We had a busy last week at work before we went. Gibbo went to CQ for 4 days to the lease property; I stayed home and made sure we were on top of everything and ready to leave, admin wise. I also took my Dad to a doctors appointment in Twba on the Friday to discuss the tumour on his bladder. He ended up having to go to hospital during the week I was away to have the tumour scraped off. Andrew and Mum covered that one and Meg was a very vigilant visitor; I think both she and Mate enjoyed the visits very much.
We left early on the Saturday morning and drove to Drew, who came with us to the boat. It took us quite a while to get to the front of the queue and on the boat, to our cabin. Gibbo skipped the safety run through and slept all afternoon. Of course I went along and learnt (again) how to put on a life jacket then went up on deck to watch as we sailed up the river, under the bridge and out into the open sea.
From there, our days ran to a loose routine. Sleep in, go to breakfast, check the internet (very quickly, very expensively), coffee at Charlie's on Deck 5, a game of poker some days, a sleep, a read, lunch, sleep/poker/read; dinner, ice-cream, a show in the theatre then to bed. Tough.
Gibbo slept pretty solid for the first two days; he must have been exhausted. It took him that long to catch up.
The weather was pretty variable. Night 2 was rough; 90 people had to have injections for their seasickness. We didn't get off the boat in Noumea (hadn't planned to); it was raining in Lifou (and we had only planned to get off to go sit on the beach) and the night before Vanuatu there were 5 metre seas and Cyclone Lucy just 150 miles away. We didn't book a tour in Vanuatu and it turned out that half of them were cancelled due to the rough conditions. We did get off the boat in Port Vila to walk through the markets and choose a couple of gifts for the kids and Mum.
These photos were taken at Lifou.
These were taken at Vanuatu.
I feel sure the old boat on the left was there last time we visited two years ago!
Our cabin steward's name was Gordon; he is a cousin to Blaize who we met two years ago on the same boat (he was a waiter in the restaurant). He made a little animal every few days.
Gibbo played poker and blackjack and table tennis. How won the 7 games of table tennis, came 2nd in two of the poker games and lucked out in the blackjack grand final (no guts no glory was his motto). He found a group of oldies to play 500 with.
And played a bit of golf.
Random pics from across the boat, across the week.
I Am Pilgrim; ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LET GO.
The Atrium.
We had a special treat and ate at the onboard Asian restaurant, Luna. The night we went they served the Thai Menu - an 8 course meal of thai flavoured dishes. My favourite was the red curry soup.
My favourite place to go and sit and read (and have a cocktail) was The Dome. Located on Deck 14 at the front of the boat, it's a really quiet and cosy place to relax and chill out and watch the people go by.
Gibbo even came with me one day and read his poultry book while our cabin dried out. The people over the back blocked their toilet; and because the boat was moored on a bit of a lean in Vanuatu, the carpet on Gibbo's side of the bed got a bit soaked - so Gordon organised a big fan to be put in the room to dry it out somewhat. The next day someone came and gave it a shampoo - it only ever smelt like a wet dog (which was a bit of a relief)!
This is such a cool place, with different areas all throughout. This is where the boat got pumping each night with parties and lots of music. During the day it was used for classes (ie line dancing) or kids club or displays - or it was just a quiet place to go and relax.
Thankfully, we didn't need to worry too much about this happening! At least I would have known how to use mine...
We arrived back at Brisbane early Saturday morning to be met by both kids. We went for breakfast to a lovely little cafe called PawPaw then dropped Drew back to his unit and Meg drove back to Twba for a 6yr old's birthday party (with 52 kids and a snake and reptile show!) We called in on Mate in hospital and then continued on via town to pick up a barrel shaped Coco from Mum's. Home at last to a very dry looking little farm. The tank was near full and all the animals were well and my chook pen vines and tomato plants were still thriving thanks to Jamie's good care over the last week. However, we've nearly arrived at the point where we'll have to sell the last of last years' weaner heifers so that we have enough feed for the cows and this year's crop of calves.
We had a quiet afternoon catching up on a bit of washing and gave all the trees a good watering. Then we went up to the forest and picked mother of millions for over an hour. We ended up with 2 full chook feed bags and a garbage bin full - and there's a lot more there yet to get through.
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