Here we are, the excited cruisers, pulled up in the morning at our first port of call, Mare. We're all wearing our sail and sign cards, ready to disembark onto a shuttle boat.
Sail and sign cards are given upon presenting yourself to board the ship. They are swiped at any of the bars, shops, the casino or anytime you buy anything on the ship. The amounts are charged to your credit card/bank account a couple of days after leaving the ship, in one big holy whack the hell did we spend that on! It's easy to go crazy on holiday.
The cards are also swiped every time you get off and back on the ship, it has all your passport details loaded on it, including your lovely (not!) passport photo. You only need to take you passport ashore if you want it officially stamped by a lovely local . This will cost you $1 or $2 for the privilege. Being the first time the girls and I had travelled overseas, of course we took ours to be embellished with our first stamps.
Mare was my favourite island of all. It seemed more friendly and less commercialised than the other two island stops we made, the Isle of Pines and Noumea.
The locals were so friendly and welcoming, even the local stray dogs. I paid $5AU for a good serving of fish, rice, avocado and fried banana. The food was all cooked on wood fires, even the potato chips(just like Maccas chips) were fried in a camp oven over coals. These people have it down to a tea.
Australian dollars are accepted on both Mare and Isle of Pines, but being a French colony, Noumea required Francs at most places.
Some traders at the market in Noumea did accept AU dollars. The ATMs in Noumea were in French, which we didn't use. There are two ATMs on the Carnival Spirit, and when taking the ship provided bus tour one of the stops is at a money exchange. I would recommend taking at least $50AU each.
The bus stop does a loop of the city and stops at an aquarium also, but we didn't worry too much about that as we'd visited the Sydney aquarium the day before boarding the ship! There are several bus stops and you just get off where you like and hop back on when you want. The cost for the bus tour includes a 50% off drink voucher at a bar/eatery just down from the beachside bus stop.
Most of the photos I took are of Mare, we had beautiful weather there. The Isle of Pines rained off and on all day as well as Noumea. I didn't even take my camera off the ship at Noumea, I really didn't want to lug it around.
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| A coconut was $3AU to buy. It was truly amazing to watch them using a machete to chop the coconut open, I was in awe they still had all their fingers! After finishing the juice, they were happy to break the coconut and even fashion a spoon from the hull to eat the flesh. |
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| The shuttles to the island of Mare start about 8am til 3:30pm. We were shuttled to Mare and Isle of Pines. In Noumea we pulled into dock at the harbour and could walk off the ship to awaiting buses. Bus passes for the loop around the city were $20 for adults and $15 for kids. You could use the passes all day, in case you wanted to come back for lunch on the ship and head back out again. |
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| Shuttle back to the boat |
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| Leaving the Isle of Pines |
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| It rained a lot at Isle of Pines. It didn't stop us going snorkelling amongst the fabulous fish life. |
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| Leaving Noumea for the two day cruise back to Sydney Harbour |
