Crusing the South Pacific....

As promised....here are some of my fav photos from my recent cruise on board P&O's Pacific Jewel.

 

I won't go into detailed writing about each day....lets just say there was lots of food, drink, sunshine, never ending oceans & lots of great fun...each and every day :)

So I thought I'd just let the photos tell the story

 

It was really really hard to dwindle the photo pile of 2000 down to about 50.

Enjoy.....

The start of the sailaway party

Approaching the magnificent Harbour Bridge

Going under the bridge - wasn't sure if we were going to fit! But we did...lol

Circular Quay

The Quay & Opera House

Stunning Opera House

Looking back at the bridge

Dinner at Luke Mangan's Salt Grill Restaurant on board the Jewel

Full speed ahead

Native on Isle of Pines

Natural Aquarium on Isle of Pines

A gorgeous looking hut on Isle of Pines

Isle of Pines

Such spectacular sceney - Isle of Pines

Isle of Pines

The Jewel anchored off Isle of Pines

A small island near Isle of Pines

Lida deck

Forest at Lifou

Secret grotto at Lifou

Owner of the land where we did the Forest & secret Grotto tour

Old church up on top of the hill at Lifou

Breathtaking view at Lifou

Traditional hut at Lifou

Jetty at Lifou

Sunrise as we passed through the Havannah Passe on the way to Noumea

Noumea

View from the top of a hill at Noumea

Tchou Tchou train tour we did at Noumea

Palm trees at Noumea

 

Noumea was our last port of call due to some kind of propulsion malfunction on the ship.

Our next stop was meant to be Emerald Bay, but due to the malfunction, this was not to be, and instead we had to set sail back to Sydney....although our cruise did get extended for an extra day & night - at no cost to passengers, in fact they gave us $100 each onboard credit to spend...wahoooo! 

 

So, our cruise that departed on 10.10.10, which was supposed to be a 9 night cruise...ended up being a 10 night cruise!  There's something about all those 10's....almost like it was meant to be 10 nights!

Island Night

The amazing "come & join the circus" show in the Marquee Lounge

Laser show on board the Jewel

A gorgeous little elephant our cabin boy, Aatish made us using towels

Sunset at sea

A Koala that Aartish made

Watermelon sculpture - part of the galley tour

Castle made from bread....just amazing!

Another watermelon sculpture

Deckchairs at the back of deck 11

Sunrise coming into Sydney

The magificent Sydney skyline....

Opera House

Coming under the Bridge

Good ol Luna Park

And last but not least....Harbour Bridge as we passed under her on our way to Wharf 5 to disembark.

Hope I didn't bore you all too much! lol

I don't think you can ever take too many photos of Sydney & it's gorgeous Harbour.....there's nothing else like it in the world!!!

Norfolk Island

Our trip to Norfolk was fantastic....I loved every bit of it :)
We did a few night themed dinner tours, the first was a Ghost tour where we had a lovely dinner in one of the old convict built houses at Kingston & the ghost of Elizabeth Robertson who died in 1847 at the age of 24, visited us and told us a few stories about her family & her death...along with lots of other ghost stories. We then went on a ghost walk thru some of the old ruins....and the cemetary :-0

Here are a few pics....

The ghost of Elizabeth Robertson

The gorgeous old house where we had dinner.

Our next themed dinner night was a Tahitian sunset cliff top fish fry (try saying that real fast 10 times...lol).

The food was super yummy & then we were entertained by Tahitian dancers while the sun set - just glorious.

 

 

 

The beautiful sunset

Most things on the island were VERY exxy....just to do the 2 themed dinners was just over $550 for the 4 of us...hence the reason we only did 2! lol. Everything is so expensive because most stuff has to be shipped in, plus electricity there is ridiculously expensive - to compare, here in Aus we pay around 17cents per unit & at Norfolk, they pay 75 cents per unit :-0. To buy fresh milk, it's about $7.50 per litre!!! So, everyone just uses the long-life milk, which is still expensive compared to Australia. Another example - a box of 4 cornetto ice creams was $10 - and I noticed in Woollies the other day, that I could buy 2 boxes of 4 for $8....so that's less for double the amount.

It is a very beautiful picturesque island.....full of fascinating history - from the convict settlements to the Pitcairn Islanders (who are descendants from the Mutiny on the Bounty) who came to live there in 1856. All the kind of stuff that I just love! The kids didn't find it all too interesting though....go figure! lol

I took around 1,000 pics, but will only add a few here....dont' think I could cope with how slow blogger is at uploading! But I have uploaded 100+ on facebook, so if anyone is interested just let me know & I will add you!

 

Anson Bay

View from Mt Pitt

Moreton Bay Fig trees - these just looked amazing. (I think I took probably 50 odd photos of them...lol)

A cow - there were hundreds of cows on Norfolk that just roam along the roadside & they have right of way

View from Puppies Point

Ross's point

View through a hole in a rock to Philip Island

One of the old lighters - that are used to unload ships of their cargo.

cemetery

Kingston

View over the old convict area of Kingston - including the gaol.

Ball Bay

all of us standing above Anson Bay

A baby Norfolk pine

One of our walks through the bush

4 of us goofing around

Tail end Charlie & the whipping constable

some hungry geese!

Crowned queen of Tahitian dancing

Ball Bay

A few family shots using the trusty self time.....and tripod :-)

Holiday is over & it's time to fly home

Ooops, a bit more than a few there - sorry about that, but it's hard to pick just a few out of 1,000 or so...lol.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing just a little of our trip to Norfolk!