[day 3 - first port ... Noumea]

Thankyou weather Gods! The weather has been fabulous, with winds of 8 knots, calm seas and glorious sunshine, I couldn't be happier. Yay!

I spent the middle part of the day before we got to Noumea on the back deck reading "The Hunger Games" on my iPad, which was the first time I'd actually stopped and not taken part in an activity.

Before we docked at 3pm, I did a quick quilling class, and we disembarked at 4pm. We hadn't booked a tour on board, so we took a punt and jumped on a 1hr bus tour from the terminal. It turned out to be the best idea, as our fun and crazy French guide Flo, was so much fun, and also even better the three of us got the tour for the same price of one person for the ship's 1hr tour - bargain!
There is also something to be said for it being a small world, as the lady I sat next to on the bus lived in the next suburb from me, and a couple from her group of friends lives on my street, and are friends of our neighbours across the road. (For my boys - all I can say is, "That can't happen!")

I did some shopping at the markets above the terminal before we got back onboard, and bought myself a new sarong - I thought it was about time as the last one I bought 20 years ago! I also got to use a little French - 'Merci' (pronounced mer-cee, meaning thankyou), 'Bonsoir' (pronounced bon-swar, meaning good evening), and 'Oui' (pronounced Wee, meaning yes). Pretty basic stuff, but at least I made a little bit of an effort to assimilate. I also used the local currency, Pacific Francs, and my boys can look forward to getting some CentFrancs, which are the nice shiny golden coinage of Noumea as I asked for change on Francs instead of Australian dollars.

This evening's show was a Tahitian dance group from Noumea, and the girls shook their hips and grass skirts, and the shirtless boys looked fab in their sarongs, and even more spectacular when fire twirling.

Tonight's theme was country and western, and I did my best 'Daisy the farm-girl' impression. We headed up to the Dome nightclub for some bootscooting and thigh slapping, and a lot of 'Yeehar-ing' with a few dancers from the previous night's show and the Zumba instructor.

We set sail again around 11pm, and will wake up in Lifou in the morning!

Some stats on the Pacific Dawn:
Length: 804ft (245m)
Draft: 8.2m
Capacity: 2076 passengers
Max speed: 22.5 knots