DayDay 21 - Downunder 2016 - Mon - 10/17/16 - Noumea, New Caledonia

We woke up with a high anticipation to two snorkeling excursions today. We were first greeted by an energetic indigenous dance troupe and a quick breakfast in the Lido followed. Then as we reported to the Showroom at Sea for our excursion passes, an announcement was made over the PA system that 'due to sustained high winds, all snorkeling trips were cancelled for today'. Bummer!! We heard the other options, but deferred our decision until after returning to our stateroom to change clothes and leave our snorkeling gear behind. Back at the Showroom at Sea, we decided to take the Choo Choo Train to get a lay of the land. It was excellent, and over two hours, it gave us a perspective of various locations of the the city.

Back at the port we wandered around looking for electronic stores in search of a replacement camera for my waterproof camera who's display quit working at Dravuni Island. The supply of waterproof cameras was quite sparse and in the end I didn't purchase one. I'll look again in Sydney. We used an ATM to get some local currency for some lunch and souvenirs. We then walked back to the American Square and checked out the McDonald's. It was super crowded so we found a a little French Cafe and enjoyed some French sandwiches and sodas.

Refreshed, we went to the Noumea cultural museum which cost us only $0.50 to get in! They had a lot of artifacts, but there was virtually no explanations in English. My wife was loving it as she speaks French, I got bored so we split up and I walked across town to the WWII museum which I found to be quite good. They had an English audio guide and I listened to virtually all of the pre-recorded material in the museum. Over a million US troops passed through New Caledonia (which means New Scotland) on their way to battles in the Pacific. 

After touring the museum I made my way back to the port where I met up with my wife. We purchased some souvenirs and walked back to the park where there was free WIFI. Since most everyone from the two cruise ships was back at their respective ship, getting on the free WIFI was pretty easy. After we had checked email and Facebook, we walked back to the ship and reboarded it 20 minutes before the scheduled reboarding time of 4:30pm.

The sailaway was quite interesting because of the high winds and the jagged course and the numerous reefs to be avoided. But we made it safely out and eventually dropped off our pilot quite a ways out to sea. We took dinner in the Lido so we wouldn't have to freshen up and were then entertained by an energetic Aussie pianist, Ashley Carruthers which was followed by a To Tell the Truth game show.