Just Cruising

Just before Easter, my husband Ben and I went on a cruise on Sydney's newest ship, Pacific Jewel. The cruise was eight nights long and we stopped three times: Noumea, Isle of Pines and Emerald Bay.

The scenery started changing immediately as we left Circular Quay. Here is me on one of the decks looking out on one of Sydney's most famous landmarks, the Sydney Opera House, with a ferry sailing past.

We sailed for three nights until we reached New Caledonia. The ocean was quite rough, but it soon calmed down as we drew closer to land. When we reached Noumea, we went on a City Highlights tour. This is the view from one of the mountains. You can see the ship waiting for us. We spent the whole day there.

Our next stop was my favourite of the three, the Isle of Pines. There were a couple of beautiful beaches there and we were very lucky to have fabulous weather. The water is too shallow for the ship to get close enough to shore, so we took tenders (small boats) from the ship to the beach. When we arrived, some locals welcomed us with a traditional dance.

On our way back to Sydney, we had a cocktail evening. This is Ben and I in cocktail dress having dinner in one of the ship's many restaurants, the Waterfront.

We arrived back in Sydney the week before Easter at about 5.30 in the morning. Of course, it was still quite dark, so taking photos on a moving ship was quite difficult. This is probably the clearest shot I have of that morning, ending where we started, near the front of the Sydney Opera House.