Wednesday, August 29th .....

Well, we did get off in Lifou. The colour of the sea around Lifou is spectacular. The deep water is indigo and the closer you get to the beach, the greener it becomes. And it is as clear as crystal. On the way back to the ship, we walked along the jetty to the tender and I noticed a movement in the water. A few feet down was a sea turtle, nosing around the rocks.

The people of Lifou had gone to a great deal of trouble to welcome their visitors. The children from the school, all dressed in native costume, sang for us, and their parents set up stalls to sell the sorts of things that tourists love. Marilyn and I walked along to a little beach and were very disappointed to see rubbish all along the foreshore. Somebody had made an attempt to pile up the beer cans but there was paper rubbish strewn about everywhere. Not a good look and it wouldn’t have been much trouble to tidy it up a bit and make a better impression.

It was Port Vila this morning. There were plenty of shore tours available but we didn’t take advantage of any of them. We lost our enthusiasm for a walk into the town when we saw the crowd of burly taxi drivers harassing people ahead of us and were just as happy to spend the day on the ship. We’re not great tourists and don’t get switched on by Cultural Shows or Taste the Local Food extravaganzas.

Trivia success continues. We were second in both the Morning and Afternoon competitions but won the Pub Quiz in the evening which gave us each a P&O cap with the word Winner embroidered on it.

We had dinner this evening at La Luna, the specialty Asian restaurant for which they charge an extra $20 per head. The food was outstanding so we’ve booked again for Friday night. It will be that same menu but that’s not a problem.

Last night’s entertainment was Pirates of the Pacific, an energetic song and dance spectacular, great for kids but with enough entertainment value for adults as well. Tonight was the juggler back but we think we have had enough of him for one cruise so we spent an hour or two after dinner in the Orient Bar with a duo called The View. They won me by playing Money for Nothing, followed soon after by Just Another Brick in the Wall. Good stuff!