This post is coming a bit after the fact, but since I wanted our blog to document our adventures and travel together I definitely wanted our first trip as Mr. & Mrs. Beck to be stamped into cyberspace.
Itinerary overview: Brisbane (Australia), Champagne Bay (Vanuatu), Port Villa (Vanuatu), Nouméa (New Caledonia), Lifou, Loyalty Islands (New Caledonia), Tambourine Mountain, Queensland (Australia).
You’ve probably guessed then, that this trip was a celebration of our wedding: our much anticipated honeymoon cruise.
After getting married in Dunedin on 9th April, 2016 (photo credit to avoadah photography, you can see their blog post and more photos here), on our friend Kevin and my uncle’s birthday (and incidently also the day my parents met a lifetime ago at my uncle’s 21st birthday) off we flew to Australia. Mikey, having been on 2 cruises before, had both our hearts set of a cruise honeymoon and this one out of Brisbane was the only one that worked with our timeframe.
So we flew early in the morning on Sunday, after having spent the night at Hulme’s Court B&B (where I worked as a student) from Dunedin to Brisbane. We spent the day exploring and had dinner that night with Mike’s aunty who wasn’t able to make the wedding.
The next day we boarded the Legend of the Sea and set out on the Royal Caribbean cruise for 9 nights.
Firstly, cruisng is amazing. I’d never thought of this as a form of travel I wanted to take before, but thought “why not” given that I had I had knowm so many friends to do this for their honeymoon. It’s so easy and stress-free , which you need in a honeymoon because when you’re pulling off a wedding you’re not doing it right if not a stressed out bag of nerves right up until that moment you step into the church. All you’re meals are done (and dinner every night is restaurant standard), you can grab any food or booze you want at any time of the day, there’s movies and theatre and bingo and games and whole range of other entertainment provided for sea-days. Plus. The spa!!! (My little sister now works as a spa girl on cruises, and I am so so envious). There’s even a gym with personal trainer if you’re that way inclined in holiday. I, myself, came home a few kg heavier than when I stood at the alter.
CHAMPAGNE BAY
The first stop was Champagne Bay, Vanuatu. I had been given the task by a church friend to photograph some toilets that he had done the architectural work for but had never seen in person. But first, we went for a quick dip in the ocean and then got a a 4×4 tour of the island, including a stop at the Blue Pool.
Unfortunately, our guide didn’t take us to “THE blue pool” but we enjoyed the ride and the swim never the less, accompanied by a couple we had met at a “hoonermooners champagne lunch” while still at sea. We brought my first fresh coconut, which we sipped on for the rest of the afternoon, while soaking in the scenery and enjoying life in the islands. The rest is the day was spent chilling on the picturesque post-card beach. I know that other people spent their day on other parts of the little island, at somewhat hidden beaches on private kayaking tours and the like. Given that we were still getting over wedding-lag (jet lag for newlyweds) we didn’t mind sharing the beach with hundreds of other cruise-goers, just this one time.
PORT VILLA
Next stop was Port Villa, (the capital of Vanuatu) where Mikey had been before and so had already planned out our day to be filled of his favourite things to do from his last trip. Given we didn’t have much time at this spot (and that we vowed we would return one day for a longer stay) we headed off to Hide-away island.
We jumped on board a cute little motor boat Captained (if you can call it that) by a local Kevin. He chatted to us about his kids and last year’s cyclone, pointing out left over debris and natural points of interest as we went. After 20-30 minutes we arrived at out destination and found that we had shaken our fellow cruise guests and had the beach all to ourselves for several hours.
Hideaway Island was my first ever taste of snorkeling, and I loved every second of it! Mikey has snorkeld all through the islands and vanuatu, and this was his place of choice for Port Villa. The reef here is protected and is slowly being restored to its former glory. We saw coral and fish in more colours than I knew existed, swam to the pontoon to hang out in the sun and searched for crabs scurrying along the beach. The beach was made of dead, washed up coral, which I spent too much time examining in awe and wonder.
We swam to the worlds only underwater postbox (Which sadly wasn’t operational that day). Mikey swam through it. I just swam too it. Unfortunately we only had one set of snorkeling gear (and no flippers) which was lent to us by a guy in line behind us when I enquired about hiring gear on the ship (our boat didn’t have any, most do. But I did get a cheap pair of boat shoes I still wear to this day), so we could only snorkel one at a time, coming up to tell the other one what we could see.
Unfortunately I’ve lost the charger for my underwater camera and so couldn’t take any photos. So all stories about snorkling you’ll just have to believe. For now. Hopefully I can find a charger to buy cheap online somewhere.
We had the option at Hideaway to kayak or to do a glass bottom boat tour (and we saw people doing these) but decided we’d rather be in the water than on top of it.
We set said from the capital of Vanuatu, bound for the capital of New Caledonia, Nouméa, where we again ditched the crowd and took a bus away from the beach and in to town.
NOUMEA
My favourite thing here was (aside from using local public transport, which I love to master in New places) was going for a hike up to the WWII cannons. Mikey and I always went for a Saturday day hike when we were dating; it was our favourite thing to do together, and still is (although to be honest we do it much less now that we are both working more than 40hours a week and don’t need an excuse to see each other since we live together). That and coffee cafe dates (Which we still do despite owning a very fancy bright red espresso machine).
Anyway, I digress. My grandad had told me that I needed to come and see these guns as his step-dad had been stationed in Nouméa on the guns during WWII. While the Pacific war never quiet reached that far (maybe i should fact check that) he was there ready to try to hold back the ‘dominoes’ affect of communism while other New Zealand men fought in Europe.
Other highlights included:
The beach, local cafes (where I had an amazing mango smoothie), the beach, an island tour on the ‘choo choo train’.. AND the beach =D
LIFOU, LOYALTY ISLANDS
Our last stop on the cruise was Lifou Island. Lifou is one of the less popular islands for cruise itineraries, with most going to Isle of Man or Mystery Island. That being said there was heaps to do.
We embarked on our port day dressed in long clothing because we decided not to swim as we were sunburnt from the day before, and the day before that. We regretted this about lunch time and so headed back to the boat for a bite to eat and to grab our swimsuits.
In the morning we walked around the whole island, visiting Notre Dame de Lourde (the church on the hill) wandering around local homes, the Catholic church, swam in Lou Jajinya (a surprising little water hole in a limestone cave where you cliff jump into icy cold water, underground). The latter was a bit of a hike back up, but we’ll worth the small entry fee we paid. It’s a bit hard to find and so there were only a few other people who arrived well after we did.
After lunch I hired snorkeling gear from a local for the price of a coffee and spent an hour or so exploring the reef. Here I spotted a giant sea turtle and swam above it, following it as it navigated a small underwater canyon before it got really deep and I looked up to find i was a scary distance from the shore.
I returned on a massive high, excited to have seen a turtle in the wild for the first time. Again, you’ll have to believe me and I’ll need to get my underwater camera working for next time. But it looked a bit like this:
After our cruise my Uncle Alan (the one who celebrated his birthday with wedding cake) cake and picked us up in Brisbane and took us to his home up Tambourine Mountain for dinner with his wife. The scenery was spectacular and an amazing way to end our honeymoon. I never thought Australia could be so beautiful (sorry aussies, it’s just a kiwi thing. I’m slowly having my mind changed). We hiked through rainforest (in the rain) to Curtis Falls in Tambourine National Park before dinner, heard all snake stories we could bear (and then maybe a few more) and breathed in the fresh mountain air.
The next day we flew home, packed up all our belongings and drove from Dunedin to Whanganui where we now live. We stopped in Hamner Springs (a rather large detour) where we swam in the hotpools and soaked in the last of out south island scenery for awhile. Pictures of our last few days in New Zelands South island are below, and the perfect way to end this honeymoon post (because the day after we arrived in whanganui I went back to work).
