South Pacific Cruise – Part One: Sail away from Sydney

After almost three lovely months with the family in Perth WA, Roy and I were ready for our 15-28 March getaway – a 13-night cruise on the HAL (Holland America Line) Noordam, round trip from Sydney to the South Pacific and back.

It wasn’t our first time on the Noordam, by the way; click here for my February 2017 post on Roy’s and my cruise from Auckland to Sydney, which has more photos of the ship.

This time, we’d be stopping in at some of the more attractive spots in Melanesia: New Caledonia’s Nouméa (the capital, located on Grand Terre Island) and Lifou Island; Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu; Fiji’s Lautoke town and Dravuni Island, and finally the island of Maré, which belongs to New Caledonia.

Excuses

If I’ve been quiet for the past couple of months, I have two good excuses. Firstly, we’ve both been lying very low since Roy’s knee replacement surgery at the beginning of February. (Recovery has been slower and more painful than we expected, but apparently all is going as it should.)

Secondly, the cost of internet access at sea (on the Noordam, it’s US$55 for 100 minutes) seriously discourages any urge to blog.

Sydney Sail-away

Sydney Harbour from the ship – that’s Circular Quay in the background

Great views of Sydney’s iconic sights from the middle of the harbour

Sydney Harbour Bridge from the after-deck as we sail away

Fellow-passengers

For feeling young, I can heartily recommend a cruise. It’s not necessarily going to rejuvenate you; it’s more about relativity. After hanging out with our children and their friends, plus their children for several months, it’s a welcome change to be one of the younger ones.

March seems to be school term time all over the world, so the passenger list is full of baby boomers (plus whatever you call the category that came before them), blithely enjoying life, punishing the cocktails, dodging grandparent duties and cruising their way through the children’s inheritance.

All cruises start with an emergency drill; here’s part of the bunch from Muster Station 13

Mal de Mer

My memories of our February 2017 cruise on this ship are somewhat marred by how sick I was. Now facing six full days at sea – two from Sydney, two separate days halfway through, and two final ones en route back to Sydney – I’d assembled an arsenal of medications: from Blackmore’s innocuous TravelCalm ginger, Kwells, Travacalm, and even prescription Ondansetron (a wicked A$80).

First-night pre-dinner cocktails at the Noordam’s Pinnacle Bar

So, about an hour before departure from Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal, I washed down two Travacalms with a glass or two of Veuve Clicquot. That saw me beautifully through the sail-away party on the aft deck, complete with close-up views of Sydney Harbour, Circular Quay and the Opera House; cocktails at the ship’s Pinnacle Bar, plus dinner.

So far, so good!