26th October: Isle of Pines, New Caledonia

After breakfast we tendered to the shore at the Isle of Pines. We had been told the beach on one side was best for swimming and the other best for snorkelling, so we made our way to the snorkelling side. Adrian had brought his swimming goggles and we bought reef shoes so we just used those. A mask and snorkel would have made it easier/more relaxing but as it was the goggles were great by themselves. I've never swum with tropical fish and coral (which is silly considering our other cruises were in Hawaii and the Bahamas!) and it was amazing. I never really understood the appeal until I tried it. The water wasn't that warm, the coral mostly dull-coloured (except for one kind that was luminescent blue), but the fish were so neat!

We walked along the beach for abut more and saw some cute local dogs that were sleeping or playing on the beach. The ship people told us not to touch them but I really wanted to :/

I had a quick swim on the 'swimming side' (boring compared to the other side!) and then we tendered back to the ship. 

After a dip in the spa pool on the ship, lunch and a shower, we decided to tender back to the island to make the most of it. It was much warmer than it was in the morning so we just did a little walk around then went back onto the ship. 

Played trivia, bought a Swarovski 'Elements' necklace with matching earrings (green, yay!), had dinner. 

Went to a production show in the Marquee theatre called "Run away to the Circus" which was great again. There were 4 dance crew and 4 singing crew, together called the 'Pacific Entertainers'. Apparently they train for 6 weeks straight before the cruise departs. It shows, they are top-quality. And you get so much closet than you do in a big normal theatre, all for the price included in your cruise ticket!

In the evening there was the "Laser Vizion Dance Show" which was two guys on podiums (podia?) with ~500 mirrors on each of their outfits. Lasers where shone at them and they moved around to make the lights bounce of in different patterns. Weird, not something I've seen before, very futuristically 80s (if that makes sense), and rather entertaining.