NOUMEA TO BRISBANE

NEW CALEDONIA:  Out last island stop prior to Australia was the French territory of New Caledonia.  Despite the fact that New Caledonia has a much higher standard of living than the other islands we visited we were strangely disappointed.  The island economy is based on nickel mining and the high standard of living results in infant mortality being lower than in the United States. 

New Caledonia was a penal colony for France until 1922 and one of the interesting things is that the entire downtown area of the city of Noumea is on reclaimed land.  For 50 years the prisoners, with only shovels and wheelbarrows, moved an entire mountain into the sea.  The French treated their penal colonies much more harshly that did the English in Australia.  For that reason there are few descendants of prisoners here.  Despite that Europeans (French) make up a majority of the population.  New Caledonia is supposed to remind one of the South of France, but other than the fact that the people speak French I missed the similarities.

DINNER COMPANIONS:  A few nights ago Betty was feeling under the weather so I went to the main dining room by myself.  I joined three ladies “of a certain age” and I expected that they might be pleased to be joined by a man somewhat younger than they.  Apparently I did not meet their standards and they continued with their favorite conversation topic.  I didn’t think it was possible to stretch information on getting one’s hair done through four complete courses.

X-RING:  Most nights after dinner we attend the show in the main theatre.  The entertainment varies, or at least our appreciation of it varies.   One showman that really amazed us was an illusionist.  We happened to be sitting near the front and when he asked for four men to volunteer their wedding rings and only three did I volunteered my X-ring.  Now those of you who cruise know that Celebrity Cruises (we are currently on Oceania) have a large X as their logo.  This led to much fun being made of my ring but eventually the magician took the four rings and formed them into a chain.  He asked me to come up on stage and inspect the rings.  I was unable to separate the links of the chain despite tugging and twirling.  The illusionist, however, easily untangled the rings and returned them to the respective owners.  Several days later guests were still stopping me and asking if I was a stooge planted in the audience.

BRISBANE (Feb. 20):  We got up early to watch the sail up river to Brisbane.  Although it was mostly industrial sites it was worth the early arousal just to see the tugs turn our ship 180 degrees in the river.  The length of our ship appears to exactly match the width of the river.

Along with a young (or at least younger) couple from Lloydminster we had a 4 x 4 scheduled for an 8-hour tour in the Brisbane area.  This turned out to be a fabulous day despite the 37 degree temperature.  We were driven past the Gold Coast and then up a very steep mountain path to the top of Mt. Tamborine.  There we took a skywalk over the semi-tropical rain forest.  We stopped for morning tea (scones and clotted cream suggest that the English influence may be greater in Oz than in Canada).  After tea we had a wine tasting (the Albertans don’t drink wine but we enjoyed several samples).  This area is not one of Australia’s known wine districts so I suspect the wines were made from grapes imported from New South Wales.  After lunch at the wine shop we had the compulsory shopping stop before a visit to the Botanical Gardens.   One of the highlights of the day was to be taken to a park for boomerang throwing lessons.  I actually got one to come all the way back, but I fumbled the catch.

On our way back to the ship the highway was closed due to a crash.  Our driver nonetheless worked his way through the back streets of Brisbane thus showing us sights that are not on any normal tourist tour.  We made it back in lots of time to have much needed showers prior to a glass of wine on our deck as we watched the sailout.  Our dinner companions turned out to be a very entertaining couple from Melbourne who gave us valuable tips for our visit there in a few days.