Back again

Chris and I decided that I would come back to his place for a little while until I decided on what to do next. At this time though his bathroom was being renovated so I went to Cambridge for a week and stayed at the YHA. 

I was just getting over the flu and had very little energy so I didn't really do a lot, except rest. I made a really good friend named Rose and we spent a lot of time together. As Chris works in Cambridge we met every day for lunch and one night for shopping and dinner. I went back to his on the Friday 6th March and ended up staying there for the remainder of my holiday. As I was due to go on a family holiday at the beginning of April I decided to head home early and get over my jet lag. After an emotional goodbye I left London on the 17th of March and arrived in Perth on the 18th. My parents met me at the airport and I went back to their place for the next couple of weeks. I had terrible jet lag which stayed with me for quite a long time. I came down to Perth to visit some friends and go to the doctors and my parents and I took a red eye flight to Sydney on the 3rd of April.

We arrived early on Easter Sunday and as we could not check in until 2:30pm for the cruise we spent the day at Circular Quay and waited for my sister Alysha, my brother in law Jason and nephew Emerson to meet us. Finally we were able to board the cruise liner the "Carnival Legend" and set sail for our cruise to New Caledonia and Vanuatu. 

The cruise was to go for 11 days with the first three days sailing to our first destination in New Caledonia. The first couple of days we spent learning where everything was as it was a huge boat! We looked at the shops, ate in the restaurants, sat by the pool, Emerson went to "kids club" we went to quiz nights and just started to relax. The most exciting thing about this cruise was that it was the first time my parents had left the country! My Dad is turning 60 in October and it was their 40th wedding anniversary in January, so it was a special time for both of them. It was also my mum's birthday on the 7th of April and we got to celebrate in style as it was also the Captains dinner! 

First stop: Noumea

We were all really excited to get off the boat (especially me!) unfortunately however, there wasn't much to do in Noumea. New Caledonia was much like the English settlement here in Australia only it was settled by the French (and their prisoners) The weather was humid (although after spending 6 weeks in the UK during winter I was glad!) and we caught a hop on, hop off bus that took us around the town. We went and looked at the shops, the markets (I was super excited to buy actual tropical bananas!) the French speaking museum, and sat by the sea. To be honest it was a dirty place that smelt really bad (from the pollution) it was extremely expensive, there was graffiti everywhere, the people weren't friendly and it felt oppressed (I blame the fact the native people had lost their identity) There was a park with tiki statues honouring their culture and it was a local hangout for drug users and teenagers and that made me sad. I try to keep an open mind when going to other places, especially when it's so different from our culture, but I just found it quite depressing here!