Lifou, New Caledonia

Lifou is a small island off New Caledonia, like far to small to have a 14 level cruise ship dock at it's wharf, so this was our first experience with having to get on a tender boat. Basically that means they take off 3 or 4 of the life boats and use them to take passengers back and forth from the island. It was slightly annoying as you had to get a ticket and wait for your colour to be called over the intercom before it was your turn to go down to the tender boats. But as with all other processes on the ship, it's ran really smoothly so we couldn't complain.

Most of our day was spent on the beach and in the water but I did take the kids for a little walk around the village and I'm so glad I did. It was fascinating to see how 'real islanders' live

From the moment we got off the little wharf, there were ladies calling out 'I braid your hair', 'Massage'. I kept saying no so then they'd say 'for your girls'. We resisted for the most of the day but then finally at about 2 in the afternoon I said Ella and Dalls could get theirs done. As it turns out, Ella's was far too knotty after being in the sea water and it wasn't helped by the fact that as soon as she sat in front of the lady, she sprayed a whole lot of hair spray in her hair and then tried brush through it. I could see she was struggling to get through the knots so I went over to help but it was absolutely impossible so she just did braids to half way and tied up the bottom in a ponytail. My poor Bobby was so upset about it. When we walked away she had a big cry and said she was trying to be brave in front of the lady but really wanted to cry!!!!! So sad :(

But that night and the next day she had so many people come up and tell her that out of  all of the people with braids, they liked her style the best!

Oh, if you could see that sad face :(

I have a feeling nothing happens fast over there. About 6 guys sat around this site all day, they never picked up a tool, maybe cause it was a cruise ship day, maybe not. Look like the foundations have been there for years and it's never really progressed.

This poor baby spent half her day on the sand cause she saw a sea snake as soon as she first got in. Thankfully she inched her way back out as the day went on and realised it was all good afterall. I think the highlight for us all this day was swimming with a couple of turtles, the kids and Joe even touched them. They had the best turtle experience with no expensive tour needed

These 2 little sisters hung around us for hours. They loved asked me to take photos of them and then running up to see the picture on the screen

Straight back to the grind. That holiday diary doesn't write itself!