Cruising Since 2010: Pacific Dawn - Day 4

Another gorgeous day and another gorgeous island to visit! Lifou - stunning.

Lifou is a tender port which means you have to catch a lifeboat from The Dawn to their little wharf. This was well organised and was explained in the Pacific Daily what to do. You needed to collect a Tender ticket from Deck 5 in the Promenade Bar and then wait until you ticket number was called. I think the main problem they had was people would get their tender tickets and then head off to breakfast or back to the cabin. This did cause some delays as they held the tenders until they were full so if people weren't turning up or took forever it slowed things down - lucky for us we were at the right place at the right time and they told us to go through earlier than we expected! Woohoo! It's easy enough to get on and off the tender. There are plenty of staff on hand to help you. When you leave the ship they scan your cruise card and then when you return they scan it again - this enables them to know who's onboard and who's not!

Onboard the tender

Arriving at the wharf in Lifou

The Dawn and her tenders

Lifou's wharf and beautiful water

It was a very short trip in the tender, maybe 5 minutes, and the water was just so clear! Lots of little fish swimming around. You could swim on this side of the island, a bit away from the tenders, plus there was meant to be a lovely place to snorkel a short walk away. All the details we in the Pacific Daily.

There were some markets for a bit of retail therapy and there were some ladies doing hair braiding which was very popular! Miss 10 had her hair done - it look fab! After a bi of browsing we headed in the direction of the snorkeling. It wasn't too far just up hill and it was warm.

Lifou Markets

Lifou

Snorkeling area at Lifou

We made it! It wasn't that bad really - a pleasant stroll passed some of the villagers huts and taking in the beautiful views. What's not to smile about!

The snorkeling was amazing if not a little tricky getting in and out - the steps/ladder down were a bit wobbly. The water at first was a tad cold but the further out we went the warmer it go. We hired our snorkel gear from onboard the ship. It was quick expensive and unfortunately Miss 10's goggles leaked! There was only the two of us that snorkel (the other two woosed out!) so we just shared the working goggles.

We all LOVED this little island and really, really hope we get to come back here again! We didn't walk up to the church but heard from others who did that the views were amazing - not hard to believe!

After we had finished our snorkeling (you could hire snorkeling gear on the island, cheaper than from the ship) we slowly walked back to the wharf and waited for a tender to arrive. The tenders don't stop during your visit so it wasn't a long wait. The queues can get long at lunch time though! Back towards The Dawn and to the buffet for lunch! It was Mexican today - yum! If you didn't like Mexican there was plenty of other things to try - like I said before, you will never starve on a cruise!

Waiting for the tender

Almost back to our lovely Dawn

Mexican Fiesta in the Buffet

(I don't know why some of my photo's are sideways!)

The main restaurant isn't open for lunch on Port days but to make up for this they have a BBQ set up out on the Lido Deck - this is open later so no one misses out on lunch!