Our second day on land was spent on Lifou Isle, New Caledonia.
We caught the tender boat to spend the day on the island.
As you get off the boat and walk up the dock the locals have set up spots where you can get your hair braided, they have a little undercover area selling souvenirs and food. You can hire bikes if you want to ride around the island. There is also a toilet block in this area as well, although they were not the best nor very clean.
The landscape is quite rocky and there appears to be volcanic rock so be careful when you are walking.
I suggest not wearing thongs, as Chloe cut her toe on the volcanic rocks. We also saw other people trip over, so it can be a bit hazardous.
We chose a shady spot on the grass next to some buildings. I’m not sure this was a wise decision as we seemed to have dogs and cats hanging around looking for food. Sitting on the beach might be nicer or maybe move down the pathway a bit more and don’t sit near the buildings, as the animals were scaring us a bit with how anxious they seemed to get food.
As we got off the dock and onto the island we turned left and walked a few metres towards Easo Beach. This is pretty much where everyone spends their day. If you want to swim here you will need reef shoes to walk into the water as there are bits of coral in the sand which can cut your feet.
As it was quite hot we went for a swim in the clear blue turquoise waters.
Carnival Cruise offered a shore excursion to a forest and secret grotto but unfortunately we missed out on booking it. So Peter and I decided to go for a walk down the road to some caves. Silvia stayed with Chloe as we weren’t sure how far we had to walk.
We spent 15mins walking down the road and we came across some traditional huts that the locals keep on their land. You can go into the huts and have a look at how they used to live.
Closer to where you enter the caves is a lovely old Catholic church. Which is ironic because Peter & I work in a Catholic organisation. We discovered that the doors to the church were locked so we couldn’t go inside to have a look unfortunately.
We found the location to enter the caves, so we simply paid the locals to go in. I think it was $10, not $30-$40 the ship wanted to charge.
Anyway you walk down a track which leads to the pathway to get down to the caves. Please be aware that the pathway down to the caves is very steep. I’m short with short legs and I had difficulty walking up and down some of the ‘stairs’ as they were quite high. There is no OH&S consideration. There are no handrails except for some flimsy rope so if you have difficulty walking or possibly have knee problems I suggest not doing this walk into the caves.
Once you get into the cave there is a rock pool that the kids were jumping into. I wasn’t game to do that! It was a bit cold in there.
Peter and I went back to Silvia and Chloe so Silvia could get a chance to wander around also.
Silvia discovered the beauty of the tropical flowers.
Silvia also went to see the Church of Notre Dame de Lourdes.
While Chloe got her hair braided. 
Once we had explored everything we went back to the boat
Our towel animal today was a monkey.
We then watched the sun set over the water. This was becoming a daily ritual.
