We woke up this morning to the boat approaching Lifou and rain! So much rain! The islands were beautiful to look at and we watched the boat approach. We had some breakfast before heading to the shore excursion meetup on board the ship.
We had to take tender boats across to Lifou. So we made our way down and climbed into the ship. It was pretty wet inside.
When we got off the tender boats to Lifou it rained and I mean not just a little “oh it’s raining in Melbourne” it was torrential rain. We didn’t even have enough time to get our umbrellas out and we ended up completely drenched. We squelched our way up to where the tours were departing and climbed into the bus. It was not a great way to start the day.
Never the less we continued on, our tour was run by two local staff members who live on Lifou. Our first stop on this tour was to a vanilla and tropical garden..We walked through the garden sort of covered from some of the torrential rain. The gardens were stunning. So green and beautiful. Another tourist said “Wow all of these natural growing plants are our indoor plants” and she is very accurate.
We stopped in a little hut to visit the owner of the property and her and our guide explained how the harvest the vanilla. In Lifou, vanilla is grown on small family farms. The vanilla plant is actually a type of orchid. It grows as a vine and needs to be supported by trees or posts. Even though vanilla flowers can be pollinated naturally in some countries, in Lifou, the local bees don’t pollinate the flowers. That means farmers have to do it by hand. When a flower opens (which only lasts for one day), the farmer carefully uses a toothpick to transfer the pollen from one part of the flower to another. It’s really crazy! After the explanation the lovely owner made us some vanilla tea and coffee to try and gave us some vanilla sugar. It was actually really good.
We then headed out to see the vanilla plants. There are two different types of vanilla plants on Lifou. The plants sell to the local Vanilla factory for a fair bit most people have some plants on their property. The whole experience was very interesting.
Next we headed to the Cliffs of Jokin. The Jokin Cliffs are these cool cliffs that are about 40 meters above the ocean and offer stunning views of the clear blue lagoon below. It was still raining the time so we couldn’t go down the stairs. But the view from the top was amazing.
Next to the Jokin cliffs is the sub-chief’s traditional hut. We were welcomed into the undercover area and given a coconut and a weaved Kanak Hat. It was so awesome. Chris and Joe went into the chiefs hut, while Anthony and I stayed to watch the owner of the property weaving. She made us a fish and a bird. We also got to watch the local roosters eat the coconut shells that was left behind which was great.
It was then time to head back to Lifou main centre on the bus. We arrived back and we were all planning on hiking up to the church but the rain would not stop! I did some shopping in the market and then Anthony and I decided to head back as it was just so wet and we were already very wet. Joe and Chris decided to hike in the rain. (They said later that we had the better idea)
We arrived back and got dried and changed. Then proceeded to relax for the afternoon and get some food. We had a towel monkey in our room too.
The only other things we had on tonight was Blanc de Blanc. This is the description “Blanc de Blanc Uncorked is an adults-only cabaret-style show aboard Carnival Cruise Line, combining circus acts, burlesque, live music, and risqué comedy in a fun, champagne-themed spectacle that feels like a night out in a glamorous, slightly wild Parisian nightclub.” It was definitely unique because there is nudity and a fair bit of it we were not allowed to take photos. I don’t even know where to begin to explain it… Anthony said just saw you saw a french guy use his parts to make slapping sounds… it was an experience to say the least. Not my type of humour or show though.