Before arriving at our last stop of the Isle of Pines I knew that I wanted to climb Pic N'ga the mountain overlooking the island. I had caught a glimpse of it on the P&O channel on our TV and after all the food consumed and lack of exercise during the cruise I figured it would be something great to do! I love hiking and so I packed my good ole hiking sandals and boarded the tender boat heading from the ship to the dock.

When we arrived on the tiny island aptly named the Isle of Pines, I could see why. The Island was dotted with heaps of these amazing tall trees and it was very different to the last island we had visited. When we walked further to Kotu Beach we were astounded by the colour of the water and the beauty that was this little cove. Everyone was sunbathing, snorkelling and swimming with the fish which you could see so clearly through the water.

We decided to head to the mountain to get it out of the way and spend the afternoon swimming and laying on the beach. After following directions from some locals I hailed down, we found the rocky track leading to the base of the mountain! Hayley waited at the bottom for me as she didn't have proper shoes on and the whole track seemed to be lose rocks. I continued on up taking some breaks on the way to take in the spectacular view and get my breath back. The heat up there was immense but I liked the feeling of working out and sweating after so long! I kept walking up and after 40/45 mins I reached the huge cross that marked the top. There was a man up there who arrived just before me and offered to take some pictures which was really good timing. The view was something else, you could see the ship in the distance and the many other island scattered around the turquoise waters. After a few great photo opportunities I headed back down the 262m high mountain and couldn't wait to take advantage of the cool refreshing ocean.

We spent the afternoon on the beach and in the ocean before we one by one headed back to the tender boat to take us to our ship which was docked out at sea. The isle of pines was to die for and I seriously couldn't believe that somewhere like this existed. It was like being in a holiday brochure the whole time and I loved it.

Highly recommended!

Our fourth stop would be Mystery island which was the first stop Hayley hadn't been to before. It was amazing because it was completely uninhibited and a true island experience. The locals would sail over from the main island with goods to sell the cruise passengers but nobody actually lived there. From some fact boards on the island I learned that this was because years ago the locals thought it was haunted by sea gods and so it has been taboo to love there ever since. James cook discovered it as he did with many of the other islands and actually set up business and trade there before a tidal wave wiped it all out.

The Island was the most incredible and idyllic place id seen and it had crystal clear waters all around which we all took advantage of. The Island was so small that you could walk around it via the jungle track in such a short time. There were little toilet huts scattered along the Island and plenty of places to recycle your rubbish from the day which was great. I was happy to read that this was a protected marine reserve and there did everything to keep it like that.! There was a little church choir singing, a little kindergarten group playing and there were places to donate to the Red Cross and other local organisations which I was happy to do. Mystery Island was one of our favourite islands and we loved this true paradise before us, it was like nothing we'd ever seen. This place is definitely a highlight!

Our third stop of the trip was Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu and my 41st country to date. It was here that we were told to buy duty free as it was dirt cheap. It was also Island night on the boat so we all bought our island clothes for the celebrations. We arrived by tender boat from the ship, to a string of market stalls as far as the eye could see which was amazing. After a lot of browsing we noticed a pattern, everything we would ask about seemed to be priced at $15. Random! We took a taxi into the main part of the city with some others from the ship and paid $5 each which wasn't too bad.

Everybody headed for the duty free shops where you could purchase a litre of vodka/whiskey or whatever you wanted for as little as $15-$20. Needless to say everybody stocked up! After more browsing through the many shops and even pricing a new tattoo, we headed back to the markets at the beginning and bought our island outfit for the night among other gift items etc. Port Vila was certainly a cool place and definitely a lot better than Noumea. It was more what I was expecting and it had a lot of shopping options for everyone.

Our second port of call was the Island of Lifou, also part of New Caledonia. As like many of the Island stop offs, there are heaps of shore tours to get in on but if you want to save money you can just take in what the Island has to offer yourself. Once we got onto the island we wandered through the market stalls and make our way towards the landmark church up on the hill. There was a beautiful scenic view from up there and I was surprised to see a book in the church with the familiar irish words 'Cead Míle Fáilte' or 'a hundred thousand welcomes' written there.

We lay on the beautiful beach and went swimming in the crystal clear waters before watching a cultural dance take place around the market stalls. After a bit of a hold up due to an accident on board the ship, we got on the boat and set sail for our next stop Port Vila.

The evening before our arrival to Noumea, our cruise director Zoltina-J warned us not to expect too much from New Caledonias capital as there is not much excitement there! I guess it's purely just a stop for the ship to refuel and for us to get on land after days and days of sailing. Noumea was a typical South Pacific town quite like Nuku'alofa in Tonga, with banks and shops etc but it had various expensive clothes and souvenir stores which we were told to steer clear of as we were due to go to cheaper places.

The good thing about Noumea was that we picked up free wifi in he Central Park were we did our last minute online chores before we said goodbye to internet for the rest of the trip. We walked down by the harbour which was beautiful and the weather was great that day. In the ferry terminal there was some Island musicians and some market stalls which we had a browse through too. After a few hours we hopped back on the boat and had some lunch before we left at 5pm that evening to our next stop.

It was over 6 months ago in Mount Maunganui, while watching a cruise ship dock in the harbour that Hayley and I decided to plan a cruise for our next get together. After some research we finally found a cruise which took in 5 South Pacific islands over 10 days. It would give me a glimpse of the countries of Vanuatu and New Caledonia, both of which I knew very little about and couldn't have dreamt of visiting before. Considering I was visiting the South Pacific island of Tonga with my friend Dory aswell, it would mean I would tick off three of the South Pacific island countries which was super exciting.

We eventually booked it and the waiting game began. Finally November 7th arrived and I flew from Christchurch to Sydney to spend a few days reuniting with yoga friends and my beloved Coogee Beach before our cruise would depart on Nov 10th. Our cruise was with P&O who I'd heard a lot about and I was excited at what to expect.

On board the cruise we were greeted by warm welcomes and friendly faves everywhere which was great! Before even setting sail from Sydney we had devoured two delicious gourmet lunches whilst overlooking the Sydney opera house and harbour bridge. We headed up to the top deck for the sail away which we all counted down for. As we left the harbour the music blared and the holidaymakers cheered to the beginning of our cruise. It was amazing.

We were due to sail for three full days before arriving at our first port of call Noumea, New Caledonia. Following this, we would sail to the islands of Lifou, Port Vila, Mystery Island and lastly the Isla of Pines before sailing for three days back to Sydney. During the cruise we enjoyed sun baking on the top deck, feasting on delicious meals from the buffet and in the evenings we enjoyed exquisite meals and service from our waiters Freddie and Arnold in the Waterfront restaraunt. We attended various pacific cirque shows, musicals and comedy shows in the amazing Marquee and danced the night away, cocktails in hand, on the top deck. We dressed to impress for the country and western night hoe down, for the cocktail dress code and for the biggest night of the cruise, island night.

The overall service was five star and every day we were looked after very well. There was a newsletter 'Pacific Daily' which was put in our cabin every evening for the following days events and allowed us to plan our days and nights in order to attend as much as we wanted. The pacific entertainers who performed in various musicals were outstanding and always left us wanting more, as did the incredibly talented pacific cirque performers. Especially Maurizio from Columbia ;)

We looked forward to our 8pm daily evening dinner at The Waterfront restaraunt where we sat beside a lovely Aussie couple from Ingham and chatted about each other's lives each night. We bonded over trying to solve our waiters puzzles and magic tricks and every night was so entertaining with them, especially towards the end when Freddie wrote and sang us a song. We learned a lot about our waiters lives and our whole experience was amazing because of them.

Overall the cruise was an amazing experience and I guess I was the only non Aussie/Kiwi on board which was quite funny although I did love when our Irish captain Gavin would talk to us on the intercom daily with his familiar irish accent! We had so many options onboard the ship that there was no time to be bored, and within a few days we knew our photographers, our cruise directors and we even had nicknames for some of the passengers we had noticed during the cruise. Sailing with P&O would definitely encourage me to go on another cruise, maybe not for as long as 10 days but maybe a shorter one somewhere else in the world. It was top class!