Going On A Holiday To Pacific Islands!

Tennis is on for the rest of January! Gotta go!

Hi,
You might find it hard to get any local coins in New Caledonia and Vanuatu. When the cruise ship is in all the shops accept Australian (or US, NZ etc.) dollars and give change in same currency. Many have separate till drawers for different currencies. Or they want credit cards.
Best bet is to wander a little away from the main shopping area and purchase something at a smaller shop and ask for change in local currency. I bought a Tee shirt cheaper that way and the shop owner whipped out his calculator to makr sure he got the exchange rate right -even happy to change another $10.00

When disembarking at Port Vila consider walking into town rather than catching a taxi. Fair distance but a nice stroll and you can check out all the souvenir stalls on the way; don't buy anything yet until you have checked the prices in town first. I purchased Tusker (the local beer) glasses at the brewery shop in the main street much cheaper than the stalls. And had a refreshing couple of glasses in their bar behind on a deck overlooking the water.
Tusker is a world class beer and, if you have ever read Tales of the South Pacific (James Michener) it's not hard to guess the origin of the name.

When arriving in the main town centre head to the water front to find many cheap food outlets where you can have a coffee, snack or meal before more wandering around.

Best duty free shop for your allowance back to Australia is Fung Kuei -at far end of street on the left (water side). Tusker shop is adjacent. Your purchase is delivered to the ship and stored to be delivered to your cabin just before docking back home.

I won't tell you more -just explore for yourself and consider if you really want to do any of the trips organised from the ship. You can always catch a cab for some island and/or resort cruising.

If going past New Caledonia at night keep an eye out for the glow from the volcano, over the hills. Don't plan on spending too much there (or you will spend too much there, if you get my drift). A small plate of pommes frites cost $20 recently at the hotel at Isle of Pines and they would not even sell us a local "Number One" beer (reserved for regulars only) but insisted cruisers had to have Heineken (More expensive but still locally brewed anyway).

Have a nice trip.

Jeff

Had this info passed on yesterday, too late for joshtammi though:

Any use to you Steve? or Jeff? or anyone else?

Thanks for the info Nancy, but I don't qualify.

Steve

Hey guys! well I can definately say the cruise was amazing and so much fun!

as for coins, I managed to get a complete 2009 set of fiji coins in very good EF or better. much different to their older coins as they use the differwnt metal now. (i had to ask about 8 shops to find the new metal $1 coin but finally found one)

also got a complete set of coins from new caledonia and vanuatu but they are definately not as nice as the fij coins but still a great souvenir:-)

alcohol was too cheap in vanuatu. $13 for a litre of vodka... I paid $5for a bottle of water on the ship

I only bought a bottle of bubbly. vintage bottle of Moet, but unfortunately the cruise staff damaged the box when uting it in storage:-(

well my phone is stupid and doesn't think I'm logged in to send you a pm but my email is joshua.tamm@gmail.com snd me a message if you wanna catch up. and I can show you my new crown I got in Brizzy today:-)

Oh really? thats very strange:-/ I double checked it and its correct except there shouldnt be a full stop at the end of gmail.com, because it seemed to attach to the hyperlink. I'll be here for another hour roughly before I head home if you catch this!

thanks

Josh, I'm glad to hear that you found a few coins. I spent thousands sending my kids on a holiday and all I got was 5 coins from Fiji. Oh well, I guess that's better than nothing. Mind you, I did state earlier that coins were hard to find.

Steve