Well there are just too many memories and photos to do this holiday justice but here goes:We set sail from Sydney Harbour - that in itself was just magical. Eating dinner as we sailed by the Opera House and how wonderful to be on your holidays and in your room less than 2 hrs after leaving home!
The Rhapsody of the Seas was a bit of a smaller ship than we were used to, but non the less the service was impecable and there were more fun activities onboard than you could possibly do in 12 days.
We had some awesome visits to beautiful tropical islands in New Calendonia, where we lazed on the beach, swam and drank cocktails. Ela had her first attempt at scuba diving in Vanuatu and although Tom had a snorkel, he was much happier watching big fish daddy swim under the glass bottom boat!Vanuatu was close to being the worse stop we had when we were accosted by tribes of locals hassling us for taxi rides. There had been a time in our lives when this wouldn't have botherd us, being seasoned backpackers we would have just shrugged it off. However having two small children along for the ride added a whole dimension and caused us to tread a hasty retreat back to the boat. However we were lucky enough to bump into an expat Aussie who told us exactly which spot to head for just 5 minutes away and exactly how much it should cost and we found ourselves in paradise with the kids picking up enormous starfish ad us on lounges sipping cocktails...again!
We had two stops in Fiji and the first was somewhat of a blur as we raced between doctors clinics and the local hospital driven by the port agent as we tried in vain to find someone who was able to remove a large plastic bead that Tom had stuck up his nose the previous day! So much for our plans to pack the kids of to kids club. Ela on the one hand had to be surgically removed at the end of each day whereas after the bead incident Tom refused to leave our side and hopes of whiling the at-sea days away by the pool were scuttled by a very energetic 3 yr old. Luckily we had Nana and Grandad there for backup!
As for the bead incident after the first day in the onboard medical centre trying unsuccessfully to hold him down (it took 3 of us and we still couldn't do it) and tweezer it out or blow up the nostrils, we were finally able to get the surgeon in the ENT section of the very basic local hospital to get it out, She was obviously very experienced in this line of work and had it removed in a matter of seconds without any fuss.
The second day in Fiji Mark and I took some much needed R&R by ourselves on this beautiful tall ship that took us for the day to yet another idylic desert island and we swam read and enjoyed the tranquility!
Ela's highlight of the trip was getting her hair braided. She was the centre of attention when she returned to school with everyone including parents and teachers passing comment on how pretty it looked. She cried her eyes out when i had to remove the plaits for her dance photos a week after our return, not because it hurt but because she realised that she would no longer be 'special'!
