Travel Journal: Amedee Island (Noumea, New Caledonia)

Oh, Amedee, Amedee, Amedee, you are so heavenly.

I was in love with this island! Hands down, this was my favourite stop in our itinerary. Save the best for last, hey!

We booked this Amedee Day Trip tour with Royal Caribbean. We decided to book this under the cruise line because it takes an hour of yacht ride to get to the island. We figured it will be safer to do this tour under the cruise line company because, even if it's more expensive, it's a guarantee that the ship will wait for us even if the tour runs late.

We got off the ship, met our feisty French tour guide (She is amazing!) and rode a coach to Port Moselle where a yacht was waiting for us to bring us to Amedee Island. I felt like we were at The Hamptons (though I've never been there. Haha!) - there were yachts lined up along the port, nice houses by the hills/cliffs.

As soon as we docked, oh my goodness, I was mesmerised. It was so gorgeous! The turquoise water. The white sand. The intimacy. Clare and I were already planning to go back and we hadn't set foot on the island yet. We were still walking on the dock.

I didn't realise he was in one of my photos until I reviewed the album. Hee.

We immediately purchased the ticket for the Amedee lighthouse (and some souvenirs). We were among the first few who went up the lighthouse so we were able to take photos and videos in peace and without extra heads in the background.

The view from the lighthouse was spectacular. It's overlooking the tiny island. It's very secluded. We were the only ones there, aside from the staff.



It was so windy and luckily, I had my two-piece bikini underneath my dress so I didn't care if I went all Marilyn Monroe. (Not that I don't wear undergarments.) Haha!

We got so carried away by taking photos at the lighthouse and at the beach that we missed out a few other activities, such as the demonstration of different ways of tying the sarong, which I was interested to see. We also saw the smallest post office in the world as well, which is the post office in Amedee Island.

We were treated to mostly seafood (grilled tuna, prawns, mussels, coconut rice and egg fried rice, baby octopus salad, and more), some vegetables, coconut rice and egg fried rice for lunch and traditional island dance performances.There were ice cream, fruits and pannacotta for dessert. After lunch, we swam and snorkeled the afternoon away. We brought our own snorkel gear with us. It was a good call that we bought and brought our own before our trip so we didn't have to rent. We were only allowed to swim on certain areas, basically where there are no coral reefs.

While we were basking in the sun and water, a lady lost her Go Pro and we helped her look for it. It was quite difficult to find because her Go Pro is black with a clear waterproof case. It easily blended with the seaweeds and rocks. Her brother (EDIT: see photo way above), who, by the way, was really cute (Think James Marsden), happened to paddle-board beside me while looking for the Go Pro. I thought of initiating a conversation with him since he was already there, hello. (Wow, look at me, very daring! Haha!) But I was so shy and I kept asking myself, inside my head, over and over, should I say something to him or not? And I was like, screw this. A one-line sentence wouldn't kill me.

So I did. A lame small talk about that missing gadget. Haha!

Anyway, the missing Go Pro has been found after an hour or so. She was the one who was able to locate it eventually. She found it a bit further than the spot where she think she lost it. Their parents even joked that she should treat all of us for a drink since we helped her look for her it.

We were divided into groups beforehand for the glass-bottom boat ride, which was our last activity for the tour. We belonged to the last group to do that activity. We rode a glass bottom boat to see more corals and fishes in the further part of the ocean, where we weren't allowed to swim at. Oh, it was beautiful! No wonder it was a UNESCO World Heritage Site and they are really trying to keep it that way. There were a lot of colourful reefs and never-before-seen (at least for me) fishes. Our tour guide was enthusiastic in telling us the background of the island, the names of the fishes and all those interesting and fun science facts.

We rode the yacht back to Port Moselle again. The only seats left vacant by the time we got on board were the ones towards the tail of the yacht so, as expected, the ride going back made me feel a bit dizzy. Similar to what happened to us during our first day of cruise when we sat on the wrong part of the dining area as it left Sydney port. We slept it off instead and by the time we woke up and reached Port Moselle, we felt better.

We rode the coach and were driven back to the port where our ship was docked. We were able to see a tiny bit of Noumea. Clare and I wanted to visit this quaint, little city again because we were curious to see what it has to offer. It looked pretty chill and interesting. And probably the closest we can go to for legit patisseries and boulangeries! And guess what, we arrived 5 minutes later than the call time! This was it. This was what we were scared of exactly. Fortunately, we booked that trip under the cruise line so the Royal Caribbean staff had already been informed in advance that we would be arriving late. I think they would know that there were passengers who hadn't boarded yet because they scan our key cards in everytime we get on and off the ship. The head count will not tally to the total number of passengers. Anyway, as soon as the coach parked and we got off, the people who were already inside the ship applauded. Hahaha!

We headed to our room and prepared for our dinner. Then, we watched a piano performance and the Quest Game show. It was a hilarious show, oh my gosh! It's an adults-only scavenger hunt game. The audience was divided into groups, according to where we were seated. That game was full-on -- no holds barred, no inhibitions. There were bras here and there, wedgies, crazy and sexy dance moves and all random and weird but funny shenanigans. I was actually this close to lending my leopard-print bra that I was wearing tonight because an animal-print clothing item was asked for! Hahaha! And "James Marsden" aka the guy from earlier joined the game. He was one of the representatives in their section. He and his sisters were very game on. Towards the end, he was wearing a woman's outfit - skirt, heels, bra, makeup, all that jazz - and was dancing as required by the game. Everyone there couldn't stop laughing. Oh, what a night!

Today was really fun!
And the fun in our little village here will soon be over as we go back to reality! One more night and we will be back in Sydney! Nooooo!