South Pacific cruise | FindPenguins

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Trip start
June 8, 2026
South Pacific cruise Traveler
Cruisin’
April 24 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
Hello dear readers and welcome to the next blog!

This time we are off cruising the South Pacific on the Carnival Adventure with a few thousand of our closest friends. It’s a 10 day jaunt to Vanuatu and New Caledonia as a test run for a future cruise happening in early 2027 (more on that later!).

We boarded the ship at Circular Quay and went for a quick bite for lunch. The ship is big and lots of restaurants and bars on board. We settled in to the Byron Beach Club (priority guest!) and prepared to sail!

We are fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world and sailing out was pretty good. We sailed up the harbour and out through the heads, taking photos as we went. The ocean seems very calm and no wind.

We have three days of sailing before we reach our first stop, Vanuatu.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
All at sea day 1
June 9, Tasman Sea ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
No surprise but today was spent sailing. We had a good breakfast and then went for a trivia session in the main theatre.

We explored the ship some more, had a good lunch, and hung out in the Byron Beach Club relaxing and reading a book.

Tonight is a ‘Cruise Elegant’ dress standard for dinner. The food has been good and there is plenty of it.

Weather has been great with very calm seas and sunny skies. It is a bit windy on the upper deck but plenty of places to get out of the wind.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
All at sea day 2
June 11, Coral Sea ⋅ 🌬 20 °C
A quiet day today. We had the put the clocks forward by an hour so we are on Vanuatu time.

The captain said we are moseying along at about 18 knots and the water below us is about 1.8kms deep (it was closer to 4kms yesterday!). So far we have cruised 831 nautical miles.

Lindsay and I hit the gym for a workout this morning. All good except like most things the machines are designed for midgets and I had to keep my head down to stop whacking the ceiling.

We had a very quiet afternoon reading a book and relaxing before dinner and a comedy show.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
All at sea day 3
June 12, Coral Sea ⋅ 🌬 24 °C
Our last full sea day, tomorrow we get to go on dry land again. I was up early and hit the gym to get some exercise. It is very easy to eat and drink a lot but not do much on this ship. The sea was a lot rougher this morning with 3m swells running up from about 2m yesterday. The ship moves around a bit but not a whole lot so no sea sickness to worry about.

The wind has meant we have had to make a change to our first stop. Instead of Mystery Island we are going to Espírito Santo which is a lot bigger. The Captain explained at a Q&A session this morning the at Mystery Island they have to anchor off shore and ferry passengers in using a few of the life boats. The high wind would make this too dangerous for the small boats plus the ship would have to anchor close to rocks so the call was made to change the first stop.

The senior officers of the crew were all at the Q&A session, some interesting stats:

- There are 1151 crew on board
- There are 2917 passengers (there can be 3500 so not 100% full)
- The ship can handle waves up to 10m (I sure can’t!!)
- We have covered 1200 nautical miles
- We have about 400 nm to go
- We are cruising at about 18 knots
- The water is about 2km deep
- There are 6 diesel engines and they only fill up in Sydney

Seems the ship will soon go for an extensive refit in Singapore.

Anyway we had a few games of trivia, relaxed, read a book and had an afternoon drink. Can get used to cruising!

After a good dinner we went to a magic and comedy show, very clever.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
First stop: Vanuatu
June 12 in Vanuatu ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
Our first stop of the cruise was on the island of Espírito Santo, the largest island in the Vanuatu group, in the port of Luganville.

Initial impressions are that this is very similar vibe to the Cook Islands. Very relaxed and no one is really in a hurry. Unless they are driving. Then everyone is in a hurry!

We were booked for a canoe ride down the Riri River and a swim in one of the blue holes. The canoes were outrigger style and came with our own paddler so it was very easy.

At the end of the river was a large swimming hole. Very blue and very deep. The limestone makes it difficult to walk without shoes and makes the water very blue.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best and we had intermittent showers but we still had a good time.

The ride back to the ship was interesting. We were in a mini van type thing and needless to say we were fairly moving along but our van (there were three of them) had an issue in that it overheated. No problem. They have a bottle for just this issue and there are plenty of rivers and creeks so we just filled the bottle a few times and off we went.

After a late lunch and a shower we had to have a relaxing drink and chill out for a few hours. The ship sailed at 3.30 for our next stop Port Vila.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
Port Vila
June 13 in Vanuatu ⋅ 🌬 25 °C
The ship sailed from Luganville to Port Vila overnight and based on the moving and shaking in the morning it was a bit rough. We dropped anchor about 7.30am just off the port. There was an earthquake a few years ago that did a lot of damage including destroying the port where ships could dock. We had to anchor in the middle of the bay and be shuttled ashore via the lifeboats.

We had a beach and waterfall tour booked for today so we were off the ship at about 8.30 and it only took a few minutes to run us to shore.

Dockside security is pretty relaxed and we met our tour guide no problems.

Our first stop was at Eretap Beach which was about 20 mins drive from the port. It was a nice beach, very sheltered and very blue water. It was a bit too windy and cool for a swim but it was really nice having a morning beer (as you do) and relaxing under the trees.

Next stop was Rarru Cascades, a set of small waterfalls where you could swim.

After our tour we were dropped back into town for a quick look around followed by some lunch and an ice cream. We then caught one of the tenders back to the ship.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
Lifou in the Loyalty Islands
June 14 in New Caledonia ⋅ 🌧 22 °C
Lifou is a province of New Caledonia a French colony. The biggest city in New Caledonia is Noumea which we are visiting tomorrow, Lifou island is not as developed but it is not far from the capital.

We anchored offshore as there is no dock for the big ships and the tenders took us in. Today the weather was not on our side with showers happening off and on all day.

We went through the non-existent customs and security in record time.

First impressions of this island are that it may not not as developed as some of the others but in other ways it is - for instance the roads here are a lot better than what we saw on Vanuatu even though Lifou only has 11,000 residents.

The main income is from tourism as well as some agricultural products.

We walked up to the small chapel of Notre Dame de Lourdes which is on top of a headland overlooking the bay. We then walked the other way to the Church of St Francis Xavier. The Catholic missionaries ensured the locals are devout Catholics.

In the afternoon we had a forest walk tour booked which was really interesting. Our guides were Daniel and Juliet who walked us through the rainforest telling us about various plants and how they were used, all very interesting. They then took us to a small grotto caused by the collapse of the roof of a limestone cave. Previously the locals would have lived in these caves but they are are now used to escape the heat of summer or cyclones.

After our tour we went back to the ship for a very late lunch and relaxation.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
Noumea? Maybe not
June 15 in New Caledonia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
We started today sailing into Noumea harbour. Initial impressions were that this was quite a city, much bigger than any other port we have visited and the island itself was a lot more mountainous.

The sea was calm and it was a bit windy but nothing extreme. Anyway just before breakfast our Captain came over the PA saying that due to forecast weather later in the day we would not be docking in Noumea at which time we executed a pretty sharp u-turn and high tailed it back out to sea.

I was looking forward to some French pastries and baguettes but it was not to be.

We are now heading back to Sydney, not sure if we are getting in a day earlier or if we are just going to do loops off the coast and still get in on Thursday.

To be fair the wind has picked up and we are bouncing around a lot.

Anyway we had a quiet day on board. The night was an 80s theme so lots of people dressed up.

Tomorrow is another day at sea.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
All at sea day 4
June 17, Tasman Sea ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Well as expected today was pretty quiet. Only so much you can do on a cruise ship.

We did some trivia - ABBA songs and name that city - as well as read a book, had a few drinks, and generally chilled out.

We have another day at sea tomorrow before arriving back in Sydney on Thursday morning.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
All at sea day 5
June 17, Tasman Sea ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C
Our last full day on the ship, we are meant to get into Sydney early tomorrow morning.

Because we didn’t go ashore in Noumea we have had three days to cover what was going to take two we are only going about 14 knots instead of the usual 19. Luckily the sea is very flat so we aren’t moving around much at all.

The day was spend relaxing, a couple of games of trivia, and a few drinks.Read more
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South Pacific cruise Traveler
Home!
June 18 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
We arrived back in Sydney at about 5.30am. I watched the tugs help tie us up at Circular Quay, very quick considering how big the ship is and how little room there is to manoeuvre.

All up it was a good trip. Its main purpose was to ‘test the waters’ for a much bigger cruise early in 2027, we both passed with flying colours.

Thank you dear readers for following our exploits on the blog and look forward to our next trip.Read more
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Trip end
June 18, 2026