Hi, everyone! After Gala Tea, I made a new friend! Butlog lives with Robielyn-san, my favorite crew member who helps me learn how to do new things while Grandma and Grandpa are at dinner. Robielyn-san brought Butlog to play with me and have a sleepover! We had fun together! Butlog wears his life jacket all the time because he lives on MS Marina!
Noumea is the biggest city on the island of New Caledonia. We went to a lecture about how New Caledonia was formed, and the professor said that it isn’t an old volcano like Bora Bora. Instead, it was a piece of the super-continent Gondwanaland, just like New Zealand, that split off from Australia when Africa and South America did. MS Marina docked at the marine passenger terminal. The captain made the ship go sideways with thrusters very, very carefully until we were lined up right next to the dock! Right after lunch, we got to go on a snorkeling trip! We took a catamaran to a little island with a fringe reef. Little lions don’t like to get wet, so I stayed on the boat while Grandma and Grandpa snorkeled. They had a very good time and saw lots of fish! Grandpa said this was the healthiest coral reef they’d seen all during the cruise, with yellow and blue branching corals. Grandma and Grandpa saw lots of sea turtles swimming, and Grandma saw a white-tipped reef shark! The stop in Noumea was a short one: by the time Grandma and Grandpa got cleaned up and had dinner, we were at sea again.
It takes two days to cruise the Coral Sea from Noumea to Australia. Yesterday it was windy and the waves were six to nine feet tall. Since we are sailing away from the equator, it’s a little cooler and less humid. The first day, Grandpa and I spent time on our cabin balcony watching the waves. For a while, there was an albatross flying around the ship, too. Otherwise, there was nothing to see but water everywhere!
When we went to tea, my friends Seumas and Mappo and Leech and Tiny were there! Grandma said I could invite them for a sleepover, so they came after dinner. We had a good time! First, we all went upstairs to the Board Room so we could play Scrabble. Seumas had to help Tiny get up the stairs and I helped Mappo. We all agreed to play the special Scrabble rules for little lions and bunnies and elephants! When we were done with our game, we stopped in the concierge lounge to get a cookie to share. Guess what we found when we got back to Grandpa and Grandma’s cabin? Robielyn-san left us a towel elephant friend to join the sleepover! Grandma tucked us all in right by the cabin glass door, so we could see the Southern Cross shining in the sky.
When we woke up this morning, it was cloudy, so the sunrise wasn’t very colorful. It was VERY early, though, because we went through another time zone last night and set our clocks back again. Grandpa says this is the last time that happens this trip! Seumas and Tiny and Leech and Mappo and I sat on the balcony, enjoying the morning sun. The waves aren’t as high today as yesterday, so the MS Marina isn’t rolling as much.
Today was the Country Fair on the pool deck, so we all decided to go. There were lots of contests set up! We watched the balloon toss contest, then we saw Seumas’s grandma doing the egg race! We went to the culinary department contest to identify spices. Seumas and Tiny and Mappo and Leech were more interested in the vegetables decorating the table, but Grandma said she would help me with the contest. I had to smell spices and figure out which one was which. I had to smell some of them twice to be sure, but I got them all right! I won three raffle tickets!
My friends decided to stay with their grandma and Grandpa came to join Grandma and me. We all won raffle tickets tying sailors’ knots. I tried the butlers’ blindfold ball toss, but little lions aren’t very good at throwing and catching balls even when we can see them! It was fun to just sit and watch other passengers play the games. We saw our next-cabin neighbors. The cruise director, Ray-san, was there, so I made sure to thank him for announcing the mascot meet-up where I got to meet my onboard friends. I made sure to stay far enough away from the ball toss not to get splashed!
Grandma and Grandpa played the housekeeping game. They raced each other to get a pillowcase on a pillow. Robielyn-san was the judge, and she said Grandma won! We went up on the next deck to watch the line dancing. The ship’s whistle blew to mark the end of the games, and it was very loud! There was a drawing of raffle tickets for prizes. I helped Grandpa keep track of our ticket numbers, but we didn’t win anything.
Tomorrow, we get to Brisbane, Australia! Australia was my very first adventure with Grandma and Grandpa and it will be fun to see my kangaroo and koala friends again!
Love,
Lion-san
It looked like a great adventure to the coral reef. Hope Grandma didn’t get too close to the shark. Looks like you had fun playing Scrabble with your friends and since there are a lot of stairs on the ship it was nice you helped your friends climb them. The Country Fair looked like fun. That was good you got all the spices right! Going to Brisbane Australia will be fun. We remember going to Australia with you before Moose-san showed up.
hola lion-san.. its me butlog.. just came home from an 8 and half months onboard,, they kept extending us.. will be here for a month.. it took me awhile to figure this out as robielyn did let me use her internet account.. she is stingy>> haha.. anyway., it is nice too see my picture here and some of the the things you did onboard.. you had fun.. thank you again and hope to see you next time.. bless you..