The South Pacific has been a big void in my travels so far. Other than a cruise stop in French Polynesia and Tonga on the QEII in 1999 and a few trips to Australia and New Zealand, I had never visited any other of the southern Pacific islands. Mrs hauteboy has especially wanted to go to Papua New Guinea many years but we could never find a good time to go. While researching itineraries to visit the southern Pacific I came across an interesting 11-night cruise itinerary offered by Paul Gauguin. Normally the Paul Gauguin sails around French Polynesia, I had seen the ship on my other cruise stop in Moorea many years ago. She was heading to drydock in Singapore and had a repositioning cruise from Fiji to Cairns, stopping in Vanuatu (Port Vila + Espiritu Santo), Solomon Islands (Guadalcanal/Honiara), Papua New Guinea (Bougainville Island, Samarai Island, Port Moresby). This would only be my 4th cruise, and reviews of the Paul Gauguin were all quite good. Fully inclusive cruise, covering all food, drinks, beer, wine, etc.

I put a hold on the itinerary while researching flights. That posed more a challenge. Even 4 months out award space was limited, we could only get to Fiji a week before the cruise departed, then returning from Australia there wasn't anything for a week after the cruise, or requiring stopover of several nights in Los Angeles. Eventually I had to book the cruise without still having firm flight plans. Eventually I was able to get a return that was only slightly horrible... departing Cairns 5 hrs after the ship was supposed to dock, an overnight in Auckland and 2 nights in Los Angeles. Eventually award space opened up allowing a same-day connection back to Austin from LAX.

Six days in Fiji wouldn't be bad either, that would give some time for miss hauteboy (3 yrs) to adjust to the time change. We have taken her to Japan and Turkey before but this is the first trip where she is really mobile and vocal. I also looked into doing a day or two side trip to Samoa, Tuvalu or Kiribati while there. An interesting option is the flight from Nadi to Honolulu that stops in Christmas Island (Kiribati) both ways. This flight runs once a week, allowing either a 9-hr stopover or a 7-day stay.

For Fiji we looked into the Sheraton hotels in Denarau. We also discovered that a new Sheraton resort would be opening on Tokoriki island a few days before our arrival.. so we were all set to be guinea pigs and try out the new resort. Unfortunately our arrival the the Kiribati flight schedule meant an extra roundtrip ferry transfer for me and only two nights at the resort, the flight from Kiribati arrived too late to catch a ferry back the same day.

Our itinerary: