New Caledonia- Australia. Some thoughts

Some comments about the cruise from Noumea to Newcastle.
Joanne arrived at the end of September and Roger on October 1st from Australia and we spend the day putting the dinghy away and doing our final preparations for leaving, shopping for fresh food and checking out of New Caledonia. This was very easy and took an hour only and was free unlike the constant handouts in Vanuatu. We left the marina and took on some duty free fuel.
The weather was windy and cold and we decided to spend the night on a mooring at Ilot Maitre.
By the folling morning the weather had cleared and we left soon after dawn for Passe Amadee. Once out of the barrier we ran into some swell from the prior frontal system and we did well sailing and motor sailing for most of the day. There were some line squalls but it was other wise clear. The wind died that night and we motored most of the second day. Day three gave us an ideal 15 knots of breeze, we had every rag up including the mizzen spinakker and we made excellent progress. These conditions changed by the end of the day and we ran into some massive line squalls with a great deal of lightening and rain and the inevitable head winds as the front blew through. Over the last 36 hours the wind went north and we were able to motor-sail quite effectively until we arrived in Newcastle.
This was a different cruise from the usual trade wind sailing where we set the sails and have steady conditions for day after day. On this trip , we had pretty much everything from flat calm to head winds on 20 kts to a screaming beam reach. Callisto, as usual, handled it all with ease and we had no problems or equipment failure except for the mainsail furler which would not work well under load and will have to be taken apart and repaired.
We saw whales on the calm days and some dolphin but did not do any fishing as we had more than enough food to be consumed before the quarantine guys took it away. And take it away they did! Even though we were told that that dairy products from the EU were ok they took almost all of it away and I had to pay for the dubious privilege.
This was a very enjoyable cruise, It's great to have an all British crew as they all appreciate the need for proper tea. In fact, I drank so much tea I thought my kidneys would float away.
Apart from some initial mal de mer , we all ate well and having three crew also meant easy watches and plenty of sleep.
The trip was 1090 nautical miles and was completed in just under seven days for an average speed of 6.6 kts. We motored or motor sailed for 110 hours and burned just under 400 litres of fuel.