Isle aux Canards

Bonjour
We were a bit dubious first thing this morning about the weather but it was great out on the island. We caught the water taxi out there and because of the breeze coming onshore, the trip was a little exciting for those not used to boats!  We were on the sheltered side of the island so the kiwis were fine. The billets had come over with us and they were freezing!  They all snorkelled out over the reef and saw a variety of marine life, but disappointingly, no turtles. The island is only very small - 10 minutes to walk around and has very little sand, just broken coral on the beach.

                                                          Waiting to board the water taxi.

                       

                                  On the island we were divided into three groups and we rotated the activities - a games involving matching pictures with environments of species found on the island and in the water, a walk aroung the island with the flora and fauna explained to us, and then the third group snorkelling.

                            Looking across at the facilities available for those 'with money!'

                                                     Walking along the beach

                Finishing our walk around the island - Awesome use of all the coral on the beach.

                                         A beautifully coloured bug spotted on a tree trunk

              ......and another weird looking bug! Much more tolerable than those spiders!

                                   Listening to our guide before heading out onto the reef

                                                          Game time....

                            They hadn't ever had to climb up onto a stage to go to the toilet before! (long drop variety!)

                                                            Snorkelling time

                                                                          Life is good.....


In the afternoon we walked down to Baie des Citrons for some more swimming and snorkelling

                                              Making good use of the raft on the beach

 There is an Italian ice cream shop at Baie des Citrons and it unbelievably good. Jacab agrees with that description!

 Sam following the saying that I explained to everyone - 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do!"
There are no changing rooms anywhere on the beach and locals just wrap a towel around themselves and change. Sam adapted to this method no trouble!

The three Musketeers!

After we walked the kids back to school, we visited the place where Gabby has been, and will be for her longstay. Her host family lives on a 'boat', as Gabby told us! It is a very large sea-going catamaran with 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms!  What an interesting family she is with! They have been sailing around the world for 15 years with the first child born in Panama and the next two born in Tahiti. Her family are fantastic and what a great experience Gabby is having. We are meeting with Brianna's fam ily for her longstay tomorrow so we will know more about them after that.

I am off to bed now with a big orienteering day and kayaking/ swimming day ahead of me tomorrow!

Au revoir from the TIS travelling crew!

Melanesian Museum

Bonjour!

We had our 19 happy faces greet us at school this morning and then we went into a vacant classroom and chatted about their host families and anything they had found difficult so far in their workbooks.
Our bus collected us at 9am for the town Melanesian Centre.

The Museum's artefacts are divided into different sections - Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia. It is interesting to see the similarities/differences between what these groups used for tools, ceremonies and weapons. Everything was well set-out and explained with information in English at each exhibit.
At the fishing section, there were two boats, one of which the kids were absolutely sure must have been borrowed by the film makers of Moana because it was exactly the same as the one in the movie!

 Some of them thought these masks would be awesome to wear on Halloween night!

 Teneya getting her face painted before we start learning the traditional dance from the island of Lifou. This island is where our teacher came from.

                                Sitting inside the Case (Carz) while everyone's face gets done.

Even me!

Ready to dance!

                                                                Learning from our tutor

As he usually does, after we'd learnt it, this little guy teaching us got us to perform our waiata, then go straight into our new dance, then the boys performed their haka and we finished with He Honore. It was great! This guy is a dancer by profession and he really got into it with his drums and high-pitched trilling as they do during their dances - another real sharing of cultures.

When we started leaving, a french school visiting there for a weaving class, asked if we could sing for them as they'd heard us in the distance.  We did so and then they stood up and responded with a french song - very cool!  

We were back at school by 11.30 ready for the kids to take off with their billet as it's Wednesday and a half day today.  The Principal took Bill and I out to lunch with his Deputy and the two English teachers coming to NZ.  We had a fabulous meal with a set menu at a 'vocational school'. The kids here, 16-18 years, all want to be involved in the hospitality industry when they finish school, so the meals are all prepared by the kids. They have a dining room that looks like any restaurant and the public can book to go there to eat. It was really good.

It began raining again at lunchtime today so I hope that's gone for our day at the beach tomorrow - snorkelling on Duck Island and then swimming.

Until tomorrow, au revoir from the TIS travelling crew!

Cagou Tuesday 4th

Bonjour!
This morning the kids went straight into classes. They had different students to take them into their classes today but they were all OK with that. Most have loved Spanish - especially Sam. The Spanish teacher told us at lunchtime that he had done really well and she was impressed with him! Biology has been OK but haven't heard anyone saying that physics or chemistry was awesome!

When the kids were all settled into class, Bill and I went to visit the school that an old friend is now Principal of. Monsieur Eric Vallon was the original teacher I began our cultural exchange with twelve years ago. He has since left Jean Mariotti College, taught in France for a few years and is now back in Noumea as Principal of a low decile College - Year 7 - 10. It is a tough school of mainly kanak kids but we met some lovely pupils this morning who are coming to NZ on Saturday on the same flight as us to stay with kids from a Rotorua school. They performed three traditional dances for us as a practice performing in front of New Zealanders!

                                                     The main doors into the school!

                              The kids line up here before they are taken to their classroom

 One of the smaller classrooms. It doesn't matter what area the school is in, windows are always 

barred.

 Looking down onto the centre courtyard.

                                                      Another view of the centre courtyard.

                                                    Some of their students performing

When we got back to Jean Mariotti in time for their morning break (9.30am)  the whole school was outside waiting for us to perform! Veronique really wanted the whole school to see our performance so about 1200 kids were seated on steps in a roofed sort of amphitheatre they use during breaks. It certainly looked daunting as a sound system had been set up for us and expectation hung in the air as Bill and I made our way down the steps to where our kids were waiting up the front for us. I don't think they could quite believe what had been thrust on them yesterday afternoon! Bill had said that we had been asked to do it and just said to the kids "of course we can can't we, because we are proud members of Taupo Intermediate!"

As soon as Bill started playing the intro on his guitar to 'Tuwharetoa' on his guitar, a roar went up from the audience - they were pumped for this concert!

                                                             

  The school loving us! When we had finished they all sang an overpowering rendition of Le Marsellaise, the french national anthem. It was fantastic!

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At lunchtime we all headed into the canteen for lunch - a real experience for our kids. They line up, clock in as they go through the style gate, collect a tray then file past the cooks who put the food on their plates.

It doesn't look terribly gourmet but it was really nice! 

After lunch we took the bus with the billets up to Le Parc Forestier, a small zoological park  featuring native plants, animals and birds from New Caledonia.  The Cagou, a fairly large flightless bird like our kiwi is probably the most well-known native bird. This park has a number of them that are easily visible so that was great. A guide showed us around explaining things to us and feeding the animals.

                                                   Setting off to the Cagou enclosure

 The thing I think we will remember most about the park is the hideous huge spiders that make webs between the trees! I have visited the park a few times before and can't believe I had never seen them!  I spent the afternoon alert and watching carefully for any webs low in the trees and across our path!  The spiders don't bite apparently but that knowledge did nothing to comfort me - they were big and ugly and that was enough!

Julia wasn't impressed with the meal about to be fed to the New Caledonian crows!

                                                                       The Cagou

                                 
                                                       Learning about the Banyan Tree

                                 
                                                             Native flying Squirrels (Bats)

                                                     They even have peacocks over here....

That's it for today's news. Au revoir from the TIS travelling crew until tomorrow!