Saturday and Sunshine

As you will see from the photo, the weather today was just as beautiful as yesterday. Later this morning, as far out as the eye could see over the water, there were white spots everywhere, followed by little white trails - all boats out for the day/weekend. It looked stunning.

I had a restful morning as planned - just walking and reading on the beach. The men got home about 1.30pm after a very successful fishing trip.  It was stunning out on the water also and add to that copious amounts of fish caught, well, that's Bill's idea of paradise!  They were throwing them back at the end because they had taken enough on board. Veronique's husband has taken the catch home and will bring some of it tonight as sushimi and poisson cru (tahitian salad), and will give us a bag of fillets for our dinner tomorrow evening. Yum!  Tonight we are going to dinner at the home of one of the English teachers coming to NZ in October. There will be a gathering of many friends we have made over the last twelve years that I have been coming over here.  Some don't come out with the Jean Mariotti kids any more but it is always great having our annual TIS / Jean Mariotti dinner!

  The petanque courts down at Anse Vata beach.  These are full of players every evening - only ever men here playing. I'm not sure why that is but it's definitely a popular early evening pastime.

 Many people walk, cycle and swim for fitness, especially at the weekend. The paths are always busy and packs of cyclists on the roads are common.

                                             Looking across the road to Anse Vata beach.

Many people also take advantage of the fitness stations that the paths along the waterfront here and at Magenta have on them.

The following photos I took on my walk this morning and are typical of the footpaths away from the main tourist areas - Anse Vata and Baie des Citrons.  You would never see anything like it in NZ because of the hazard they create for pedestrians!  Parking isn't a problem either - you just park wherever you find a space to fit your car, whether it's up on the footpath and nearly inside a shop or on a corner half up the curb and blocking vision for other cars! It's insane!

                                  Looking over at the Hilton from the beachfront at Anse Vata

 I saw this woman this afternoon literally pounding along in the water with her arms pumping at Baie des Citrons - her version of aqua jogging I guess.  She looked about my age, was very brown so obviously a local, but skinny as a rake with no added kgs acquired with age!  Typically french women here are very slim. We have had many a conversation as to what their secret is!  Bread eaten with every single meal, chocolate and pastries commonly eaten - how do they do it???   We have concluded that they must have a very, very different metabolism from us!

I hear that you have had a spring kind of day today in Taupo. Yay! Hopefully it continues!

Until tomorrow, au revoir from the TIS crew in Noumea

Day 6 Phare Amedee

Bonjour!

What a day!  It was fantastic!  Jacob said on the way home in the boat that it was the best day EVER!

                                          The boat on the left was our ride out to the island.

                                                     Being serenaded onto the boat

                                                Beautiful views as we leave Port Moselle

                                              The odd person likes yachting around here!

                                                                        On the boat

After 45mins we berthed at the jetty on the island. It's a long jetty and I had walked off first to 'bags' a good spot for us on the beach under the umbrellas.  As I got to our spot, I heard the shrieks, 'There's a snake, there's a snake!'  They had spotted the first clump of many, sunning  themselves at the end of the jetty. The kids were fascinated of course.  They couldn't wait to get all decked out with snorkels and masks and get into the water.  It was just such a bluebird perfect day and they relished in it.  They had only been in the water for 15mins when they all saw their first turtle.  The species around these waters is the Green turtle. Some years there aren't many spotted but today they saw heaps of them. They were swimming alongside them and all got such a thrill.  These beautiful big creatures were definitely the highlight of the day!  Phare Amedee is the equivalent of a nursery for them and there is plenty of the 'grass' growing on the sand that they like to eat. The big ones we see are apparently only 10 - 15 years old but they are pretty big. It was disturbing to hear how many of the turtles die slow, very painful deaths from swallowing plastic bags in the ocean. They think the bags are jellyfish - common food for them - but the bags of course choke them and slowly they die of starvation because they can't eat again.

We went out in the glass-bottomed boat and saw some out on the reef also. It always surprises me when they come up for air. For such big bodies they have such cute little heads that just peep out on top of the water to take in air!

                                                             Out on the glass-bottomed boat

While we had stopped to look at the fish underneath the boat, a snake slithered up out of the water onto the back of the boat by the skipper. There were quite a few gasps (from me as well as I was right up that end of the boat!) Jonty was at the very end and the skipper just passed it to him to hold!  Brave old Jonty just took it off the skipper and held it for a (short!) time - the facials betrayed that he wasn't feeling that calm about it all - legend!

At lunchtime we had our tropical feast. It was more appealing to some than others!  Obviously a few of the kids dislike seafood, and there was plenty of that, but there was a variety of food so something for everyone.

                                                                About to go in for lunch

                                                           Waiting, waiting...

                                                                   Filling plates

Nothing wrong with the appetites of these boys and I can tell Cooper LOVES prawns!

There was a concert after lunch with the women demonstrating just how fast their hips can move if you have a good teacher!  Some of our girls were asked up onto the stage to be taught a dance as well!  I have some funny video footage but can't upload it as the internet is very slow.

The funniest part of the day though was Baz getting asked up on the stage to dance. He wasn't at all keen but our kids were not going to let him get out of it.  It was very, very funny as the gorgeous Tahitian girl started gyrating around him as she removed Baz's tee-shirt then made out she was going to remove his shorts! The kids were beside themselves with laughter and couldn't believe their eyes!  Of course that didn't happen but the dancer then dressed him in a grass skirt and put a coconut bra on him. I have had to promise to show my video footage at assembly!

                                            Our very own Tahitian dancer extraordinaire!

        The rest of the day was spent swimming and snorkelling - they couldn't get enough of it!

                       ...except for the beach babes who wanted to lax a bit on the loungers as well.

These creatures below certainly made an impact as well!

                                                                Far, far away NZ!

It was a fantastic day and a lovely ending for me was having a lady from Auckland come up and speak to me on the trip back to the mainland. She said what a fabulous bunch of kids we had! She had watched them on the boat trip over and had spoken to a few of them throughout the day.

Everyone was tired but well-satisfied with their day. I'm sure they will all have a great weekend too. Eloise is flying off to the Isle of Pines, Jonty heading off to some island on his host brother's grandfather's catamaran to some island and staying on the boat, Gabby and Julia are going whale watching on Gabby's host sister's boat down to the very south of the mainland, Tatiana is going to be camping on some island, Jayla going to some resort inland that the french teacher tells me is absolutely beautiful!  Anya has been told by her host family a few times that they have a big surprise for her for the weekend.  These are just the weekend expeditions I know about - they are definitely very lucky kids!

Bill arrived over this afternoon and Baz leaves on Monday. Veronique's husband is taking them fishing in the morning - they are being picked up at 6am! Bill has been hanging out for it as you will know that fishing is his most favourite past-time! Me......... forget about fishing! I will be sleeping in, going for walks and lying on the beach reading.

Au revoir from the travelling TIS crew until tomorrow!