Eh ben ca fait 10 jours deja que nous n'avons pas publie de message ... Le temps passe vite. Plus qu'une semaine de vacances ... Mais en ce moment, on est au top: Bien rentres dans la routine on apprecie chaque heure qui passe.

It's been 10 days since our last message... apologies and thanks for the reminder Colleen... time passes very quickly here. We have one more week to go, hard to believe... but we're cherishing each moment that passes till the end. We've done quite a bit in the last 10 days...so much to tell, but will give you a few of the highlights. I think we've taken close to 800 pictures since the beginning of our trip so its impossible to post them all.

Donc, Il y a 10 jours, nous sommes alles a la plage de POE. Superbe plage de reve sur la cote est et superbe lagon aux eaux turquoises.

Here we are on the Poe beach, near Bourail. Superb beach on the West coast o New Caledonia with turquoise waters and lots of wind where we watched many people kite surf.

Promenade dans la baie des tortues et vue sur le rocher de Bourail:
Walking along Turtle Bay where we saw the Rock of Bourail:

Est ce que Andrea va sauter ???

Here I am trying to pass along the rocky cliff without getting swept off by the huge waves.

Ah ... Ma premiere plongee a ete couronnee de succes avec ma capture d'un superbe Thazard. Je le tiens ci dessous.

The great diver!!! Here is Eric with his very first catch. He, Ronan and two other guys went diving/fishing last week and had an awesome time. Eric harpooned a 4 foot Thazard, the biggest fish of the day! Just look at the smile... a good advertisement for Colgate toothpaste.
Ronan a peche plein de gros poissons perroquets tres bon en sashimi:

Ronan caught lots of huge Parrot fish. Excellent sashimi!

Visite de Hienghene sur la cote ouest a quelques kilometres au nord de poindimie. On voit ici la celebre poule pondeuse.

Eric and I took a trip north to Hienghene where we saw the infamous Chicken Rock. Hienghene is a very beautiful, tranquil town... hard to believe that it was the starting place of the revolution on New Caledonia.

Andrea avec sa fleur ... Et derriere, encore la poule.

A picture on the beach, with a flower Eric picked for me. Behind us... the Chicken.

Allee de notre gite avec des superbes arbres flanboyants.

Vue de la terrasse de notre case:

The view from our room in Hienghene...

Et voila, c'est tout pour aujourd'hui. Je vais essayer de re-publier un message rapidement sur notre excursion a l'ilot Baille.

There you go... a few highlights from the past few days.. we'll do our best to post another message soon about our recent excursion to the Baille Island, Survivor style... just next to Baille Island is another small island where they filmed the Bounty Chololate Bar commercial (its really cool!) I'll try to update the posts below with a few english translations as well.

Eric et Andrea

Ile des pins

Salut!

Je prend enfin le temps de mettre quelques images sur notre sejour a l'ile des pins, qui etait paradisiaque.

Here's a few pictures from our trip to the Isle of Pines, quite a paradise!!

Tout d'abord, il a fallu prendre le ferri, le BETICO, qui est repute pour rendre les passagers malades... Eh bien on y a pas echappe. Andrea et moi avons tous les deux ete malades. Et vu que le bateau entier etait malade, inutile de rentrer dans les details mais la traversee a ete assez eprouvante.

We started off on the ferry, the Betico, infamously known for making its passengers sick... It lived up to its reputation.. Eric and I were both sick... twice. Remember the Fast Cats on the BC Ferries? Think those but faster and much rockier crossing. I had the song 'If you're going through hell, keep on movin...' stuck in my head the entire crossing. Though the crossing was beyond rough, it was well worth it once we arrived. Une fois arrives, petite pause en terrasse de l'hotel pour se remettre de ses emotions.

Once we arrived, I plunked myself down on the little terrace outside our room until the wave motion in my tummy settled down enough to walk to the beach.... which was a 30 second walk from our hotel room.




Il suffisait de marcher 30 secondes depuis notre chambre pour voir ceci:

Incroyable plage de reve dans la baie de Kuto avec le sable le plus fin que je n'ai jamais vu... On dirait de la farine!

The Bay of Kuto is probably the most beautiful beach either of us have ever seen... the sand is like flour! Didn't take us long to get to the beach to enjoy the views...

Instants detente

De l'autre cote de l'hotel, la baie de Kanumera. La petite ile derriere est sacree et il est interdit de grimper dessus.

Just next to the hotel in the Bay of Kanumera... The giant rock in the background is a sacred rock and its forbidden to climb it. There is a trial going on right now in Noumea about two brothers who killed a japonese tourist who climbed the rock five years ago. Quite a gruesome tale for the poor girl. Unfortunately the 'do not climb' sign is written only in French.

Au centre de l'image, une arraignee. On en trouve de tres beaux specimens sur l'ile.

On our walk back to the hotel we found a HUGE spider in a tree (they have lots of gigantic spiders here)

Autre pause detente.

Taking a pause to enjoy and support the local economy (aka brewery)...

On est partis faire un tour en pirogue dans la baie d'upi et sa superbe eau turquoise:

On our voyage on a traditional sailing canoe in Upi Bay:

Droles de caillous en plein milieu de la baie d'upi. Ce sont en fait d'ancien recifs de corail.

There are lots of huge rocks in the bay of Upi that are ancient coral reefs.

Traversee de la jungle vers la baie d'oro:

Walking through the jungle near the Baie of Oro:

Une piscine naturelle incroyable: Au fond de l'image, il y a la pleine mer avec un tombant de 40 metres. La piscine fait 3-4 metres de fond avec des centaines de poissons: perroquets, clowns, dawas, demoiselles, loches, balistes, etc .. un veritable aquarium.
Andrea au fond.

Pause cocktail au meridien avec la piscine sur la plage...

La vie est dure :) Life is good!


Au prochain message: La plage de Foe et la roche percee.

Next message... Foe Beach and Rock Percee.

ENGAGED!!!

Yes its true, oui c'est vrai! We're engaged! Eric popped the question on the 23rd while we were on the Isle of Pines, a very very beautiful paradise island.

We'll be updating this post with more info and details soon, but thought you'd be interested in a few photos in the interim.

On the water...

'The spot'/Le spot where Eric proposed. It was along the path to a limestone cave in the middle of the island where we stopped for lunch. The cave or Grotto is said to be the resting spot or hiding place of Queen Hortense while she was visiting the local tribes in 1855.

The question, la proposition:

My answer: Oui - of course
Engaged... : )

More details to come soon...

Eric et Andrea

One week down...

Ok.. my turn. Its been a good week of rest, relaxation and recovery. I think I:ve caught up on months of sleep an Eric is feeling better after his flu.

Poindemie is a very pretty town with miles and miles of coral beach. The locals (Kanaks) are very friendly and everyone waves hello to each other. The europeans here are either teachers, hospital workers or the police. The prices seem to be the same as home. There are two or three restaurants and a few 'Kava' bars. Kava is the local drink... its non aloholic, has a very strong taste (acquired taste that is..), and apparently has some 'relaxing' effects.


We:ve eaten many different types of fish that Ronan has caught. My favourite so far has to be the Parrotfish sashimi. Muy yummy. Ronan seems quite the fisherman as he fishes by diving with a harpoon gun instead of a rod and reel!

Ronan and Aki were teaching Eric how to throw the net so he can fish for sardienes.





















We'e done a bit of snorkelling, there are tons of fish and coral to see . I am waiting to see if Eric sprouts gills as he always seems impatient to get back in the water.




















We've explored a bit more of the island in the car, lots of twisty roads through the jungle. The scenery is beautiful and very exotic. It feels as though we are in Jurassic Park, except for all the Bob Marley images and graffiti on the bus stops.
















We spent a few hours in the river next to a pretty waterfall where i tried to work on my tan. I have a bit of colour, though to anyone else it would be a few extra freckles.















Aki and I found a coconut on the beach yesterday and eventually managed to open it up with a machete without losing any of our apendages.



















For those of you wondering, yes Eric brought the Wii. Aki and Ronan have enjoyed it very much... Eric is still sad we couldn't get Guitar Hero before we left, though he did find a solution to practice in the interim ... Aki'sUkelele.
















For our birthdays - mine today, Eric's tomorrow.. we'll spend three days on Iles de Pins, a tiny island south of New Calendonia. We're on our way to Noumea this afternoon. Eric and I will stay one night there then head to Iles de Pins (Pine Island) tomorrow morning on the ferry while Aki and Ronan stay in Noumea and attend a friends wedding. Apparently Iles de Pins is stunning, can't wait to see it!

And in true birthday fashion, its raining! I guess you can't escape fate...

Mom and Dad - its your day too... 29 years... yikes! xoxo

Anyways... thats all for now... will upload more pictures soon. Thanks for the comments!

Miss you all! Hugs to the girls!

Andrea

Premier jour de promenade a Poindimie, les paysages sont magnifiques. Tres verdoyants avec toutes sortes de fruits et de fleurs dans les arbres.

Arrivee a Noumea















Sortie en Kayak, mais on a renonce a cause du vent















A la place, picnic a l'ombre pres de la plage















Premier bain a la plage. Il y avait beaucoup de vent mais l'eau est tres agreable. Andrea m a demande d'enlever sa photo parce qu elle se trouve trop blanche.



















Reajustement du Pareo sur le bord de la route.

We're here!

We're here.. AND with our bags!!!

The trip down and connections went very well... no major issues with the exception of being insulted by a security woman at LAX and no mention of our flight on the board in Aukland. Aukland...very pretty, looks like a giant golf course, and everyone is super friendly and relaxed.

We made it to Noumea no problem, 32 degrees. Great to see Ronan and Aki again. Strangely enough, the west side of the island looks like a cross between abbotsford, chilliwack and the interior... the terrain.. not the people.

Anyhoo... just wanted to say hello and to let you know we're safe and sound (though a little bit car sick from the twisty turny roads from Noumea).. will write more soon.. heading for a nap.

Andrea and Eric

Eric et Andrea pour leur anniverssaire en Novembre 2006