The beautiful Moorea

Almost a week since we left New-Zealand for French Polynesia ... this week was so nice and filled up with amazing experiences that we did not find time to publish new posts on the blog.

French Polynesia is composed of more than a hundred of islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, is populated by 240’000 citizens and stretches over an area as big as Europe ! The sceneries are amazingly nice and each spot, whether it is on the lagoon or inland, looks like a post card.





Our journey in this wonderful territory started with 5 days at Moorea (Island part of the Society Archipel) and we stayed at Fare Club Moorea. We were honoured and had some much pleasure to stay at Louise and her lovely family's cottage.

Clarisse and Antone fell in love with the cats, learned how to open a coconut, grate it and press it to get coconut milk. It was very difficult for us to let this family and location after our 5 days stay 😥



During this short stay at Moorea, we found the time to swim amongst the rays and sharks. That was an amazing experience for the kids although we do not really support this activity that became in many Polynesian islands a tourist attraction and that is, we have to admit, agains nature's laws.

Then, while the boys went for a dive in the lagoon, the girls learned how to make a local crown.

All these activities and even more in this second video:

We are now settled in Bora Bora, the Pearl of the Pacific. It is also amazingly nice but definitely more touristic and less authentic than Moorea. More info about Bora Bora will come in the next post; subscribe to our newsletter if you don't want to miss it 😆

Hot Spring Waters in New-Zealand - The video

Last week we published a post about the Taupo lake and Rotorua areas we you can find hips of Hot Spring Waters and amazing observations because of volcanic activities. This was such a great experience and so much fun for the kids that we made a short video showing some extracts of these good times:

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Zorb at Rotorua

Rotorua was another opportunity to go, with Clarisse & Antone, for one of those crazy Kiwi activity that we did 15 years ago: the Zorb ! The concept is explained in detail in the video below 👉😁

2005, Nausicaa & Benoit:

2019, the same with kids: 

Taupo, Rotorua and the hot spring water

Half way between Wellington and Auckland is the beautiful Taupo lake. Fishermen would tell you that this place is THE BEST place in the world for trout fishing. Since we prefer the meat, we'll go for other activities !

Taupo lake and its neighbouring area Rotorua are also the home of thousands of hot spring water, mud pools and other geysers.  

What Antone and Clarisse love in this place : Having a bath in one of the hundreds of pools which water varies between 33° and 41°.

What they hate: the stinky atmosphere all over the place, coming from the sulfur and giving you the unpleasant felling that you are living day and night in a bowl of rotten eggs !

In any case, tomorrow is Easter Monday and they are ready for eggs hunting (the chocolate ones, not the rotten ones 😁)

3 days Wellington at Gambaliver's place

Before heading North towards Auckland, we took the opportunity to stay at Cathy and Brent's place for a couple of days in the Wellington's surrounding.
Wellington is often referred at "Windy Wellington" and we confirm that when the South wind blows, it is chilling 😨


That was also the opportunity for us to meet again Fiona, our lovely former flat mate from the time we were living in Sydney 18 years ago !

Cathy, Brent & their 2 lovely girls live in a very peaceful village and can commute to the city with an easy and nice Ferry trip. We now better understand why they've fell in love with this place. 

It was really nice to spent these couple of resting days there with the Gamboliver family, many thanks again to them 😊

In case you need to make a break, we recommend you to join one of Cathy's worldwide famous Yoga Lesson in her studio located in the middle of the forest. Nausicaa has joined a session and loved it !

Nausicaa and Benoit's birthday at Milford Sound

On April 15th was Nausicaa and Benoit's birthdays (the same day yes, this is wried but it is like this!. To celebrate this nice event, we went to the worldwide famous Milford Sound, far at the south of New Zealand. This fjord is so remote that it takes a 4 hours journey by car from Queenstown; only 35 minutes with a small Cesna ... our choice is all made 😎 

We luckily had perfect wether conditions for this amazing trip. The flight was really great, the sceneries down there are magnificent and we had the honour to meet dolphins during our boat trip in the fjord ! More on the video:

Luge at Queenstown's gondola with the Gamba Family

We are now settle down at Queenstown for a few days with our friends Cathy, Brent & girls. Saturday was spent at the family's Queenstown's top attraction: Luge at the Gondola:

We've had an awesome day all together ! It was great meeting again the Gamba family and enjoying the sun in such a lovely day.

Video Fraser Island

At last, we have found a bit of time to cut the video of our stay at Fraser Island:

Such an adventure ! The kids will for sure remember this stay for a while 😊

What they felt about our stay in Australia:

• Antone: Australia was very nice. The surfing 🏄‍♂️ and the 4WD on Fraser Island were the best. When we went to New Zealand I was wery sad 😢 because Australia is wery far from Switzerland and we will not come back soon.

• Mum: Australia has always been my dream! Coming here with my familie was incredible! Starting our trip in such a good atmosphere was very easy. Sydney was perfect to recovery from the big jet lag! Fraser offered us a big adventure field that we will never forget. The truth is that I could not avoid crying when we left yesterday and promised myself to come back very soon and not waiting 18 Years to come back in beautiful 🇦🇺

Feedback Australia

Antone’s feeling about Australia:
Australia was very nice. The surfing 🏄‍♂️ and the 4WD on Fraser Island were the best. When we went to New Zealand I was wery sad 😢 because Australia is wery far from Switzerland and we will not come back soon.

Mum’s feeling!
Australia has always been my dream! Coming here with my familie was incredible! Starting our trip in such a good atmosphere was very easy. Sydney was perfect to recovery from the big jet lag! Fraser offered us a big adventure field that we will never forget. The truth is that I could not avoid crying when we left yesterday and promised myself to come back very soon and not waiting 18 Years to come back in beautiful 🇦🇺

Last day in Australia

C'est avec un pincement au coeur que nous nous préparons pour prendre l'avion demain matin pour la Nouvelle Zélande. L'envie de retrouver Cathy et Brent n'empêche pas ce sentiment de trop peu pour ces 10 jours magiques passés dans ce pays que l'on affectionne particulièrement avec Nausicaa.

Clarisse et Antone sont maintenant tombés eux aussi amoureux de ce pays et nous sommes convaincus qu'ils reviendront un jour ... sans leurs parents cette fois 😂

Tout a été merveilleux dans ces quelques jours, mais notre passage à Fraser Island restera sans aucun doute le Highlight de ces courtes vacances en Australie !

Quelques photos en attendant on espère une vidéo de ces 3 jours.

 

Le fameux Dingo, que l'on ne trouve que sur l'île de Fraser Island. Nous avons eu la chance d'en voir 5 ! Attention à ne pas trop s'approcher, les Dingos restent des animaux sauvages et imprévisibles. Nous avons également croisés, entre autres animaux exotiques: quelques poignées de kangourous, wallabies, possum, kookaburra, lézard transgéniques de plus de 1m de long et autres araignées géantes ...

Clarisse s'est aujourd'hui amusée des heures dans les vagues de la Sunshine Coast et Antone a surfé la vague pendant une bonne partie de l'après-midi. Tout le monde est bien cuit ce soir; le réveil est calé pour  4H40 demain matin pour l'avion direction Nouvelle-Zélande. 

Bonne nuit !

Surf session at Bondi Beach

One more sunny day here in Bondi Beach ! Time practice THE local sport for Antone and Clarisse:

We then went today to Manly Beach, on the other side of the bay. Antone had another exhausting surf session, while Clarisse played in the sand 😆

First stop: Sydney

First stop: Sydney ! This city is as magic as 18 years ago when we were there without Clarisse and Antone. We stay in Bondi Beach, the place to be when you are a nice, sun tanned, strong and talented surfer 😅

Without the jet-lag that still hurts and that keeps us awake in the middle of the night, it would be perfect ! 

Our journey to Sydney and first day here in a short video: