Free surf lesson by Clarisse

If you don't know how to surf, watch out this free lesson from Clarisse who will explain you the basics of this sport. Do not forget to hang the Shaka sign once you stand on the board 😎

USA, Los Angeles and the camper

Here we are: after 2 months spent in the Pacific, we finally landed in the USA at Los Angeles. This city is HUGE ! Some 18 Millions people leave here, 3 times as much as the little Switzerland 😳 .

After a day spent in Santa Monica and another one visiting our friends Harry Potter and the Minions at Universal Studios Hollywood, 

we have picked-up our new home for the next 2,5 months !

We let you guess what the first stop was (where would you go when you settle down in a new house) ? Tip: the shops are blue and yellow ! 😆


We learned a few weeks ago that the French TV how was supposed to shot a couple of days with us will finally not come over as they have changed their plans and needed to film earlier than what we had in our plans.

Now, off we are in San Diego already, trying to find our way with this huge vehicle !

Hawaii, we'll come back !

This was our first time in Hawaii for all of us. We've heard pros and cons about this archipel and didn't really know what to expect. After two weeks spent here, we all agreed that we'll do our best to come back as we loved it.

Hawaii has a very interesting culture and history, nice sceneries inland, perfect weather (not too hot !), hips of entertainment possibilities, and ... lots of surf spots !

Clarisse enjoyed Hawaii although she found the Big Island a bit too hazardous for her: Hilo is the city that claims to be the world's most exposed to Tsunamis, there are volcanos all around the island, and we almost spent a night in the car far from civilisation due to fuel shortage 😦

We also had great time the last 2 days of our Hawaiian stay at Kona. Kona is producing one of the best coffee worldwide and is very peaceful, perfect for chilling holidays.

These are photos from a Kona Coffee farm that we visited.

At last, all these exciting experiences are explained in a new video with the same main actors as usual:

Bye bye Polynesia

After more than a month spent in Polynesia, it is time for us to leave these beautiful archipels and head towards USA, full of nice memories. 

We take this opportunity to share with you a short video of incredible Polynesian performers, you should not miss this ! Included in the video is also a tour of a typical Polynesian pension:

Antone's surf sessions at Waikiki beach

It's being almost 2 weeks that we are enjoying Hawaii. There's so much to do up here that we did not find time to post news on the blog 😱

However, Antone took the time to cut a short video of himself surfing at Waikiki beach :

School while travelling

If you thought we are only having fun during our 4 months trip, you're mistaken ! Clarisse and Antone are working hard to get as much as they can from this experience. So far, they have learned:

• how to make coconut milk 
• how to drive a 4WD on a beach
• the geology in areas hosting active volcanoes
• the fauna with wild animals met inland or in the ocean
• the history with the commemoration of the Pearl Harbor attack
• how to better speak English 
• and much more !

In addition to this, they also work 6 days a week for approximately one hour, trying to follow their math and German program.

All this explained in details in a short video:

Waikiki beach (Hawaii), the origins of surf

Here is the summary of our epic transfer from French Polynesia to Hawaii:

• Saturday evening, 9 PM: The girl at the checkin informs us that Clarisse is not allowed to fly to Hawaii as her ESTA (US Visa) is not valid anymore 
• 9:10 PM: We connect to the airport WiFi and request a new ESTA to the US government (can take up to 3 days to get the answer)
• 10:00 PM: the ESTA is approved, Clarisse is allowed to board with us 😀
• 11:00 PM: take off
• Next day, 05:30 AM: we land at Honolulu after a short night
• 7:30 AM: we are on the surf boards at Waikiki beach, where the surf is said to be born back in the early 20th century 🤘

Rangiroa, last stop in French Polynesia

Rangiroa is the largest atoll of French Polynesia, it is 75 km wide but the village is only 12 Km long (for 500 m wide). It is an atoll, meaning that there is no mountain, no fresh water, no soil (and hence nothing else that coconut growing on the island ...) and if you want to escape from it, you have to be a good swimmer ! 

This place is like paradise, as long as you dive ! Non-divers might find this place a bit boring as there is no much to do if you are not a diver. However, the dives of the Rangiroa Pass are worldwide famous and are simply amazing ! We have never seen so many big specimens and such a deep blue underwater that down there.

Rangiroa was also our last stop in French Polynesia and we take this opportunity to step back and provide our impressions about this archipel (text from the kids mainly):

What we loved in French Polynesia:

• Diving in deep blue water and swimming in turquoise water,
• It was cool in the pensions with Cats and Polynesian people,
• Polynesian people are all absolutely lovely, always ready to help and always smiling,
• Swimming or snorkelling in the lagon,
• Being in such a nice scenery is magic,
• Living on a Polynesian tempo,

What we disliked:

• The broken GoPro and the Twizy car
• There was a lot of wild dogs everywhere !
• I didn't like that I couldn't swim with the dolphins. (Clarisse)

What we were really not expecting:

• That we could see Dolphins and so many sharks
• We were expecting large beaches and deep water but found only a few of them
• I didn't know that there are black beaches
• The geology and history of the archipel; we didn't know much before travelling there and this is fascinating.

To complete this post, the video of our stay at Rangiroa 😊:

Antone's kitesurfing session at Tahiti

Yesterday, while passing by the Hitimahana beach on Tahiti Island, we stopped by to let Antone realise one of his "must do": kitesurfing the Polynesian lagoon 😀

Here is the short video of this session (cut by Antone !)

Bora Bora, the video

It took us a few days to cut the video of our stay at Bora Bora but here it is finally, fresh from the press:

For the reason explained in the previous post, there are unfortunately no pictures or videos or us meeting the sharks and eagle rays, we'll have to keep this for us only 😁

GoPro is dead :-(

We have to bring a bad news with this post 😭 Our dear old GoPro has passed away last week ! 

I went for a scuba dive in Bora Bora and realised when I was a couple of meters under water that I wrongly let the "non-waterproof" cover on it ... 

After a night spent in a bowl of rice and an intense 2 hours surgery, I was unfortunately not able to bring it back to live.






That means less videos until we find shops dealing with such items (most probably in Hawaï)

Let's let its soul go in peace 😎

Bora Bora, the pearl of the Pacific

Today is one more transfer day. After 6 days spent at Bora Bora, we're heading towards Rangiroa, the biggest atoll of French Polynesia, some 1 hour flight from here.

No big surprise regarding Bora Bora: we were expecting it to be very nice and it is indeed very nice ! The massive 4/5 stars hotels industry on this Island has unfortunately taken away part of its authenticity, you have to be patient to meet the locals ...

However, we found some times to visit the Islands and some of its motus in various ways: snorkelling,  hiking, Twizy car renting,   Boat renting, and even more  !

 

We also went for one "family dive" and Antone did two additional dives to reach his PADI Level 1, that now allows him to dive as deep as 20 meters. Below is the video of Antone's dives, shot and cut by Antone himself 😀

I'll see Eagle rays, Lemon sharks, Black Tail sharks and many corals :