Bonjour a tous,

Bientot de retour , nous embarquons ce soir pour l Angleterre et ses verts paturages (grace a la pluie)...

Un sejour magnifique en Afrique du Sud avec un petit crochet par Zwasiland.Un temps splendide jusqu a Port Elizabeth puis des nuages et de la pluie en arrivant a Cape Town.

i think it s a jay but Rob was so unimpressed by it , i had to put the picture in...

Lions cute from a distance, and smelling very much like Ramses...

Les eclats du voyage bien sur es parcs a safari avec leurs animaux splendides mais aussi , les paysages du Zwaziland , la region du Blyde river Canion,

les gorges d' oribi, et Cape town qui ne cesse de me faire pense a Marseille.

a bientot , Rob et Virginie

Shark!!!

We made it back alive! At one point there were more than fifty sharks in the water with us, some like the white tip reef shark in this shot - she was only about a meter and a half away when I took this photo.

There were also tens of grey whalers that although not usually a worry to man, when they eat they put in some serious agro! They wip their heads from side to side in an absolute frenzy.

Most exciting was an oceanic silvertip that was about three and a half meters long and scary, swam into the rocky amplitheatre we were hiding in - looked at us and swam off... very cool.

There was also a hammerhead cruising about but sadly Virginie and I missed him - or may have seen her tail, but not the classic view of her head.

We had the most incredible trip. 14 dives in 4 days, more than 100 miles off the coast out in the Coral sea on offsprey reef.

Some of the most incredible, stunning reef diving in the world. Well we would say that but then everyone has gone on about the great barrier reef for years so we thought we had to see it for ourselves and if we were going to do it, might as well do it properly.

Apparently lots of the dive sites near Cairns are suffering from the amount of poor divers damaging the coral and the run off from the city etc, and as we came back down the coast you could really see the difference in the colour of the coral.

Anyway, we loved it!

Virginie on a sunrise dive

My love showing how calm she appears in the water, and how she prepares for the dive...

We don't want to bore you with putting thousands of fish photos so here are a few of the ones that we thought you might appreciate. (Yes, first I got the camera then we figured if we were doing this trip we might as well have the underwater housing to go with it...)

Fire flame shell - looks like it has an electric current running in its mouth, works as a lure for little fish, and next to it a scriveled box fish - just because it looks cute.

A lion fish and my love pretending to be one...

This would have been a good dinner!

Hope you are all still well and look forward to seeing you in September! Take care, Love Us

Hello everyone,

Oops i have lost track and i am not sure if i am to write in english or french...

So we are getting ready to fly to South Africa and after a brief look at the weather it does not seem that warm...

While in Perth we did a little trip to Rottness Island (rat nest island) , so called by a Dutch navigator , who on seeing the Quokkas (cute marsupials) assumed they were giant rats...

It is a lovely island with a mediterranean climate and quite a bit of wind famous for its Quokkas and its diving.

We decided to walk around the island and could feel our legs the next day , we could have rented bikes...most people were cycling along.

The Quokkas are really cute and seem to survive on little, there is very little fresh water , the mud from the lakes having been collected andsold letting salt water in...

The island and its salt lakes used to be the only supply of salt for Western Australia.

We also had lovely walks around Perth central and Northbridge looked at gorgeous opals learned quite a lot bout them for example that with white opals you have a better chance of it being solid and not a doublet or a triplet... .

Triplets are most of the time dark looking opals , with three layers one is a dark piece of material (to give more colours to the white opal) then a fine layer of awhite opal then a little cap of quartz or plastic.

Thanks to our new camera we can now show you a bit more of what we do , and after request daddy here is the cuddely koala.

Happy anniversary to my parents and my brother a bit late , we did think of you on the day though.

Kisses from us both

Rob and Virginie

Bonjour a tous

Bien, C'est le temp pour une autre addition de notre petit journal, et je suis desole pour la mauvaise grammaire et autographe, mais je ne suis pas tres bon en anglais non plus, mais ma belle est encore mon professeur et je suis encore en train d'apprenre le francais.

Nous sommes partis de Sydney et avons quitte le sein de la famille de Tom et Robyn( qui se sont si bien occupes de nous et nous ont aides avec les medecins et hopitaux) pour Brisbane en train, pour chercher le soleil, c'etait plus chaud mais pas trop. Nous sommes alles a Moreton Island, une grande ile de sable fin, ou nous avons fait du surf sur le sable, tres drole mais j'ai mange un peu trop de sable pour mon gout. Le dernier jour nous sommes montes une petite colline pour voir le phare - et quand on regardait l'ocean on a vu des baleines, tres tres cool. (J'ai pris une photo (plein mais une bonne photo) d' une baleine qui sautait, pas mal mais un peu long)

Apres Brisbane nous sommes alles a Noosa, une autre petite ville, tres mignonne, plus comme une ville dans le sud de la france. Nous avons fait une lecon de surf, difficile mais on a fait des progres! Ma belle a vu un vrai Koala sauvage!

Bien, maintenant, je vais passer le clavier a ma femme preferee - c'est plus rapide sans correction.

Apres Noosa nous avons pris le bus pour Airlie Beach, la joie des trajets en bus...Airlie beach , la porte ouvrant sur les Whitsundays islands et leurs plages magnifiques telle Withhaven Beach.

Nous avons passe deux jours a naviguer sur un tres beau yatch du nom de Siska,ex bateau de course.Et nous nous sommes armes de masques et tuba ainsi que de stinger suit popur notre premiere experience sur la grande barriere de corails, un plaisir meme si c etait un peu froid.

Un peu plus bronzes et un peu creves nous nous sommes diriges vers Townsville et Magnetic island, devant son nom au capitaine Cook dont la boussole ne fonctionnait plus aux abords de l ile.Magnetic Island , une jolie petite ile pas assez a l abris du vent a notre gout , mais entouree de recifs de corails.Nous apprecions la bronzette et le tuba , notre plan de location de canoe ayant echoue faute de vent.

Demain depart pour Cairn et d autres aventures,

Gros bisous

Rob et Virginie

Hello Again!

We have now arrived in Oz so a quick back track to let you know what we have been up to in the interim. Having left David and Claire with the family in Wellington we hopped on a ferry over to the south island where we jumped straight into the swing of things with some wine tasting at a number of the vineyards in the area - though I felt terrible having tiny sips and pouring away more wine than ever before, sometimes being the driver isn't so great. However we did find a number of wines that were very much to our taste and stocked up a little (check out the Villa Maria ones).

Heading down the coast we stopped in an area renowned for both whale and dolphin watching, it was however mighty cold so while the idea of swimming with dolphins really apealed, getting in the water didn't! So we went out in a small plane and did a bit of spotting from above and saw hundreds of dolphins playing about below us as well as two sperm whales.

We then headed west over the Lewis pass and up to Hamner Springs where we changed van as the lack of gas heater meant we woke up with ice on the inside of the windows and we didn't consider this to be part of our holiday plans. So we went for a walk around Conical Hill and then spent the afternoon soaking in the dozen pools of different temperatures. Lovely!

As many of you know I have had a bit of a dread of my 33rd Birthday as this signified the end of my tweenage years (hobbitlore, thanks Dougs) so VIrginie helped me see it out with a bang. We flew up in a small plane to look out over the Franz Joeseph and Fox Glacier and up to look at Mount Cook before jumping out for a skydive. An exhilerating ride and a great way to celebrate.

Milford Sound was stunning with beautiful views of Mitre Peak as well as the underwater observatory where we spent a happy hour peering out into the "deep water environment".

We made ourselves very happy when walking along a beach looking at petrified wood(Curio Bay) we stumbled accross a couple of rare yellow eyed penguins, pretty but their smell certainly left more than a little to be desired, my darling much prefered the tiny Blue Penguins that we met in Oamaru (the smallest penguins in the world up to 50 cm).

Our time in Indonesia was wonderful but the one other comfort that we missed was cheese, we managed to stop off in an award winning cheese factory `Whitestone Cheese Factory` and taste our way through almost their entire selection.

We then went to Christchurch to give the van back and spent the weekend at Louise and Robert Steel in Halswell with their two little girls, Sophie and Katie.

We went into town and had a look at the cathedral and other buildings before getting ready for flying to Australia.

Looking forward to hearing from you all kisses , Rob and Virginie

Bonjour Bonjour !



Comment allez vous tous?Nous pensons bien a ceux dans la Marne en Ecosse dans le Sud de la France et en Normandie et on vous fait a tous de gros bisous.



Nous voila a Wellington avec les Charmants David et Claire et leur bambins Eleanor et Alexandre, David etant le frere de Ruth (la femme de Phil) alors je vous ai deja perdu....



Petit recapitulatif, un tour a Auckland ou nous avons recupere un camping car avec douche(pas encore utilisee imaginez l odeur) et toilettes.Tres civilise, j ai eu de la chance le petit sans toilettes sans lit de taille confortable avec cuisine a l exterieur n etait plus en stock, quel dommage!



En attendant je passe mes nuit sur un petit triangle de matelas, mon homme sous pretexte d etre trop grand declare qu il doit dormir en diagonale dans le lit et au cours de la nuit se rapproche de moi pour la chaleur bien sur et je finis sur un miserable triangle scotchee au mur froid du van... La vie est dure...



Aucland puis hot water Beach ou l on peut se prendre pour un enfant de dix ans et gratter le sable mouille pour decouvrir l eau bouillante et se faire un spa sur mesure...Les futes ont des pelles pour eviter de se bruler les mains... (et les genous, mais pas trop mal)

Puis nous nous sommes diriges vers whakatane prononce fakatane , en anglais ca a une sonorite interressante...On voulait visiter un volcan en activite White Island mais le temps ne nous la pas permis pour notre anniversaire de mariage... a la place direction Rotorua ou on a fait du Zorbing ...une bulle dans laquelle vous vous retrouver projeter en bas d une montagne. Pour se remettre de nos emotions un dinner tres civilise avec du vrai vin non pas une mixture indonesienne bizarre.Nous avons descendu la Kaitiaki river en water rafting , frais mais super et pour se relaxer de tant d efforts avons fini a Hells Gate, une ballade autour de paysages fumants et bouillonants puis dans des bains de boue et de sulfure... ok a la fin on sentait un peu bizarre...mais tres relax.

En suite Waitomo caves superbes paysages la aussi mais dans la foret entre les ruisseaux cascades et grottes.Nous en avons profiter pour faire de la descente en rappel , de l escalade , du black water rafting , du tubing et du squeezing... tout un programme la cerise sur le gateau etant les vers luisants parsemant , non recouvrant la voute des grottes impressionant et assez magique malgres le froid.

Suivi par le tongariro crossing celebre marche entre les montagnes mais la aussi nous avons du nous contenter d une petite ballade , les conditions meteorologiques ne nous en permettant guere plus.Nous avons fini la journee dans un cinema chaud et douillet et avons regarder spiderman 3, pas mal du tout.(1ere fois dans un cinema depuis un an ...)

Et Wellington voila la boucle et bouclee.

Nous avons passe de super moments , a se relaxer avec cette chaleureuse famille et a promener les petits chiens .Et nous en avons profiter pour voir le match France All Blacks , quelle debacle...Puis le 10 juin au matin apres un petit dejeuner familial nous avons pris le ferry pour L'ile du Sud.

Gros bisous Rob et Virginie

Hello Everyone!

News, yes... news from us!
We have just left Indonesia and are at the moment in transit in the beautiful airport of Sydney heading for New Zealand .
So we left our little island but still enjoyed some diving in Flores , where we saw Manta Raies , absolutely amazing gorgeous and Massive...

We also did some wreck diving in Amed north East of Bali which was fun even if the 'village 'of Amed was not much in itself .We then went to Ubud center of bAli with very pretty architecture where we did a bit , just a bit of culture and saw the traditionnal Lekong And Barong Dances.All Fun...We took advantage of the bit of rain we had and went white water rafting in the north east of Ubud, we ended up with three scared french girls and no i was not one of them...

Just a little picture of us with Nat and Olivier at our favourite cantine "chez Ibu' on Trawangan.We soent a lovely week working and being silly with these two love birds.And it s all happyness.

We then went back to Sanur where we had started our trip for a bit of relaxing close by to the airport, so stressless and had a gorgeous day lounging by the pool.

More news when we are settled somewhere.

Kisses to all Rob and Virginie