Hi!

In first we’ld like to wish to my mother a happy birthday (Ivan’s mum)! And for all A MERRY MERRY MERRY MERRY CRISTMAS.
Hope everything is fine for all our readers.

During the last 2 weeks we travelled from Hasting to Whakatane “again” by the East Cape. During the trip we made a break at Gisborne for a lot of amazing moments, many thanks to Don, Cheryl, Rhian, Bethen & Rosie the dog. After 4 days all around Giborne (cinema, party, BBQ, Ukulele concert…) we decided to take the road for the East Cape (under the rain!!! Bugger the weather!). Afer the 874 steps of the longest wharf of NZ, and the 500 steps for climb to the East Cape’s light house. It just start to be sunny on Friday 21, so snorkelling just before a PAUA (ormeau) lunch on the beach. Now it’s time for us to find a beautiful place for our X MAS party with Odell & Trevor, perhaps some trout for the bbq! Just after XMAS we’ll walk the Tongario crossing and for the New Year we’ll be on the Whanganui river for the equivalent of a great walk but on canoe for a 5 days trip.

Pour les Anglais qui veulent apprendre le français et les Français qui ne veulent pas lire l’anglais:

Salut,

Tout d’abord nous voudrions souhaiter a tout le monde un Joyeux Noël. Et joyeux anniversaire mamam (maman Ivan).
On espère que tout va bien pour nos lecteurs.

Ces 2 dernières semaines nous avons reliés Hasting à Whakatane en passant par le East Cape. Après une pose de 4 jours a Gisborne chez Don & Cheryl on a decidés de quitter Poverty Bay pour le cap est de l’île du nord. Malheureusement le temps n’était pas top (seulement 2 jours de pluie). Un arrêt pour les 874 pas du plus long quai de NZ et un autre pour monter les 500 marches du phare du cap. Lorsque que le soleil a pointé son nez on s’est mis a l’eau histoire de changer, ce qui nous a permis de déguster de succulents ormeaux sur la plage. Nous rejoignons Odell et Trevor pour noël histoire d’aller pêcher la truite. Nous alons enchaîner après noël sur la traverser du Mont tangario (2 jours de marches) puis passer le nouvel an sur la rivière Whanganui pour une rando de 5 jours en Canoë.

So we hope Santa will be generous with all of you, Gros bisous and merry Christmas from New Zealand, I & K.

Hi,

We just come back from 2 wonderful trips, the first one at Te Awa camp, in the middle of no where, for a trout fishing experience. And the second from a dive at White Island.

We found in a fishing & hunting shop a map of Te Awa Camp and after talking with the boss we decided to go over there for a first real NZ trout fishing experience. We arrived (after 200 km included 90 km of gravel road) nearly 16H00 at Te Awa. 3 hours latter and with 6 different fly in trees I caught my first NZ trout, a brown of 60 cm & about 1,7 kg… Of course after the picture I put it back in the Rangitaiki River. It’s not very easy to cook a trout in a van and sleep inside after… After 3 days, some good trout fights and a lot of great meeting, like Odell & Trevor, a couple from Whakatane were we stay a couple of night for a lot of good moments, talking about trout fishing all around the country with a glass of kiwi wine, watch there trout fishing video, made some amazing fly and try to know the best spot… Thank you so much again. It was time to go for a dive on the famous spot of White Island.

White Island is the most active volcano of New Zealand, at 50 km offshore from Whakatane. It was amazing, so blue, so big, so beautiful and simply breathtaking. 2 dives: the first one at LAISON REEF & the second at HOMESTEAD. We saw a lot of new species, king fish, blue/pink Maomao, my first wild shark just before jump in the water and the second one after 5 minutes underwater!!! (Thank you so much Lawrie, Tony, Louise…). Now we are after Taupo and we keep going… See you, I & K. (like we use to say every time, sorry for mistakes…)

PS: the winner of the December competition is Fabrizio, congratulations!!! But, kate had already eaten all the kiwis, sorry…