Hometime!

What a long day today!  We checked out of our apartment and were at the hotel b y 7am to meet the kids.  As predicted, they were so hyped up about being together, swimming and shopping all day!

That's pretty much all we did during the day. Lots of lovely goodies coming your way tomorrow!

             

The farewell was great and very emotional for some to say goodbye. They were all such lovely families who tried so hard to give our kids the best possible experience they could have.
Taine spoke on behalf of the boys, saying how much the boys appreciated all that was done for them and then Jazmine stepped up and spoke on behalf of the girls!  They both spoke really well and we were very proud of them.

                                                Jazmine thanking the families

                                                    Taine doing the same

We said goodbye to Taine and Deanna and left them with their new families.  Bill and I met both of them and spoke at length with them.  Taine will probably hate his extra time in Noumea. He's going to a large house with a pool and a boat!  Deanna was worried when she heard she was going to a family who live in 'the barracks'!  She thought it was a type of prison because her host father is in the gendarmerie - the french police. Vero and I took Deanna around there on Saturday to see for herself that it wasn't a prison, although you had to drive through gates and past the sentry box!  Her family are excited to have her and are takig her over to another island in their big boat next weekend and best of all, they're taking her horseriding. She's looking forward to that.

                                                                        Goodbyes

The longstayers

It's 11pm so am off to bed with the alarm set for 3.45am!  Yuk!

We land at 11.35am tomorrow morning and aim to be home at 4.30pm.

See you all then!

Colleen

Sleepin, Sunshine and Swims

Yep, you've got it! Another blue sky, hot day today. It did cloud over a bit at about 4pm so there has been some respite.

I slept in until 8am this morning as there was nothing planned and it was blissful to catch up on a bit.

We've had a lazy day going to the markets, eating some lunch by the water and just reading and snoozing this afternoon.

                                           The beach this morning  at Baie des Citrons

   The Underwater Club getting ready for a scuba dive this morning - young kids included

       The air was pungent with the smell of all these olives at the markets this morning - Yumm!

 We ate this last night at Veronique's house, a local specialty apparently-  Manioc

Baie des Citrons this afternoon. Spot the locals! They were the ones in sweatshirts and long pants just enjoying some 'people watching'!

We had a lovely evening at Vero's house last night - there were 13 of us. She had invited the teachers that I had started the exchange with and friends we have made over the years. We celebrated our 10th visit to Jean Mariotti.

The table was set with hibiscus flowers down the centre and we were served signature dishes from the french islands in the Pacific.  I am an absolute 'Foodie' so I must share all of this with you!

We began with an entree of Poisson Cru, a real favourite of mine, which is raw fish marinated in lime juice. Also known as Tahitian salad. Along with that we had the three types of fish Bill had caught that afternoon.  These also were raw - very finely sliced fillets that had been marinated in lemon juice, lemongrass, roasted sesame seeds and a little oil. It was delicious! There was also quiche to have and pieces of goat's cheese drizzled with honey and wrapped up in filo triangles and baked! Divine!

                                                                   Raw fish slices

Poisson cru. The photo doesn't do it justice. Trust me, you must try it if you get the opportunity!

For the main course, we had Yams from the island of Mare sliced and cooked in red wine, deep fried slices of Manioc, rice and slow roasted pork.  As an accompaniment to the pork we had cooked bananas. These are green when bought and can only be eaten cooked. They are very sweet. All very tasty!

The next course was a lettuce salad (and this is always only lettuce - not with all the things we add to a lettuce salad). It had a mustard dressing mixed through it and to go with that you cut off pieces from a wide variety of cheeses! Yumm!

Dessert was next and it was the most beautiful chocolate cake made by Monsieur Morand - the owner of the chocolate factory we visited.  It had a chocolate mousse filling but running through the middle of that was a line of passionfruit gel - unbelievably scrumptious!

The wines to accompany each course were chosen to enhance your taste buds and help savour the flavours of what you were eating! The french do this so well.

Well, it will be an early night tonight. We need to be all packed up and out of here ready to meet the kids at 7am at the Nouvata Parc Hotel.

  I know they are so excited for this part of the trip!  We have our Farewell Party with all the billets and their families at 5.30pm at the school, so it will be a long day.

Au revoir and only one more blog before most of  you get your babies home!

Cheers

Colleen

Fishing, Markets and more Sunshine!

I drove in to the markets and had a good look around this morning. I think any of the markets in the Pacific island countries are so vibrant and colourful and I love wandering around them. I saw Lydia and Amy there all smiles. They were on their way to the fish department and then were going to shop around the many stalls.

                                               A baby hammock complete with mozzy net!

                                                                    Yams

Bill arrived home a while ago,very tired but satisfied after a successful day's fishing.  

Yep, this fishing trip will be added to the many fishing tales he likes to share with anyone who will listen! Be prepared............

The day is now drawing to a close. The road all along Anse Vata beach is to be closed tomorrow and only open to kids on bikes and scooters - a family day apparently, so that should be fun. I'm sure we will see some more of the kids there.

Au revoir everyone and 'Go the All Blacks!'  Bill doesn't know it yet but I don't think they will have the game on where we are going for dinner tonight - not looking forward to his reaction!

Belated Day 6 Pics

                                              Camille with her billet and a friend

                                            Lining up to come up to the Canteen for lunch

The Canteen

                                                                      Dishing up

                                                                    Happy smiles

                                                            The Morand Chocolate Factory

                          Monsieur Morand - supposedly the best chocolatier in New Caledonia!

                                              Watching intently............... very seriously!

Staff preparing delicacies

                                                                             Voila!

                                                            Amazing little pieces of art!

                                                                      Macarons

                                                                             Le chocolat

        Queueing up to be served. Don't  hold your breath until you get a sample!  It'll probably be all gone by the time we come home! Good intentions though!

                                                          Le Tchou Tchou Train

                                                            Our ride around the city

View over Noumea with St Joseph's Cathedral in the foreground - built by the convicts.

This is the site where the Guillotine stood in the 1800s - bought out from France to deal with the baddies!

Examples of early settler houses

 These little cars are fairly common here now. They are for Learner drivers and only have two seats. They have small scooter motors in them and can only do 60km at the most. We were told they are made of plastic but that must be a translation error!

                        A cannon was mounted here during the war but was never actually needed.

 Baz had a birthday and was presented with a big birthday cake at our dinner at Madame Lisnic's house.

The Principal of Jean Mariotti College