Just an update

The summer is here and Queensland is getting warm. Kieran knows the way to the pool and everyday walks to the gate and yells 'Dah-Dah' while hopefully looking at us. The pool is just the right temperature so we decide to take a swim after a round of tennis. Yrjan sent us some water wings, but Kieran will not give us a smile while waring them. (Will get you those pics, I promiss!).

The race that stops the nation

In your average country a statutory holiday, Christmas or other significant National events have a serious connotation. In Australia, they’ve come up with a race; a horse race to be exact.

I you’re not from Australia it’s impossible to imagine why In Victoria a horse race could be a 4 day event and the rest nation comes to a grinding hold just for a few minutes. Drinking is required and indeed mandatory before, during and after the race. It’s a heavy 3200 meter race and there aren’t many people who aren’t rolled into a betting pool, syndicate or office sweep.

This year I am betting on Tokai Trick, with a 1 to 96 ratio, not a good horse but I could walk away with 500 dollars. And of course  I lose a full 5 dollars and recommend to have the horse recommended for shish kebab.

Just a couple of pics

Enjoy the warmth

RiverFire. Brisbane Fireworks

Some of the beautiful hidden places up north

Cheeky kookaburra 

Beauty down south

Billabong Snow Master

Like all the French people, Emma was born being able to ski before she could walk. You will not believe this, but there are some pretty decent skiing grounds here in Australia and I'm not talking about the discarded lump of rock down south they call Tasmania.
My Wife flew down with the 0600 flight to Canberra ACT just for a weekend of skiing. Awesome snow, friendly people and some good gear is all she needs to carve some excellent paths down the hills.

Kieran first year (and a bit)

The little bundle of joy that sleeps, yawns and smiles has morphed into a hyperactive mini-rhinoceros with monkey traits. Recently, Kieran’s new mission in life is to climb anything higher than him. This usually triggers a primordial reaction where mum and dad explain patiently to the child that it is dangerous. We’ve given up on this as this mild reprimand is usually met with vicious yelping and –Kieran’s specialty- head banging against the floor to demonstrate his disagreement.

I have to review my conviction that parents have any influence on the child’s development. Basically we’re here for the ride, till the kid is old enough to leave the house. But that’s okay... 

The weather curse

I am well known for my disposition to bring unwanted weather wherever I go. A few examples would be:
Kite surfing? When I show up the kites fall from the sky with no wind at all, or the wind is a full hurricane force 11. My kite surfing mates have often said "bad weather Bassie".
Namibia desert? If I wander into a desert where it just doesn't rain... ever... guess what happens when I show up?

This weekend I decided to organise a very special weekend for my very special wife. Completely lost in enthusiasm I forgot all about my curse and organised the most weather sensitive activities you could imagine. A private Champagne Balloon flight over Byron Bay and go and see the dolphins up close or dive at Julian Rock.
Well, with gale forecasts and 200mm rails predicted, this of course was cancelled swiftly.
I had reserved the very best table at the very best restaurant in Byron bay, which turned out to be the very worst seat in these weather conditions. I am fortunate to have a wife who sees the bright side of life and we had a good laugh.

Just another day in Sydney

Yep I'm in Sydney again.
I've been pretty much commuting weekly in the past 10 weeks. I come here so often I almost forgot what a fantastic city it is. Sydney scores very high on the best city list consistently and it's clear why. When the planes flies over the city, make sure you get a window seat on the left side of the plane: you'll see the incredible lay-out of the city.
The weather here is nice this time of the year. Tourists wear thongs, t-shirts and shorts while the Locals have a sweater or a light jacket.
Today I am out for a steak. I am carnivore without shame and there aren't many animals I haven't eaten. Today it will be cow. I can chose between a thousand different cuisines, ranging from japanese+french fusion to Lebanese and from Chichuan to pub-food. The streets are full of every type of person from every corner of the earth and there's music from every pub.

Yep, I really like Sydney.

Tongan Politics

Tonga has very rich fishing grounds that the likes of Japan and China would love to get their hands on. We all know that if fishing rights are assigned to either country, Tongan waters will be pillaged within a few short years. Japan tries a friendly way: providing Tonga with 50 million dollars of financial aid yearly. Japan and Tonga have no cultural or historical ties so this funding must have a purpose.

China however has a very different approach.

The Chinese government funds poor Chinese students to open shops all over the islands. The Chinese cheat import taxes by fudging the invoice numbers, and then sell waaay below normal prices. It is no wonder that the Chinese have taken over all but a very few shops in a very, very short time. Now they are moving into more advanced parts of the economy: infrastructure, hospitality, building and even agriculture. There is no doubt in my mind this is a coordinated and very well executed effort aimed at gaining enough leverage to force the Tongan government to release the fishing grounds or other assets.

The fact that Tongan politicians are corrupt and the upper-class called "the nobles" are very busy filling their own pockets doesn't help. For example Sea cucumber fishing rights can't be sold to foreigners by the state, so they are given to the Nobles who then sell them for about 150K to the Chinese. The Chinese waste no time sending in their Sea cucumber fishers or delegate the task to locals. The Government gets zero dollars for this and Tonga loses.

I spoke with someone from the World Bank, a representative for UN cultural research, a local self made man and a few small business owners. And one theme resonated between them: this government is in dire need of some good political consultants who must help getting Tonga back on track.

It is unfortunate that the King of Tonga has a deep liking for alcohol. So much so, that it inhibits his ability to adequately govern the country. The King will relinquish his absolute power next year to the government but the damage is irreparable. Corruption has taken hold of the island under the sun. For example most of the 24 million Euros made available by the European Union for infrastructure works have disappeared. The remaining dollars are paid to a Chinese company who has flown in their own people and construction tools. So no-one gains anything from the investment but a few fat-cats.

I'll put my money on social pressures mounting and an explosion of violence like we saw in 2002 where half the city centre was burned down.

The Tale of Emmanuelle and the baby whale

While speeding from Island to island in our speedboat we see another boat close to a couple of whales. We wait until the boat leaves and come closer.

It is a Female and her baby. As we had learned we slowly approach them until the whales are accustomed to us. We can see the baby drinking milk, so we know they’re at ease.
I tell Emma that this is the chance of a lifetime. I have to pilot the boat, but someone has got to go and swim with the little fella. Emma hesitates one second, after all it's getting dark and swimming all alone in the ocean at dusk is not highly recommended, but then jumps in! (edit: it seems that a tourist from Denmark got bitten by a shark just last week while swimming in Tonga with the Whales).

What happened next was amazing: the baby whale stayed away just far enough so that Emma couldn't it underwater and then turned straight at Emma. Circled Emma a bit as if to say hello, I'm a whale, what are you?
The whale is tiny, no longer than 3 meters. It must be brand new, a few days old maybe. Emma kept circling and looking at it for a while; she even took some awesome pictures.
Mum was never far away and kept a very close eye on me and on Emma but allowed the interaction.
Back on the boat Emma was shaking with emotion, I could see she was touched by the encounter. The fact that such a magnificent beast allows its young to observe, interact and explore is just out of this world.

A day out and about

How good is this? Own motorboat, 80 or so islands to explore and 2 days to do it. And we have a babysitter for Kieran too. (18AUD for 13 hours of babysitting) The weather is absolutely perfect, we've got cold beers, a full tank. Just look at the surface of the water. In the early morning we blast to the outer reef.

Most of the islands here are uninhabited; we find our own and swim to the beach. We see coconuts with big holes in them; the coconut crabs have been working hard last night. The beach is stunning, more beautiful than you'd see on postcards.

We swim into the mariners cave, a cave that is only accessible by an underwater passage. When a big wave pushes the water in the opening and thus heightens the pressure inside the cave, the air becomes thick with condensation. Instant Mist!

We do a bit of trolling. I did get a bite from something but my 25 pound line didn't stand a chance. Zzzzzzzz, plink! gone. :o(. Judging by the power, I reckon it was something that weighed more than 100kgs.

Tonga ultimate whale swim

I am still in awe and a bit humbled by what happened to Emmanuelle and me. We have lived something very unique that very, very few people get to live. So read this because it is incredible!

On the second day of whale swimming we find 3 whales (a mother, an adolescent calf and a male escort). I had instructed Wolfgang, our guide, not to speed to them as he had done the previous day, but to approach them discretely and let them get used to us. A few minutes later the whales are all around our small boat. Just to get an idea, this is a 5 meter boat with a single, very old and clunky mercury outboard motor and we are 3 miles out to sea surrounded by 16 meter whales (Radio? Emergency flares? Floating devices? EEPIRB? nah, we've got a mobile phone to call for help).

I slide in the water to avoid a splash as the whales do not like that and Emmanuelle follows immediately. What happened next is really incredible. The 3 whales played with us for more than 2 hours. They kept circling us, swimming to the deep and then straight at us. When Emma swam down with her arms wide like an airplane and doing a full twist, we saw the whales doing the same: THEY WERE IMMITATING US! When I reached out my arm -as if they were flippers- one whale did the same and came closer and closer with a flipper extended at me. My heart said: Yes, my body said: no and I missed the touch by 20 cms. I swam down and one whale turned on its back and swam up to me, it got really close: maybe 3 meters away.

Okay, reality check:

• Too far on the Ocean to see any land.
• Pretty big 2 meter swell
• Nearest Island is the Shark Callers Island Eu'iki, well known for its... sharks.
• Nearest ground: about 250 meters below us.
• The only thing floating is a dodgy old boat driven by a man we've just met.
• Below are three 16 meters long, 40 tons weighing animals that just want to play with you.

Emma and I rip off our masks and give each other a big hug! This is a-maz-ing. We utter words like 'holy shit', 'incroyable', 'I don't believe it', 'DID YOU SEE THAT', 'They're still here'!

This hug takes far too long for the whales and they soon circle us at the surface and playfully splash us with their tails and fins. We take the hint and start playing again: spinning, diving, making noises, dodging flippers and tails. After an hour and a half, the whales are so enthusiastic and accustomed to us that we really had to watch out, they are coming too close and it seems they aim at touching us (not recommended without a thick wetsuit because of the barnacles). Emma and I decide to take a break.

Back on the boat, our German friend yells out: 'Ziz iz incretipel, I hef nefer efen heurt of ziz befor'. The whales insist they want to keep playing and I say to Wolfgang: 'Mate, I've got a boating license, just jump in and have a swim'. It took me 1s to convince him and soon he and Emma are swimming with them. Wolfgang got touched by a tail and said it was very gentle.

The 3 whales decide to give Emma and Wolfgang a bit of a scare and dive deep. They come straight up as a tight group directly under Emma and Wolfgang who now have nowhere to go. At the very last second the three whales turn sharply each their own way at the surface and very narrowly 'miss' Wolfgang and Emma. This HAS GOT to be coordinated; these whales knew exactly what they were doing! Turns out whales have a sense of humour as well, scaring tiny, puny swimmers and having a good chuckle afterwards.

I decide to jump in for another half an hour and have the time of my life. One tail slap misses me by no more than 10 cms. Although playfully intended, that one might have hurt. I keep diving down and twisting and all three whales turn their white bellies toward me with their fins aimed upward as if to say: come on then; give us a hug. Once we decided to leave, it was clear that the whales were not done playing just yet and gave us a display of spy-hopping, tail slapping and pectoral fin splashing.

All we can say is: WHOA!

 

Big day in Eua

Eua (say: Aywah) is the forgotten island of Tonga. We had flown there the previous day with the shortest scheduled flight in the world: 6 minutes. It is visited by only a few hundred tourists yearly and there is only one backpacker resort. Pigs roam free, much of the island has no road, and everything is done manually: Your basic untouched pacific paradise.

The dive is tricky, not for amateurs by any measure. The entry is key to a successful dive: there is a great current that sweeps along so you have to sink quickly. Once down, you need to grab on to the rocks and use the swell currents to advance to the entry of the cave at 18 meters depth.
While battling the currents and thrusting ourselves into the cave I remember that we are 6 hours away (at best) from any medical help. Emmanuelle hasn't got enough weight so she is given a rock to carry around, not great if you're doing a cave dive.

The cave is huge and its beauty is stunning. We have at least 50 meter vision, better than a clean swimming pool. There are 3 holes in the ceiling providing enough light and we can see big waves crashing through them. There is no way you'd be able to get a gasp of air through these holes; you'd be shredded by the sharp lava rocks before surfacing. The Cave, called 'The Cathedral', is very pretty and elegant. The light is intriguing and it feels like floating on air traversing the cave rooms.

While exiting, a few large Napoleon fish await us, but we have no time to admire them: the current has got us! The trick is to let yourself be swept by the current look for the anchor rope of the ship which should be about 200 meters away, swim to it and grab it. The current is strong and we look like clothes on a line in a hurricane. I come up with only 25 bars left and Emma even less. As said: this is not a dive for beginners.
After this very exclusive dive, we decide to go and see our first whales. The technique is simple: find whales, jump in the water and watch them swim by. If you are lucky they'll come close. We are not disappointed. 2 whales come close, but are in no mood to play. Watch the movie: you'll see the whale dealing me big tail-slash: the bubbles went down more than 15 meters and as you can see I got washed by the turbulence. Really scary! We respect this obvious "Back-Off!" sign and find new whales.

Once found, I jump in again with Emmanuelle, and we basically jump in on top of her (a very large female). Wow, what a great experience! They are huge, powerful and very agile. I'd been told you have to dive down more than 5 meters to hear the whale songs, and indeed when I dive toward it can hear many signing. Once you tune your ear to the sound you can hear it's actually pretty powerful. We swam with the whales many times, but we decide there and then to go again tomorrow.

Holiday time, off to Tonga

We're off to Tonga! Emmanuelle has prepared a very intensive holiday comprising a total of 7 flights, 5 different resorts/hotels, diving, snorkelling, boating, driving, visiting and participating. Tonga is the most southern group of Polynesian islands in the Pacific (about the same height as Cairns) and stretches hundreds of miles from north to south. The temperature is 25C day and night.
We'll be visiting the Southern group (Tongatapu and Eua) and the northern group (Vava'u archipelago).
We need 3 flights to get where we're going first: Eua.

World map

Southern group (Tongatapu and Eua)

 
Northern Group (Vava'u)