49th Stop - Glow worm caves in Waitomo, New Zealand

 Atma and I left Steve’s place on Thursday, rented a car, picked up Joyce at the airport and headed south for Waitomo.

Right before leaving the Gold Coast, one of Michael’s friends recommended that I definitely go to the glow worm caves down in Waitomo. More importantly, he recommended the 5-hour black river abyss tour which consisted of one of the world’s longest abseils, a zip line descent into pitch black caves with no end in sight and glow worms on the ceiling that made you feel like you were entering into hyper drive, tube rafting in the caves, climbing up waterfalls and more. A truly unique adventure!

Afterwards, Joyce, Atma, and I went to Craig’s place (no relation whatsoever to his list) for dinner. Craig was hosting Atma and owns a cattle and sheep ranch with 1000s of acres of land and even more livestock. Atma made a delicious ziti dish, Joyce a caprese salad and I was in charge of roasting a leg of lamb.

Thanks Craig for having us over and showing us your ranch; what a beautiful sunset! Thanks to Joyce, Atma, and the other members of our caving group; I’ll never forget this adventure!

Next stops: Taupo and Rotorua!

48th Stop - Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Beach a short walk from Steve's place

Did it again! Not paying attention when buying tickets gets you in at around 1 am in the morning. Steve from Waiheke Island was going to host me but I needed to get a place for the night. Auckland’s airport is great if you show up without making reservations anywhere: they’ve got phones to all the backpackers places, just pick a number and dial!

The next morning, I got on the ferry to Waiheke Island. Little did I realize I would be staying on a beautiful paradise outside of Auckland; a cross between Martha’s Vineyard and Provence with wineries, pristine beaches, lush curious flora and laid back locals.

Steve and Atma, an Italian couchsurfer Steve was hosting at the same time, picked me up and we wasted little time: to the beach! And by beach I mean nude beach (sorry, no pictures, unless you’re a really close friend ;-).

The next few days were really chill: beach, biking around the vineyards, wine tastings, home-cooked meal and gastropub dining. Atma even taught me some yoga postures! One night, we went to a community movie house, with couches instead of seats, to see Eat, Pray, Love. This reminded me a lot of my trip, except my mouth isn’t as big as Julia Roberts. I got her beat with the nose though!

Atma enjoying her vegetarian fare

Date of picture: November 30, 2010

Wicked flora

Casita Miro

Gastrowinery lunch with Steve and Atma

View from Steve's terrace

Overlooking the nude beach

We had some great conversations and I learned a lot about the clothing business, property transactions, and yoga. I also learned from Atma that you can use avocado as a butter substitute. It is delicious on toast with thinly sliced tomatoes, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. All in all, a fabulous time on Waiheke Island with Steve and Atma. Thanks again to both of you!

25th Stop - Antananarivo, Madagascar

It seems as though the length and extent of my posts are a good indication about the quality of the destination, people, and experience. Madagascar is no exception to this rule. It’s really been a fantastic time, much more than I could have ever hoped for.

I had a nice long drive back to Tana, sitting next to a young girl who was vomiting every 45 minutes or so. No worries though; she had a stash of plastic bags and kept things rather clean.

I went back to Paul’s place for one more night. He had a prior engagement and ended up not coming home, so I went to bed early to get some sleep before the training I was giving the next day.

Wednesday was a great day. I trained five colleagues on how to use Wordfast Pro at a beautiful venue overlooking the entire city. This venue was a Catholic seminary and one of my trainees pointed out that the church has some of the best property in the city.

Wordfast trainees

After the training, I met up with Paul and his colleague Cédric for dinner at the Shakamanga restaurant downtown. Cédric has been living in Mada for two years now, working as a graphic designer for his brother’s IT business. He’ll stay at least another year before trying to work in the United States. Interestingly, Cédric’s mom used to be a member of the Junior Chamber in France; I’m glad I got a chance to tell him more about the association and hope he hooks up with some of the great people I met last week.

Dera came and picked me up at the restaurant, we grabbed my things at Paul’s, and then went back to Valérie and Dera’s home. Dera shared some photos and videos with me of his trip to Mauritius, and we enjoyed some nice scotch from his exceptional collection. We also talked about future business opportunities and parenthood. Thanks again Dera for the interesting conversation!

I got up early the next morning to have breakfast with Dera before he left for work, then I went with Valérie to her office for a couple of hours. Valérie has an off-shore call center called Ma Dactylo that offers solutions for data entry, accounting, administrative assistance, hotline support, and sales calls. Feel free to contact her on my behalf if you need any of these services!

View from the seminary

We both finished up some work, spoke to Fred in New Zealand on Skype about surfing when I'm out there in November, and then went for lunch with some of Valérie’s friends. It was very interesting to meet and discuss politics with a judge and Hérisoa, a JCI Senator and advisor to the Minister of Finance. Unfortunately, it was getting late and I had a plane to catch, so we ate and ran to the airport. Got there just in time!

Thanks to all the JCI members that met up with me. Another big thanks to Paul, Dera, and Valérie for hosting me a few days during my stay in Tana. Thanks also to Wordfast who will be buying a bednet for every trainee I train during the trip. That makes 8 bednets altogether, 8 more families protected from malaria for the next 5 years. Thanks to all of you and best of luck until we meet again!