Gaspesie National Park.....

Maple Forest

                                                    Rocher Perce

                              Fourillon National Park

                          Not something we see at home

We were lucky enough to be able to go to Gaspesie and Fourillon National Parks in the weekend! It involved a lot of driving and most of the national park ended up being closed but it was a great little trip anyway!! We managed to go on a couple of nice walks through the Maple forest... something we don't have at home! We were hoping to see a moose or even some carabou.... we were told we had as much chance seeing them on the road in the national park as anywhere..... but we came at the wrong time!! So it looks like we might be going back there to try our luck again....! We had a few little stops in some small towns on the way..... we also passed a massive wind turbine farm.... if you look really closely at the bottom you can see us standing there (maybe try clicking on the picture...?!!) The rock with the hole in it is one of the most famous land marks in Quebec!! I would like to put more pictures up but that might be getting a weee bit much (and they take a while to download)!!!Post more very soon!!!

                                                     Andrea, Chris and Barrie...

Drew

Chris and Barrie

Bryn on the blocks

Drews birthday

Sitting by the Lake

                                                           

                                                                 Mum on the swinging logs

                                                                Climbing Buddies
Yesterday for Drews birthday we spent the day doing "d'arbre en abre" (from tree to tree), which involved high-roping and zip-lining (flying fox) through the forest. We were invited by Andrea and Richard and then the Mckindseys came along as well..... we were given a harness and then a briefing on how to do it.... then you go through all the cousres' attaching your carabiner etc to the particular obstacle you're on and it gets higher and higher as you go.... this is definitely something we need in Nelson.... it is such great fun..... a big kids playground as Dad called it!! The only draw-back was the amount of blackflies (sandflies) and mosquitoes..... it was unbelieveable... if you didn't keep moving you were just swarmed by them and ended up focusing on swatting them away. It was cool, however, that we were in the right place to see a wood-pecker. It was flying around us while we were in the trees (cartoons don't lie!! They look the same in real life)!! They had a massive 20 metre high flying fox which we got to do at the end!! The strange thing was it went from low to high instead of the otherway round.... don't know how that works!!! After that part of the day we went back to the lake and had lunch and Drews cake!! We sang happy birthday in French!! Us kids went kayaking round the lake, then it was so hot we ended up swimming in our clothes... we never though it would get hot enough for that here.... we're having some really strange weather!! After we left (and everyone was to hot again) we went to dads work to see if the foxes were there but they never came... that was the conclusion to a great day and another birthday gone by.....

Dad in front of his work

Foxes Lair

We took a trip down to Mont Joli the other day to see where Dad works and to see if the foxes were there.... =(( sadly they weren't. But we did get a photo of their lair..... thats what the hole in the picture is... we back from Mont Joli down the coast where we saw these sculptures of stone people all over the beach.... there was a story about them but it was in French so we couldn't read it. Dad took a photo so he could try and figure it out later but he hasn't got round to it!!

Weird things about living in French Quebec - Rimouski ...

*  they sell milk in 1 litre plastic bags
*  Arete (stop) signs are everywhere, even on main roads where another st connects into it!! slows the traffic
*  if you get to an intersection and there are no signs it's bascially the first person there goes first
    (I usually have to close my eyes and hope for the best on those ones!)
*  intersections with traffic lights are only on the other side of the road, not the side you stop on,
    hence stopping in the middle of an intersection when I first started to drive here!
*  road markings here are practically non existent because of the winter snow and ice, apparently they redo
    them in the summer
*  in winter when it is snowing you can step out of your house and do a circuit of the river on cross country
    skis  (that ony works if you live by the river like our host family does) its also a lovely walk to do now
    without the snow, lots of intereting little wild life along the way
*  Baz eats his lunch with a little trio of baby red foxes who have a lair in a forest near his work
*  chicken and meat from the supermarket here tastes very organic
*  Rimouski is a bit of a sleepy hollow now but apparently everything comes to life over summer (alot of the
    tourist things are shut at the moment)
*  their interpretation of a capuchino is interesting, its basically a strong white coffee with a little frothy milk
    on top
*  they sell NZ wine here in the supermarket but its the cheap NZ$7 bottles that we get at home and here
    they are $18 Canadian
*  if you have mail, the postie puts the red flag up - very convenient
*  its gone from 6 degrees when we arrived to 30 degrees today
*  the crows are particularly partial to attacking Drew, perhaps because he is the slowest mover in the family
*  fruit and veges at the supermarket are sold by the lb and then converted to kg at the checkout!
*  most houses have a ground floor and then you see windows that are right down on the ground which
    looks weird.  But apparently it gets so hot here in summer people move down to their basements to sleep
    -  hence the windows to the basement and the actual basement is below ground.
*  they call a pin code a nip code
*  the pet shop sells weird things like bird eating tarantulas, chincillas, chameleons (they have the most
    amazing eyes - I want one) and the budgies are in a low glass cage with no roof they actually clip their
    wings so you can look down into them
*  maple syrup here is the best ... I want to bring a truck load home
*  although I think French is a very sexy language I'm ready for someone to come up to me and start having
    a good old natter in English  .... sometimes I head down to the info centre to get my fix from Mona whose
    daughter has lived and work in Nelson (of all places for a year) ...  and thank goodness for Chris and
    Susan and the kids
*  its amazing how quickly a new place can become familiar and can feel like its home ...  and even driving on
    the wrong side of the road is starting to feel normal (you were right Jane)
*  the peonies are coming up (my favourite flower) and I will have 3 seasons of them in one year ;-))

Why don't we have a ride on??

Mum and I spent 3-4 hours (not sure that time was divided very evenly) today mowing the rugby field that is our section and we only got 3 quarters of it done..... now we're wondering why they don't have a ride on mower..... we need you Janet!!!

Drew up to his antics at the dinner table...

We had the Mckindsey's (our host family) round for dinner last night. It was nice.... we had a roast chicken and mum was busy all day cooking a pavlova and other yummy things....!!!

The Bic Church

The little bakery in Bic

The other day we spent the day exploring a small town called Bic.... we went for a walk in the Bic national forest. It was a pretty place and as soon as I get my hands on the other camera more photos will be put up!!

Ferral Animal on the loose....

Today we went for a walk through the park in Rimouski which follows the Saint Lawrence River. Drew and I decided that we would take an alternative path back through the forest even though mum thought we were getting her lost  (she would have had lots of ferral company in the forest.... hehehe!!)  On the way we saw two little chipmunks for the first time ever!! They look practically the same as squirells but have a black and white stripe down their back!! So cute!! Sorry didn't have the camera with us because our camera is full and Dad forgot to bring his laptop home!! But next time we will.... chipmunks seem to be flighty creatures anyway.... now we're going to make like chipmunks and get out of here!! Post more soon x

Life In Rimouski.......

Main Street Rimouski

Freezing in Moose Town

Super Market shopping takes twice as long in French....