Jean-Pierre and Paulette Van Hille have spent the last 20 years sailing around the world. Photo/Ruth Keber
Paulette Van Hille never liked water - yet she has spent the past 20 years travelling across oceans.
The 75-year-old, with her husband Jean-Pierre, has sailed around the world the equivalent of four times over.
The French nationals met in 1969, the next year they were married and moved to Reunion Island where for the next 15 years they worked as teachers and raised their two girls, Pascale and Isabel.
They took their children back to France in 1985 for them to attend high school, but once they had graduated - they set sail.
They found themselves in French Polynesia in 1994 where they taught for another few years and then purchased their boat, the Rerevanui, and have been travelling across oceans since.
Tahiti, Niue, Marquesas, Tonga, Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Australia, Christmas Is, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, Borneo, Maldives, Chagos Islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, the east coast of Africa, Vancouver, British Columbia and Alaska are among the places they have visited.
Mr Van Hille said he had learnt to sail as a young boy.
'I am in love with the sea," he told the Bay of Plenty Times.
"All my life I have gone to the sea, I have a very nice house, life, and home in France but the sea is my passion."
Mrs Van Hille had a few bad experiences with water as a child.
"But she is in love with me," Mr Van Hille said with a warm laugh.
They first landed in Tauranga in 1998, a year after the Tauranga Bridge Marina opened.
Tauranga Bridge Marina manager Tony Arnold met the couple 20 odd years ago.
During their visit, he helped them buy an old Mount diesel taxi which they used it to travel around the South Island.
The old friends said Mr Arnold had not changed a bit.
Mr and Mrs Van Hille usually spend their days sailing then swimming, diving, fishing and enjoying all the sights their lifestyle had to offer.
The couple arrived back in Tauranga on Wednesday and would set sail up to Whangamata over the next few days, where they would do some work, and store their boat before flying back to France for the European summer.
They now kept their cruising to a triangle within the Pacific Ocean including New Zealand and Pacific islands.
Their home in Aix-En Provence, France has a small vineyard, They produce wine over the European summer while enjoying time with their children and grandchildren.
Asked whether they would retire from their boating lifestyle anytime soon, Mr Van Hille replied: "we are still young... this is just the beginning."