Happy Christmas

As I write, we are about half-way through Christmas Day. Skry, Rok, and my brother Stephen are in the kitchen making Christmas dinner, and I am at my laptop in front of the telly. This arrangement suits me just fine!

We were all up relatively early today and exchanged presents before going for a quick walk on New Brighton pier. This is the same place that Skry and I went to this time last year, with Phil and Lou. The weather was a bit different this year - very overcast with rain on the way - but it was still nice to get out.


After our walk it was time to come home and Skype the family in Ireland. It was still Christmas Eve for them but it was lovely to be able to see each other. Skype is just great for keeping in touch with people.

Anyway, happy Christmas everyone - I hope you all have a lovely time. Now I'd better go and at least pretend that I am helping in the kitchen!

A Christmas Day Barbecue

Today does not feel like Christmas Day at all. We have no decorations up, there is no Christmas music playing, nobody went to church, we didn't exchange presents, and it's roasting hot. This is all just too weird. I did phone home at lunchtime, and it was lovely to chat to everybody, but it feels like they're all getting Christmas this year and I'm not. It really is all very strange. My friends and family have been great - I got a phone call from Wendy and a few texts from people as well - but it feels like they're all in a different world at the moment.

Having said that, our world isn't bad at all. After a lie-in this morning, we did some prep for the barbecue and then went to the beach at New Brighton. A stroll on the pier blew all the cobwebs away, and we spent a while watching people attempt to surf before heading back to the house.
It wasn't long before the kebabs and sausages were sizzling on the grill while we basked in the sunshine (under a liberal coating of Factor 30 suncream). After a good feed, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just lounging around and watching the occasional DVD. It wasn't the wildest of days, but it was good enough for our purposes!

A Christmas Eve Swim

Today we went to the beach, a nearby one called Taylor's Mistake (I have no idea why). It was quite small and sheltered, but the waves were fairly large and there were lots of people out surfing and body boarding. Phil and Lou both have body boards, so the three of us donned our swimsuits and took to the water. I had a few goes on Lou's board and ended up underwater more often than not, but it was surprisingly good fun and I will look out for one of my own next time we're out shopping.

The sun was very strong even at nearly 5pm, and I already got a bit burnt yesterday, so it wasn't long before I had to take refuge in the shade. It was a lovely warm evening still, so a few card games and DS games were played out in the back yard. The evening ended with two of the 10 DVDs that we rented out to watch over the next few days. New Zealand television really isn't up to much, and we don't have Sky, so DVDs are clearly the way to go as far as televisual entertainment is concerned.

Swimming in December

It's only a couple of weeks until Christmas, but today we went swimming in a nearby river. Well, I say nearby - that is only in New Zealand terms, because it is miles and miles away, but everything is so far apart here that people think nothing of driving 45 minutes to the nearest supermarket. We had to take a 34km detour to Rangiora on the way back from the river today just to get ingredients for tonight's dinner, because that was the closest place to get them!

Anyway, we went in a convoy of four vehicles to Ashley Gorge, which is a river gorge surrounded by beautiful, lushly forested mountains. Skry, Lou, and I went with two of the kids to a swimming hole beside the river, while the rest of them went fishing. The swimming hole we were at was pretty small, so there wasn't much to do except splash around, but it was lovely to be out in the sunshine. At one point a couple in a 4x4 drove past and yelled something rude-sounding out the window. We were much amused to see them, ten minutes later, stranded in the middle of the river they had been attempting to drive along! It took them a good half hour of revving, splashing, and putting the bonnet up and down, before they could get out.

Tonight the two of us made dinner for Stephen and Caroline, our fantastic hosts. They barely know us, but they picked us up from the airport, opened up their house to us, fed us and watered us, introduced us to people, and lent us a car for as long as we need one. Stephen is taking us to a second-hand car dealership tomorrow, so we should have our own before too long, but it was great to be able to borrow one. Our first week in this new country would have been so much harder without the two of them and the kindness and generosity that they and their family have shown us. I know they did the same for Phil and Lou when they arrived here, and we really do owe them a great deal. After dinner Caroline took us for a quick spin down the road to see a house that has been very well decorated for Christmas. It certainly was nice, and very tastefully done, but how weird is it to be looking at Christmas decorations while wearing shorts and t-shirts??