Kiwi Christmas

Did you all have a great holiday? From what I heard, you were disappointed in terms of a 'White Christmas', but what can I say - only sun and 25 degrees. Terrible.

That was sarcasm by the way...

Forgive me for the long wait, but even I didn't feel like writing a new post over the holidays. I won't go into the details of this terrible bus ride on Sunday, everyone can imagine how 8 hours on a bus affect your mood and body.

The weather on December 24th and 25th was, to put it mildly, rubbish. It rained all day on Christmas Eve. Perfect for getting the last shopping done and then starting the 'Hobbit' series.
The 24th is actually just a normal day in New Zealand, nothing is celebrated yet. Chiara and I tried to create some Christmas atmosphere by baking tons of cookies and listening to Christmas songs.
Maybe we were convincing, because the presents were still unpacked on Christmas Eve.

But the actual holiday for the Kiwis is finally the 25th of December, Christmas Day. Normally, the children would unpack all their presents in the morning, everyone is happy - you know the deal.
And the rest of the day would be all about eating and digesting.
There would be a big meal at noon, with poultry, lots of salads, various mashed potatoes and this Pavlova - the nightmare of every diabetic. You take a meringue as a base, put plenty of cream on top and a few fruits as decoration - a pitiful attempt to make the monster look healthy.

The afternoon is spent digesting, some brave ones even dare to go outside for a little walk. And in the evening, there's a barbecue.
And it goes on like this for the next few days.
Breakfast - leftovers from yesterday's lunch and dinner. Lunch - meat with side dishes. Dinner - BBQ.
Slowly but surely, I'm getting sick of it. I do like barbecuing, especially since the weather is awesome now (up to 30 degrees and sunny), but three days in a row? I wouldn't have minded a nice curry...

But an even bigger problem is - I have hardly anything to do. I'm not the type of person who can spend a whole day in the house doing nothing, especially not in this weather. So I walked all the hiking trails in the area again, some even for the third time. Because there are currently nine people living in this small house, it drives me with all my might to go outside into the silence and solitude.

Phew, that might come across wrong. I just need a lot of movement throughout the day and time for myself - that's why I often retreat to hiking.

For Friday, Chiara and I gave Duncan a Dolphin Discovery Tour as a gift (of course, we also joined...).
We drove through the Bay of Islands for four hours, searching for dolphins.
And with success - after a few minutes, we came across a large pod lazily hanging out in front of an island in the water.
Among them were four young calves, which is why we weren't allowed to swim with them. But the dolphins came very close to the boat (they're huge!) and showed off their best sides.
The Bay of Islands was simply heavenly - I couldn't resist taking a swim.

A very nice day.

Today we want to go out on a boat ourselves, curious to see what else we'll see. And I really hope that tonight, for a change, we won't have a barbecue. The fridge is already overflowing and would need nights if it could.
I wish you continue to have a relaxed end of the year, I'll probably be back around New Year's Eve. After all, my year starts 12 hours before yours ;)