Warm Christmas 😍

Since we absolutely wanted to spend Christmas on the beach and Anja had the same plan, the three of us rented a small house in Ohope. It was a dream. On one side we had a terrace overlooking the lake and on the other side, just across the street, the sea. When we arrived, a young woman ran towards us happily and greeted us, inviting us to a BBQ. So we enjoyed a warm shower first and then went up a floor to the BBQ. We have rarely experienced such hospitality. Dawn and Niclas, the hosts, were thrilled that we had come and provided us with food and drink all day long. It was such a wonderful day.

However, the two of them were not on vacation with their 3 children. Dawn grew up in Ohope and now lives in Sydney with her husband and children. They had traveled due to the White Island eruption that occurred on December 9th. White Island is an active volcanic island in the Bay of Plenty, which is visited daily by many tourists and volcanologists. Until that day, you could book tours that took you to the island by boat and a guide would show you around. She was the best friend of the tour guide who was on the island that day and who, along with many others, lost his life. He is still considered missing today. The government provided flights for $100 to the relatives and friends of the victims to attend the funerals (which would otherwise have been much more expensive). Transportation and accommodations were also taken care of and the costs covered. This is great and unfortunately not conceivable in Germany.

On that day, we also met Dawn's father, who took us to the Tarawere Falls early the next morning. This is a waterfall in the middle of the New Zealand bush. On the way there, he told us a lot about the area and the waterfall was great. He even paid the admission fee for us, simply because he wanted to make us have a nice day and show us a little bit of New Zealand. Once again, we were just amazed by such warmth. A great Christmas Eve morning :) when we came back, we went straight to the beach and in the evening we cooked and made ourselves comfortable on the terrace. The following days were similar and we were even able to extend for another night :) It was just too nice to sleep in a real bed again.