Christmas 2009

We had a nice relaxed family Christmas Day. It was my first one in 8 years, as when we were back 3 years ago we spent it down south with the Roes. We went out to my nana's place in Leamington & had cold ham & salads for Christmas lunch. It was a really hot day & Will found it all a bit strange! He's not used to being in shorts & t-shirt on Christmas Day... On the way home Will & I got dropped off at the Giddy's place. Wayne & his girlfriend Phillipa were over from Australia, & his brother Craig & Craig's wife Denise were also over from Oz with their 3 young ones. Roger dropped by with his family, & Marty also dropped in to say hi so it was bit of a reunion from the old days...

On Boxing Day Wayne's dad Colin took Will & I, & Wayne & Phillipa out fishing off Raglan. We were at the boat ramp by 6am & were rewarded with the most glorious sunrise.
It was amazing fishing, amongst the 5 of us we caught 83 fish in total, including our quota of 10 snapper each. Other species included gurnard, trevally & kahawai. Will also brought up a kingfish but it was undersize so had to be thrown back.

Keeping us company on the water was a beautiful albatross, which from a distance we first mistook for a really really big seagull...
We also had a 2m mako shark hovering around which Colin wasn't overly happy about, especially when it took a chunk out of the side of a snapper he was bringing up on his line! He got out his 'big boys rod' with the steel trace & managed to hook it. He had no intention of bringing it up onto his boat, he just wanted to have a bit of fun with it & annoy it enough so that it would go away. He cut it off his line & funnily enough it disappeared pretty quickly!

To make the day really memorable we also came across a pod of 4 orcas on the way home. They were beautiful & seemed quite happy to get close to the boat. We spent about 20 minutes admiring them before leaving them in peace...

We also saw some penguins swimming on the way back, but they were a bit overshadowed by the orcas really. All in all it was an incredible day out! We have been gorging ourselves on fresh & smoked fish over the last few days...

The last couple of days have been fairly quiet. We have taken advantage of the post-Christmas sales & have bought a few things we needed for our new house. Less than 2 weeks now until we move in!

Tomorrow we will drive over to Rotorua to pick up Nic & Tom who are over from the UK. We'll see in the new year with them in the Coromandel which we are looking forward to. It will be great to see them.