Christmas

We kicked off our road trip on the 20th December, stopping in the 'Naki to spend the night with Neal & Nicky, one of my ex-rugby coaches and ex-teammates from my Varsity club days. They have bought an amazing property in Eltham, it's an old park with loads of beautiful old trees as well as a small lake.

The next day, after lunch in a cafe in Oponake, we carried on to Hamilton. It is always nice getting home,  Mum and dad always look after Will & I well. The next day my sister and her husband arrived from Melbourne, so it was also great catching up with them.

We did the extended family 'Christmas thing' at my nana's place on Christmas Eve day. That meant on Christmas day Will & I were free to head out to Raglan. The weather was a bit average in the morning, but got better and better as the day went on. Will & I didn't really give each other Christmas presents, but I did get a new iphone just before Christmas, so I was pretty much counting that as my present... I've been enjoying the old-school style of the hipstamatic camera app. I particularly like this pic of Will taken with it.

You can't get more 'kiwi' than a tiptop boysenberry and hokey pokey ice-cream at the beach...

We also spent a bit of time watching the kids jumping off the bridge...

We then worked off the ice-cream with a walk along the beach behind the campground.

By now it was really starting to heat up, so we headed out to the surf beaches. We called in at Manu and Whale Bay, before heading to Ocean beach for a swim in the surf. It was surprisingly busy, being Christmas Day & all. I was also impressed that the surf lifeguards were on duty. It was the first time Will has ever swum in the ocean on Christmas Day!

Boxing day meant shopping!!! We braved the hoards and headed to The Base. We were lucky enough to get a park straight away and enjoyed a good few hours of retail therapy. The first thing we had done on arrival at the shopping centre was to secure a couple of tickets to the Tintin movie for later that afternoon, as it opened that day. We saw it in 3D and really enjoyed it. Thanks mum & dad for the tickets, much appreciated!

The following evening the Roe family arrived. They had come up from Dunedin, via Christmas in Blenheim. We all had a couple more nights with mum & dad before heading off on our camping adventure up north.