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today started with christmas skyping to family – the time difference meant that our boxing day morning was still their christmas which worked out great.

after some domesticing about we headed down to the beach for the girls to try out their new body boards

the beach was absolutely packed (by NZ standards) but we found a parking space and all was well.  jane went in the sea with the girls whilst i sat and melted in the sun on the grassy area upsides the beach and watched the world go by

after the beach we went to a friend’s house for a BBQ and had a really great evening there

so another scorching christmas day here in NZ

 

i’ve no idea what this suspicious fin-like object in the background is in this picture.  i’m just glad i was on the shore when i took the photo !

tomorrow is designated as another family adventure day so we’re going to head north again.

take care   djek

after some present openings this morning we went out to find a church with a christmas service as our church doesn’t have its own building and so isn’t on for christmas.  we went to a local charismatic church with much whooping.  just to show how charistmatic they were they had a vote for whether they should do an extra song at the end, and of course it was ‘hands up for another song’.  It was good, but it we think we’re not tempted to changed church …

 

after church we came back home and did a bit more present opening before going to our friends buzz (picture at the top) and wendy’s house which also contained their fab kids and the fab friends Kevin who is the chef/owner of a local famous pizzeria

after lunch we went to some friends’ house so the kuds could play in the pool

then it was back to Buzz’s house to put the chicken in the barby.  only the barby was busted.  there followed a scene of two brits trying to make a gas barbeque work.  sadly it was a fail (but not a fire ball) so the chicken had to go in the oven.  but tasted just great anyway

  

whilst that was going on kiwi and international lagers were drunk

and some fantastic bruscetas were eaten (prepared with the finest ingredients by Kevin)

then it was time for the main christmas dinner which was “awesome as”.  or perhaps i should say “delish-as”.  ho ho ho.

then there was the usual cracker pulling and hat wearing

 

the pictures in this post are of various people today  – apologies to anyone i missed off.  no offense implied !

tomorrow we’ve a morning of skyping to catch the end of the British Xmas day.  then we’ve got late morning/afternoon free for adventures before going to friends for a boxing day BBQ dinner.

they say the weather has been unseasonally hot for christmas day (although normal for summer generally), but so far i can highly recommend kiwi christmases !

          

new zealish christmas days involve barbies and hanging out in the sun with friends.  we’re really looking forward to doing that tomorrow but thought we’d also start our own tradition of a traditional british christmas roast on Christmas Eve.  although we sat outside to have it, which is something most people don’t do in the UK !

now, i’ve not bothered to sort out the photos below in to any logical order, but i think you can work out what’s going on. 

after our christmas lunch we had entertainment organised by the girls.  kezia did her classic pass the parcel with forfeits, and esther made her own cluedo board game with peg characters.  after that we went for a stroll round our street to see if there were any pretty lights.  but there weren’t many, other than in the house next door which we can see through our lounge window anyway.  still, it’s good to walk (as someone once said)

   

note the lack of brussel sprouts, but the inclusion of asparagus.  it’s important to have something yucky and green which half the diners refuse to eat, but HAVE to if they want pudding.

 

we were also treated to a new set of christmas cracker jokes.  i have to say the standard is higher than in the UK, although these perhaps aren’t the best examples

 

jane’s avant-garde mincers

   

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas Day (when it arrives in your time zone).

Lots of love  Dave, Jane, Esther and Kezia

my penultimate day at work started at 8.30 with a presentation given with two colleagues to my boss on what we’d learnt in our first three months.  quite good since i’ve not yet been there two months and the other two had done 4 and 6 respectively.

seeing as it was a light hearted thing, and nearly christmas, i chose 40 of the most random photos i could find and we kind of did an improv comedy version of our talks along to the slides which appeared.  like all the best improvisations it wasn’t completely made up on the spot,  but from our audience’s perspective most of our photos had incredibly tenuous links to what we were actually saying.  next time i’ll make my colleagues do it without any photo foresight for added fun.

the rest of the day was equally strange – much flip flop wearing and flapping as people walked about.  apparently this week has been officially a dress down week, although i’m not sure where the official words came from.

around 3pm most of the office either gathered together for drinks or went to the pub.  except the little crowd where i sit.  instead we waited until 5pm and then went to the pub meaning i got back a little late this evening.

and in other news, jane and the girls had a fab day apparently.  this morning our new sofas arrived (thanks in part to my dad).  so that’s nice being able to sit down to watch telly rather than stand up.

the great auckland escape begins 

we were in fact previously sitting on bean bags which we were borrowing from friends.  so jane took them back this afternoon and it turns out they know the people who lived in our house before us (and who we visited recently), and they’d had them round for tea the night before.  it really is 2 degrees of separation round here (although we’re yet to meeting anyone who knows the flight of the conchords).

pub

jane’s gone out shopping this evening, then we’ll watch a bit of tel on our new sofas.  i’m at work tomorrow but i suspect it’ll be a half day.  rumour has it the office beer fridges open about 10am so i’ll get the bus from home tomorrow instead of driving to the park’n.

and of course it’s xmas even tomorrow which is very unexpected.

see yous all.  love ya miss ya ! 

Hello,

Sorry to hear that you have all been stuck in the snow. The girls and I have had  day at the beach!

We also have been trying to cook some profiteroles using the oven with no numbers. I have now managed to download an instruction booklet from the internet, which shows what the dials should say. Even set at the correct temperature the oven seems hotter than I thought.  Attempt number two caused the smoke alarms to go off, which in turn caused the house alarm to go off – twice. Attempt number 3 was more successful.

here are some truffles which were provided by the venue

Had a lovely dinner including profiteroles with some now friends this evening , then drove into Auckland to look at some Christmas lights, but the queues were too long and it was past Dave’s bedtime (you can’t look a the lights till late here) so we came home again.

See you!

here’s our tree all done up nice and that by the ladies of the house.  i forgot to get a photo in the day, so this is at 9.15pm where there’s still some light left in the sky (it being the longest day).

and in other news … we’ve been having strawberries a lot recently.  i didn’t really bother with them in the UK but here, like so many fruits and vegetables, they seem to be supercharged with tastiness.  and rather large

here’s kezia waving a big choppy knife about

this evening kezia and i went to the local shopping maul (sic) to get some xmas presents for jane and esther, but didn’t do too well.  but we did see this nice trolley shadow

and here’s the latest fashions for all the hip (hup?) kiwi ladies

this morning started with nearly two hours of skyping various friends back in the UK.  it was great to catch up and hear about the snow.

then it was off to church for our christmas service.  usual chaotic kiwi style, but the highlight for us was definitely Esther reading the first reading which she was fab at

and here’s our pastor leading the service wearing a rather fetching pixie hat.  they’re not big on ‘formal’ dress here.  And we thought our rector at our church in Reading was informal because he didn’t wear a dog collar !

this afternoon the girls and i went to a local tree place to buy an off the peg christmas tree.  there wasn’t anywhere we could find which allowed us to chop our own down, and we ended up not really having time to go tot he place where a man would chop one down as we watched.  something to work on for next year.

Instead this chap with a permed mullet (classic combo) carried the tree to our car.

their trees are more like fluffy bushes, although they still stink of pine which is amusing for those hayfever sufferers in the house (most of us).  decoration will happen tomorrow apparently.

this evening we had some friends round from church who live on the same road as us.  i had a great chat with the chap who has a similar love of Excel, and we spent hours (literally) talking about VLOOKUPs and computer forensics.  we had raclette which was good.

they’ve only just gone and it’s time for bed.  work for me tomorrow.  decs for everyone else i think.

(the two photos above to show you how our dining/living area works – imagine there’s a wall of windows/glass doors to the bottom and right of the pictures (because there are))

 

i’ve been taking a few photos of natural kiwi type things over the last few weeks, so here’s a special bonus feature of some kiwi things.  first up is a tree known as the ‘kiwi christmas tree’ as it blooms with these red flowers each year to coincide with christmas. It’s actualy called a pohutukawa tree. they really are dramatic, especially against a blue sky and seem to be everywhere.  the one below is from a couple of weeks ago, and the one at the bottom from yesterday.  read more here

 

next up is the new zealand fantail.  this chap (or chapess) was flirting for a photo in a sculpture park we visited.  There were a number of Tuis flapping round our heads in the same place, but they moved much too quickly for me to grab a photo unfortunately, but i’m sure i’ll get a photo eventually.

   

the trees above are Kauris.   They played a huge part in New Zealand’s brief history – with the maoris using their timber for boat building, carving and housing, and the gum creating an industry in itself.  At one time Kauri forests covered 1.2 million hectors, but now it’s reckoned to be nearer 80,000 hectares. they really are the daddies of the forest.

this is a cabbage tree which has been having a tricky time of late due to sudden illness.

and these two pictures are just of a huge amount of ‘bush’

 

finally, here are some pictures of a pukeko which is a funny little chicken like thing with a red beak and a blue belly. 

these aren’t great pictures unfortunately as it was walking in long grass. i’ve no excuse really as these chaps are all over the place, including wandering along the sides of the main motorway

we even had one wander in to our tiny back garden in our temporary rental place.

today we went on a family adventure to get revved up for our christmas break where we’re going to be holidaying at home for a fortnight.

the day started rather anti-climactically with jane going off to join a guided walk lead for those who live in our street.  She’d arranged to go with a friend who lives across the road, but they were the only ones who turned up.  Even the guide didn’t bother.  so they went for a short walk together anyway

fantastic toilets in matakana on the edge of a roundabout

once jane was back we loaded up the car and headed off up north up to a lovely place called Matakana where they have an excellent farmers food market on a Saturday morning.

Whilst there we popped in to the Tourist Information Office which was manned by a lovely British couple who’s son lives just north of Reading.  they recommended a local ice cream shop which was totally fantastic.

they also had a huge chicken wandering about which esther asked me to photograph for you:

After stuffing ourselves we went to Brick Bay Sculpture Trail which was absolutely excellent, and something we’ll definitely put on our ‘must do’ list for visitors.

 

It was $30 for the family (somewhere around the £15 mark) but was both an excellent walk through native bush and an excellent outside art gallery.

the place itself is also a vineyard

these windmills reminded me of telly tubby land

the building block sculpture above is a solar powered  kinetic sculpture which moved slowly in to impossible shapes then back to a standard stack

Once we’d finished there we went on to Algie Beach where the girls threw themselves about in the sea and then the play park.  After a quick junk food picnic we headed back home.

this is a tent made of mirrors

Tomorrow is our christmas service at church which is meant to be outside, but the forecast is rain.  Esther is doing one of the readings which is exciting.  And then we’ll hopefully find a christmas tree to chop down before having friends round for dinner.  busy but good.

see ya