Christmas Day

It's amazing how quickly one day can come and go. When I first arrived in New Zealand, Christmas seemed like an eternity away, and now we're already halfway through Christmas week to New Year's (which I've heard might be spent at the beach).

I spent Christmas with a wonderful family in New Plymouth that has adopted me as their American daughter. In many ways, it was the same as what I'm used to: sharing gifts, family and friends all around, lots of yummy food. But there were some quite noticeable differences. Instead of turkey and ham, we had chicken and pork. In place of hot beverages to keep the cold away, we had lemonade and ice water to stay cool. And there was no snowball fight, but we did have a water fight. I can say without a doubt, this is the first Christmas I was running around barefoot and joining a water fight. I can also say my team lost, but shhh we don't want to talk about that :)  I shared stories and pictures of white Christmases back home and my friends here told me about BBQs and playing Cricket on the beach (a game I have yet to wrap my head around, even though it's theoretically somewhat similar to baseball).

Most folks (including myself, yay!) are off work through the first week of January so the next few days will be laid-back and relaxed. The weather is wonderful right now, sunny most days and around 70 degrees, with a nice breeze so it's perfect weather to be outside. Next adventure: New Year's celebrations!

Tis the Season

Contrary to what the weather may seem to indicate, it really is nearly Christmas. The closer we get, the warmer and more summery everything is becoming, so in some ways it has been difficult to feel like it is really Christmastime. Instead of being huddled inside by the fire, we have been scheduling BBQs outside. In place of hot chocolate or coffee everyone has been opting for a milkshake or iced coffee. Gone are the coats, hats and gloves and out have come the sandals, shorts and sunscreen.

A summer-time Christmas definitely takes a bit of adjusting, but it isn't without its charm. Coming home from the beach to write Christmas cards can be quite nice, and listening to Christmas carols while relaxing out on deck is really just as nice as being bundled up inside while it snows (although you don't hear "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" quite as much haha).

My Christmas season began with the orchestra's Christmas concert at the end of November, in which I had the pleasure of participating. Yesterday I enjoyed a Christmas organ recital at the cathedral after I'd finished the last of my shopping.

 Last week (which also happened to be my last week of work before the start of the summer/Christmas holiday shutdown), we enjoyed lunches, gift baskets, and a black-tie Hollywood themed Christmas party, all compliments of my employer.

The city park, Pukekura Park, is currently lit up with Christmas lights so last weekend I ventured out one evening for Christmas caroling, fireworks, and the lights.

The mountain as we entered the park

The crowd out for Christmas carols and fireworks

Everyone lit candles when it got dark :)

I think it's only green for Christmas time 

Most of the lights didn't photograph well, but these were cool :)

Now that I'm adjusted to the idea of it being Christmas while it's getting hot, I've quite enjoyed the decorations around town. Nature has decorated for the season as well, with the Pohutukawa trees, New Zealand's Christmas tree. They started coming into bloom 2-3 weeks ago and are positively lovely :)

Chance Encounters

One of the great things about traveling is the people you meet. Kiwis are friendly people and always ready to welcome you to their country. A lot of people I've met have traveled extensively throughout NZ so I've acquired quite a list of must-sees for my time here.

While I was in Wellington I was having lunch at a cafe with a friend. The lunch rush was in full swing so we ended up sharing a table with a gentleman and his young daughter. We chatted about traveling and places for me to visit and for him to visit if he goes to the US. His lovely daughter shared her french fries (I mean, chips!) with us. When they were ready to leave, they had gotten halfway to the door when she suddenly turned around and ran back to give me a hug and tell me that she had fun eating lunch with me.

One morning right here in New Plymouth I didn't have to be at work as early as normal so I decided to have some me time. I stopped in a little French bakery for some mango tea and a chocolate croissant. As I was making my way to a table I saw a lady there with a precious baby that was intent on saying hello to everybody. I stopped to say hi and 45 minutes later I had to hurry so I wasn't late for work. We traded travel stories and shared thoughts on life in Taranaki. My solo breakfast turned into a fun morning chat that resulted in me making a new friend.

A couple of months back I was up North at the Bay of Islands and booked a day tour that saw several wonderful spots including the tip of the North Island. Shortly after our bus started out for the day I realized there was a Japanese lady on board. We began talking and were fast friends by the end of the day. We made plans to stay in touch and I had the pleasure of showing her a bit of New Plymouth when she was making her way south. She has since returned to Japan but we are keeping in touch with emails :)

Thanksgiving isn't a New Zealand holiday but I happened to have time off for traveling that week. I had already wished my family a happy celebration and had made a mental note to catch up on turkey eating next year. Thanksgiving morning while making breakfast at the hostel where I was staying, I met a fellow American. Although we didn't discuss it much beyond wishing each other Happy Thanksgiving, it was a wonderful feeling to share a moment with someone who understands the significance of the day.

Some of the people I have met here have already become lifelong friends; others I will likely never see again. But each encounter makes an impact and creates a memory that serves as a reminder that no matter what country you're from, we're all people and in some ways are all the same.

Whitianga

I am incredibly lucky to have friends who enjoy traveling as much as I do and last week was delighted to have travel buddies visiting from Europe. Although I didn't have the time off work to spend the entire duration of their visit traveling together, we did have a few delightful days of adventuring together. We checked out part of the Coromandel peninsula, a lovely part of the Eastern side of the North Island (I will eventually make it to the South island!).

We stayed at a friendly little hostel right on the beach in Whitianga. Not too much to the town but it is in a beautiful location with plenty of outdoorsey opportunities. We spent the majority of our time there either hiking or enjoying the beach. We had perfect warm, sunny weather so for the first time in my life I was at the beach when it should be wintertime (it is really hard to get used to the idea of summer-time in December).

The street our hostel was on. I want a palm tree :)

The first super cool place we went was called Hot Water Beach (technically not so cool, haha). There are hot water springs that run along the beach so if you take a shovel with you to the beach, and go at low tide, you can dig a nice hole in the sand which will fill up with hot water and viola! you have a sauna. You have to find a spot that has hot water as it doesn't cover the whole beach, and we quickly found there were pockets of hot water in big clusters with big areas of cold water in between. We had found a spot and made a decent spot to enjoy the hot water, but then got lucky and inherited a great hot pool from someone else that left.

Hot Water Beach

Was a bit cold when we had to jump in to wash off the sand

When the tide started coming in, we packed up our beach gear and shovels, grabbed lunch at a cafe, and headed off for a hike to Cathedral cove. It's a bit hard to describe, but it's a gorgeous bit of paradise that has a beach divided in half by a huge rock that has developed a cathedral roof from the bottom, so you can walk in (under?) and cross to the other half of the beach, although if it's high tide you have to wade a few feet.

We had steak pies and kumara chips :)

Hiking to cathedral cove

My first glimpse of the cathedral

The other side

Coolest. Rock. Ever. 

 The next day took us to Shakespeare Point, Lonely Bay, and Cook's Beach. I couldn't find a good explanation of why it is naked Shakespeare Point, but you get a panoramic view of the coastline that includes Flaxmill Bay, Lonely Bay, Cook's Beach, and some rocks that have names :)
Lonely Bay had some of the best seashells I've collected so far (my bookshelf now has almost an entire bookshelf dedicated to the shells I've collected......
Cook's Beach is quite possibly the prettiest beach I've ever seen. I'd try to describe it, but think I'm better to just post photos for you to see!

Flaxmill Bay

Tip of Shakespeare Point

Lonely Bay

Lonely Bay (you could climb from the beach under the big rock on left side of photo up to more rocks)

Cook's Beach

ps, I'm listening to Christmas music while writing about beaches, who could have ever thought!!!

If I ever have a van...

Made me giggle :)