Clan Haley

Christmas in Orewa

Our next few days we spent with Angela, Daniel and Jamie. As mentioned in an earlier post, Angela was a friend of my parents when they lived out in New Zealand when I was born. I last saw Angela 20 years ago when we (the original Clan Haley) came for a visit. Life for both of us has changed quite a bit, but Angela welcomed us into her home and family for Chirstmas. For that we are extremly grateful.

Our first stop was to meet Santa. After all its not Chirstmas without a visit to the red fella (at least when you have a 4 year old). Our trip so far had been pretty devoid of Christmas. The odd santa hat and bit of decorations, but its hard to feel the Christmas spirit in 20 degree heat. Our visit to Sanata was in an indoor ski centre (Snowplanet), but James refered to it as a snow globe, which was adorable. We met Santa, had a quick chat and had our photos taken, before venturing into the snowy bit (which was -3^o^) for a bit of a sledge. Angela and Daniel joined us and it was quite the hoot. We all had a go at sliding down in giant rubber tubes and crashing at the bottom. We finished our visit off with a hot chocolate!

After lunch we counteracted the cold and went for a walk and explore on the beach. We build a few sandcastles and attempted to make some giant bubbles. For dinner we had a traditional NZ Christmas eve dinner, fish and chips.

Christmas morning! We got up nice and early with a rather excited James (and Daniel). With a cup of tea we set about opening our presents. We had managed to bring a small subset of presents from the UK so James had a few small/light things to open. I think his favourite was the toy plastic animals as he loves telling stories with them all.

I managed to sneak out for a quick 5k run on the beach. It was mobbed with hundreds of people setting up BBQs, Gazebos and picnics. Everyone was out in the sun having a cracking time.

Angela cooked the most amazing christmas lunch. We all loved it, especially the Kumara and lamb. After a little rest we headed back to the beach. We got James' new kite out and had a little fly (although James did let go at one point and we almost lost it over a fence). After that and building a big sand castle, James and I went for a Christmas swim in the sea. It was actually pretty warm and James had a great time splashing in the waves. For a boy that doesn't like getting splashed, I didn't think he would like salt water in his mouth or eyes but he loved every second of it. He was even asking to go back!

Next we got stuck into dessert. We had traditional christmas cake (without the revolting marzipan), chocolate cake and pavlova. They were all delicious!

Just before we put James to bed we played Daniels new version of "very mean" UNO. Instead of the usual +2 and +4, it was stacked with +4, +6 and even +10s! Daniel was particularly mean to me making me pickup several hundered cards, but he found it hilarious. After James was in bed we had a game of Railroad ink which was a new game I got Laura. It was pretty fun and I would definelty recommend.