Christmas in New Zealand

Dec. 21st was the official first day of summer here and as if on cue, the morning began with bright sunshine and a very warm breeze. Sunscreen is an absolute must because you will burn more easily in NZ than anywhere else. There are 3 reasons why the sun is so strong in the southern hemisphere. #1- There is less ozone to block the UV rays. #2- The earth's orbit takes it closer to the sun during the southern summer. #3- There is less pollution to block the UV rays. So we lathered on the sunscreen, grabbed our hats and sunglasses and loaded up the car with our chilly bin, gifts and food. We were off to join the Scanlons at their Lansdowne farm, just south of Kaikora. The drive from Christchurch takes 2.5 hours. Along the way, you pass through the famous wine country of Canterbury called Waipara. You may have heard us mention Lansdowne before because it is our favorite place in all of New Zealand. Nearly 1,800 acres of hills, valleys, rivers, beach and snowcapped mountains. Truly a paradise! There were seven of us gathered together for the Christmas holiday- John and I, Jay and his two children, Maris and Francis and his girlfriend, Vanessa and her mother, Maha. Fran & Vanessa live in Los Angelos while Maha is from Barbados. After settling in to our respective cabins, we all climbed aboard the farmbikes (called ATV's in the States) and headed down to the beach. It's a no swim beach because of the rough surf but that didn't stop Jay and Fran from taking a quick dip. John preferred to swim in the Conway River which flows directly into the ocean. We enjoyed a lovely picnic on the deserted beach, reading, painting and otherwise relaxing. That evening we laid a large canvas down on the lawn and the 7 of us laid there admiring the night sky. There is no interference from any lights so the sky is filled to capacity with constellations, galaxies, satellites and shooting stars. I never tire of looking at the Southern Cross. As we laid there in the warm, still night air, a Ruru (also called a Morepork, the small native owl)hooted to us from the valley below. It was magical. The next day, John's birthday, we again went down to the beach to play. We also explored the valley, picked watercress from the creek, and smoked a whole salmon in Jay's new electric smoker- John was in heaven! The following day we all headed up into the hills to a meadow filled with clover and dandelions. After several attempts, we managed to get our 2 kites up, up, up into the warm thermal currents. It was such fun! And sipping wine was nice too. Later that night, we had a large bonfire down on the beach. Every day pretty much went like this. Fran and Vanessa had bought cute, funny pajamas for everyone so on Christmas Eve, we dressed in them and opened our stockings. Such great fun with gifts like pickle floss, cactus jelly, bacon flavored mints and a magic eight ball (did we have fun? "It is decidedly so" said the 8 ball!)I'm leaving out all the good food we had (breakfast, lunch and dinner)just because that's another blog all in it's own right. Suffice it to say, we all gained weight!) Christmas day was beautiful and we shared the traditional turkey dinner with Lansdowne's caretaker, Wayne and his dog, Gizmo. For John and I, being so very far from home was not so painful because we were surrounded by such good and loving people. Plus home is just a phone call away and hearing from my Mother and our son was the greatest gift. We were also blessed to have missed the 5.9 earthquake which struck Christchurch on Dec.22nd. We hope all of you had an equally memorable holiday season. Cheers and God Bless!