Christmas

Our last accommodation in New Zealand, Christmas. We even got a little Christmas tree in our living room, Wendy and Mike put it there for us and decorated it. You can barely see the green beneath the tinsel but it is a genuine small pine tree. Beneath there are some of the typical New Zealand Christmas crackers, wrapped in Christmas paper.

We enjoy a late risers breakfast outside on the porch. Woodend Beach Comber is a hidden jewel, very neat, furnished very modern and affectionate though not overloaded. The colours are harmonic – and there are two rolls of paper towels! The cottage is hidden at the back of the garden, we may serve ourselves with fresh vegetables. We haven’t yet finished our last cup of coffee/tea when the first barbecue smells wave over from the neighbouring plot. Christmas in New Zealand is a day for barbecues, including loud music and jubilations when the presents are unwrapped. It seems weird for German tourists used to “Silent Night”.

To get a break from the music we start for a walk on the beach in the late afternoon. Now all the families who spent Christmas there leave towards home. A lot of beach walkers still en route wish “Merry Christmas”. An elderly lady wearing a typical red and white Christmas dress struggles up the dunes on a bike. It’s all easy going here, real “happy Christmas”.

We follow the barbecue concept and have steaks for dinner, outside on the porch again. And as it is Christmas I allow myself a small bottle of delicious Sauvignon Blanc, from New Zealand of course.

Tour guide

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