Week 24- Christmas on Waiheke

What better way to start Christmas day than with a 06:30 swim. The Micklems then all piled into mum and dad's room to exchange gifts. I was amazed to see that my godmother, Ruth, and Granny had sent gifts with my parents for me. Clare had remembered from when they lived in Ireland that I used to make pancakes so from a 10 year old memory I was on pancake duty. We were 10 for breakfast and I also had to cook the pancakes on the barbecue which was a challenge in itself! As the dogs had to be off the beach by 09:00 we went for a morning stroll with the dogs before returning to the batch for some games. Those that were hungry had some tuna pasta as a midday snack.

High tide was at 14:00 so that was when we headed for a swim. All ten of us were in the water, some wearing santa hats and singing carols (badly). The afternoon went on with strawberries and bubbly, frisbee, cricket and the ritual soccer match with Sam and Mark facing off against Jack and myself (Jack and I won). During the day we were joined by Geraldine's children, Monty and Lexi, and their partners, Sianna and Joe.

Despite the versatility of the barbecue, it is not capable of cooking the turkey so Clare hired the local hall for a couple of hours to cook the turkey. We also had a lamb cooking in a slow cooker but the main event took place on the barbecue with roasted vegetables, ham and roast potatoes all cooked on it. We sat down together shortly after 18:00 for a magnificent feed. The 14 of us couldn't quite finish it off. Eating Christmas dinner outside in the sun was a strange but wonderful experience. Lexi had made brownies for dessert, mum and Holly produced a fruit salad and Sam and Jack were trusted to make a Tanana tort (banoffee pie but they had to be different). Somehow we managed to eat more food and then we played a present swapping game with cheap nondescript presents. Having started the day in the sea, it was fitting to finish it there too. Around 23:00 we headed down in the dark and swam with some bioluminescence in the water to light our way. A Christmas never to be forgotten.

Of course the fun didn't stop there. We had a small bit of rain on the morning of the 26th but I was still able to cook pancakes thanks to the newly constructed kitchen! Joe and Lexi slipped away early and the rest of us played games before we went to Man O’war bay for lunch and spent the afternoon there. We had a small picnic, swam in the calm sea, skimmed stones and then went on a expedition to jump off a pier that we weren't supposed to be on. We had to cross a river on the way so Sam found a big log to use to float the towels.

Once on the pier we had great fun jumping off. Monty was quite spectacular with some of his leaps. Jack was telling us about a kiwi craze known as a Manu. It's a way to jump in the water to make a big vertical splash. The idea is to hit the water with your bum first but when Sam tried, to our amusement, he landed on his back. Apart from temporarily losing Jack's jersey we had no disasters and had a delicious barbecue dinner for our final dinner on waiheke. The children stayed up playing games and singing songs until we were told to go to bed, content but sorry to be leaving the next day.

We didn't do much on the morning of the 27th other than play games and enjoy eachothers company. The Micklems had to depart for the ferry and then catch a flight to Queenstown for the next adventure. Once we landed we did a quick shop for dinner and drove two hours south west to Manapouri. We stayed a night in an Airbnb and I cooked dinner. The next morning we were going to visit Doubtful Sound which is a fiord.

A boat took us for an hour across Manapouri lake before we were shuttled over the mountains to the fiord. Boarding another cruiser we were treated to jaw dropping views with mountains surrounding the 40km long fiord. Apparently the fiord is 400m deep in places and has a fresh water layer sitting above the salt water. A short while into the cruise we saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins and then because the weather was so good and sea so calm, we went out into the Tasman sea and saw a seal colony with pups. On the way back we went into one of the side arms of the fiord and sat in complete silence, apart from the sounds of the birds, for a few minutes. Magical.

Once back at the car I received a text from Harry saying that he was thirty minutes from Manapouri. We were stopped at Frasers beach and Harry's family joined us all there for a swim. It was wonderful to catch up with him and he gave me a postcard of the terrible road we had driven when in Abel Tasman. The reunions didn't stop there. We stopped for burritos in Queenstown on our way to Wanaka when I received a call from Charlotte. She and Ulysse were both in Wanaka! It was amazing to be able to see them again, especially when I thought I had said goodbye to Charlotte for the last time already. We spent the night with friends of Mark and Clare, Susan and Bernard, who had recently bought a property in Wanaka (we were their first guests). They were very hospitable and I hope to be able to stay with them in the future. We went to the town early on Friday morning, I quickly caught up with Charlotte and Ulysse again before they hitchhiked to Queenstown, we ate lunch, Holly ran away (went for a run) and then Holly, Sam, Mum and I were collected by Alain. We were going to be spending the afternoon canyoning.

Alain is a Frenchman with fantastic eyebrows and apparently one of the best canyoners in New Zealand. I thought it was a little suspicious that we just got in his car, but then I remembered we were putting our lives in his hands canyoning anyway! After about an hour and a half of driving we pulled in at the side of the road, he produced wetsuits, boots, helmets and harnesses and we got changed. At first I wasn't sure why we were putting everything on and he wasn't but I soon saw why he didn't when he had to climb up hill for half an hour to the entry point.

We spent the next three hours working down a river in a canyon, jumping from 5-10m into pools of water and abseiling (culminating in a 30m abseil down a waterfall). This was probably one of the best experiences I've had. Once back in Wanaka we tested our palettes and had Thai for dinner with Susan and Bernard before video calling Mark and Clare.

We were supposed to be in Wanaka at 8am on Saturday morning for our next activity but we got an email delaying us until 09:30. As we were up we took Susan and Bernard’s dogs for a walk and were then collected to go pack rafting (with dad this time). We were brought to the Matukituki river where we were taken by jet boat 40km up the river. It was in this valley that many of the famous scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed including Frodo’s stabbing and the washing away of the Nazgul trying to enter Rivendell. The valley was stunning. We also caught glimpses of Mount Aspiring and one of over 3000 glaciers present in New Zealand. Once out of the boat we grabbed our packs and walked for thirty minutes up stream, ate lunch, blew up the rafts that were in our packs and began rafting down the river. Mum and dad were together, I had Holly and Sam was on his own. We paddled our way down the small rapids, laughing our heads off. Holly managed to fall out of the boat twice. Admittedly the raft had capsized for the second occasion when we ignored instructions and went straight for the confluence of two rivers. Worn out and happy the jet boat took us back and we drove to our next Airbnb. Thankfully I was able to do a clothes wash and I made burgers for dinner.

On new year's eve I had to say goodbye to my family for another 6 months. At least there were no tears this time. Dad drove me to Queenstown airport where I boarded my flight to Auckland. When I arrived I was delighted to be met by Eoghan. When I first heard about coming to New Zealand Eoghan decided he was going to book flights and visit. Unfortunately, with my going to Australia, we only had a couple of hours together in the airport but we had lunch and caught up. It seemed like home was coming to me. Sad to say goodbye again, I left for my flight to Perth. Thankfully I bumped into a kiwi player, Mel, who told me the flight was actually getting in at 21:00 not 23:00! I was able to message Jemma to let her know. Jemma was on the Australian tetrathlon team when I last came to Perth and very kindly offered to collect me and have me to stay. After the 7 hour flight and feeling like it was 5 hours later due to jetlag I was very thankful for a bed.

You can see all the photos from Christmas on Waiheke here and all the photos from the south island here.