A Very White Christmas in New Zealand

Once safely in Auckland we spent the next day doing some last minute Christmas shopping and enjoying the excellent restaurants of Parnell, a fancy suburb of Auckland, which having many similarities to Marylebone, made me feel very much at home.

Next day it was back to the airport to pick up my mum for the drive up to the Bay of Islands. After a quick detour back into Auckland to pick up Richie's jacket from the hotel, we had a pleasant drive up through the native bush of Northlands with tantalising glimpses of the coast. This was then ruined by a two hour manic dash around the supermarket, filling two trollies with food supplies for the five thousand. We caught up with the rest of the White party (Rich's mum, dad and brother) on the Russell car ferry.















Our rented house was utterly gorgeous, with floor to ceiling glass windows looking out over the bay and a large decking complete with spa pool. A perfect place to spend Christmas. We spent the next six days engaged in the normal festive actives of eating and drinking far to much, and arguing over the dining table. This was only interrupted by a visit to 90-mile beach, a picnic on the lovely Long Beach in Russell, a dolphin watching excursion and parasailing.















Ninety Mile Beach, as the name would suggest, is a 90 mile stretch of wind swept, desolate beach running almost straight up the west side of the extreme north peninsular. People drive the whole length in four-by-fours (it is advisable to check the tides), play around on sand yachts, or horse ride in the surf.














We picked up a dolphin pod soon into our dolphin watching trip. They played around the boat, even doing some jumps, unfortunately since they had a pup with them, we were forbidden from entering the water. Still the water was a bit nippy for free diving anyway.















After two fine days over Christmas and Boxing Day, the temperamental NZ weather turned for the worse, and we found ourselves parasailing in the pouring rain. Alas the huge canopy above you does not act like a big umbrella.














It was a massive wrench to leave the house. The burning question is; how can we live there and still get an income.