Merry Christmas!

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Day 111
25th December

Merry Christmas! We woke up to an absolute scorcher of a day and Gillie got the day off to an excellent start by making us Bailey’s coffees! The four of us then opened our presents. Simon had 2 years worth as they had been shipped to England but Simon had left before they arrived so they got sent back to New Zealand! I got a gorgeous pair of earrings, a pair of havaianas and these fluffy new Zealand socks that Ellory had caught me eyeing up in Waitomo, bless him. I was very pleased. Simon’s mum, Gay, had arrived in the middle of the night so we got to meet her for the first time and thank her for allowing 2 strangers to join in for Christmas. We also gave her the Cloudy Bay sparkling wine which seemed to go down well!

Lots of family members were starting to arrive at that point and Christmas lunch seemed to be coming on well. We spent the rest of the morning outside in the glorious sunshine, drinking our way through the wine and beer and watching the cricket game that the family were playing. Ellory, Gillie and I had decided to be enthusiastic spectators and cheer on from the sidelines, but Simon was playing (wearing an Elf hat). Lunch was soon ready and we had a lovely meal of turkey, lamb, chicken, potatoes, veg and gravy. Very similar to the northern hemisphere so us 3 northerners felt right at home! The afternoon was spent drinking more wine (!) and playing volleyball. While very strange to be playing volleyball on Christmas Day it was loads of fun and then later on the family got out the quad bikes and we all had a go! Well the guys drove and Gillie and I hung on at the back! Ellory had an absolutely brilliant time and there was a lot of wild talk of buying one when we are back in London!

The day was rounded off by a call back to England to wish the family Merry Christmas. I did get a little homesick at this point as this was the first Christmas that I wasn’t with my family (except when I’d had to work) but with Ellory and Gillie in the same boat we were all there for each other! All in all a really lovely Christmas day and it was great to spend it with our friends.

Love Liz xxx

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