Christmas

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Christmas Day

Awoke to a pleasant day, and after breakfast switched on TV. Lo and behold, the Christmas morning service from Christchurch Cathedral was being broadcast, so watched and listened once again to some of the same carols, some very familiar, but one or two with a NZ twist - ‘our summer child - born this Christmas morn’. As the procession left the cathedral, mention was made of this being the 150th anniversary (to the day) of the installation of Bishop Harper and the beginning of the spread of his work throughout South Island. In fact, with his installation, Christchurch became a city, only one day after he and his family arrived on Dec 24th, 1856. All very moving.

After an exchange of simple presents, we headed into Queenstown for a stroll in the sunshine down to the pier. We booked in the boys to go parasailing, then Eric set off in search of a lakeside bar for a leisurely beer whilst waiting - but they were all shut - only cafes open. Boys had a very scenic flight, then we went back to the house for lunch, R and R, before heading back out to the Skyline gondola.

At the top, we went for a walk further up the hill to watch the tandem parasailing - which looked quite fun, but as I hadn’t seen the booth some way down the hill to book it, I had to pass on that. We then went down and did our 2 ‘free’ luge rides. Beautiful views up there - we could see back across to our house up on the hillside to the East. Then into the restaurant for the Christmas extravaganza - pre-dinner drinks, followed by a fantastic buffet meal. We weren’t allocated a table right by the window, but as the weather suddenly closed in, with mist and rain, it didn’t make much difference that we didn’t have the best of views. The buffet was out of this world as far as starters and desserts went - some superb seafood of all descriptions and salmon cooked every which way. The mains were good, but as we made the mistake of covering our turkey in what we took to be bread sauce, but was actually horseradish, which we dislike intensely, it rather spoiled it. But a very indulgent meal, after which we headed back to our house for a quiet drink or two chez nous. Could get quite used to having such a hassle free Christmas Day!

Thanks for the new messages - yes, could happily stay on holiday forever!

Boxing Day - Ralph wanted to do an aerobatic flight, and I wanted to do a scenic flight to Milford Sound, but clouds were too low, so we just had a pottering day. Tomorrow we really start the long journey back, up the West coast. hope the weather's OK for the planned heli;hike on the Franz Josef glacier on alan's birthday - 28th - but forecast is not brilliant, so we'll have to wait and see.

going to have another go at pictures - I've compressed them right down in the hope they'll load this time.

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Comments

[Rachel]

Birthday Wishes
Hi, Just wanted to wish Alan a HAPPY BIRTHDAY and I hope he enjoyed his birthday activities! :o)