Xmas & New Year in NZ - then time to leave NZ sadly....

NZ Xmas 2009 / New Year 2010:

Xmas 2009 came up on us very quickly. Because we were in the sun a lot over the run up to it, it just was not the same preparation and build up as we would do in the UK! It was great to arrive in lake Rotoiti and meet up with Ians family from the UK – but his brother Martin and family and Sheenas Mum/Dad and brother and their families were also not in NZ and we would normally be around them at Xmas. So 4 days before Xmas we all made a list of what was important to us at Xmas and off we went to purchase it all from Rotorua. It was a day of preparing the house we had rented at the lake into a UK Xmas house. By the end of the day with everyones help we had succeeded with Xmas tree, decorations and enough food to feed us over the Xmas period!

The next few days were great fun as we chilled out, waterskied, fished, went to the hot baths only accessible by boat and enjoyed being around the family and our NZ cousins again. Each day a new set of cousins arrived so that by Xmas day we had all met up with everyone. It was good that we all got along very well and all the kids mixed very well as they were all in a similar age bracket.

On Xmas day we were woken early by Toby who had got the time wrong !! It was 6am so we all got up and Father Xmas had come – So Megan and all the kids were very excited and we got the present opening underway immediately!! All the family then arrived and we had a West/Laskey morning present opening, a Xmas waterski/wakeboard, went for a walk and preparing a full UK Xmas lunch. We set the table outside and had a delicious Xmas lunch overlooking the lake, on the hottest Xmas day in NZ for 10 years!  After lunch we lay like beached whales in the garden thinking of swimming but worried we would sink!

In the evening we had a fabulous BBQ at Jim and Eves house next door with all of the cousins and family – about 30 people in total. It started early and went on quite late and was a great end to a Xmas in NZ and outside the UK. Eve and Ians’ dad both made a speech which was also good fun.

For the next week we just chilled out, fishing, waterskiing, wakeboarding, teaching some of the cousins to ski, sailing, jumping from the Pohutukawa tree into the lake. We also visited a variety of historical Maori historical sites and saw boiling mud pools, geysers shooting water out of the ground and hot pools. And a village buried underground called the “Buried Village” which was not that interesting because – it was buried!! We should have figured that one out! All-in-all it was a relaxing time and enabled everyone to chill out and enjoy the activities above and each others company. Especially as at the end of the break some were going to Sydney, some round NZ, some back to England – and we would not see everyone again until April.

It was also a time to get to know the cousins better who we had not met for sometime or at all. The kids all got on brilliantly and it was interesting that similar aged kids on different sides of the world were all very similar! Harry looked like Sam; Megan fell in love with Harry who dealt with it politely and brilliantly!! Ben was a great wakeboarder and by the end a very good mono skier in only a few days and Harry did the best first run on 2 skis I have ever seen – up first time, out of the wake both sides, round the turn again, again and again, and then let go after a long, long go and did not get his hair wet – saying why does everyone think skiing is hard!! Richard taught us all to fish for Rainbow trout in the lake – as a freshwater ecologist and on the fishing council if he could not catch fish then no-one could – but he was an expert tutor with the kids and they all caught fish – with Toby winning our families prize with 2 fish well over 5lbs which Sheena and Ruth cooked to perfection for us. The Stockers took us for a mountain bike ride thru Rotorua forest deicated to bikes – a great fun morning out which the boys really enjoyed – we need to do more of that now that we have been introduced to it.

Helen and her family left on the 29^th Dec to tour the South island as we did before Xmas and so it was really lovely to spend 4 quieter days with Ians Dad and his wife Ruth, with Jim and Eve also around. These were our last days by the lake – I remembered it as a paradise  all those years ago and it had not changed really at all – and still lived up to its billing!! Our enormous thanks to Jim and Eve who helped us out enormously with our trip and were so hospitable to us all with an open house and also the lending of all their water gear and especially speed boat! It all made for a fabulous and enjoyable time – and luckily all parts of the family got on like a house on fire and new and hopefully long lasting friendships and family relationships were made. The next generation of kids hopefully will have friends on the other side of the world – and we hope to see our NZ cousins in the UK as they, like most NZ’ers, get their rucksack on and travel Europe in the years to come.

We left the lake with a big sadness – and said goodbye to Jim and Eve. We then had a nice lunch saying goodbye to Dad and Ruth as they went off elsewhere in NZ and then return to a cold UK! We were excited to go to the Cambridge area where the NZ cousins lived normally and Ian had been a tutor at a Private school (like a Public school in the UK) all those years ago. The first port of call was the Cambridge cricket pitch where Ian had scored his first hundred – all very interesting for Ian but not so for everyone else. Next we visited St Peters school which had increased in size by 3-fold and was an extremely impressive school with a golf range/academy, an equestrian arena and the best sporting facilities seen at almost any school! It obviously was holiday time and Ian started nosing around his old house where he was tutor and coached cricket. He found in his old room the current house tutor for the house and said hello and a good chat (see photo). It was great for ian to see where he spent a year of his life but soon everyone else got bored and we moved on to see the NZ cousins again in their current homes. We had kindly been offered to stay with Diana and Todd with Harry and Ben in their house (that used to be Dianas grandparents in Auckland but they had moved in 4 parts 2 hrs south and then put back together – and very well done too!) We had a great afternoon with them and then went to the races (Trots) in Cambridge nearby. The next morning was Megans 4^th birthday and we woke up to presents over breakfast which Diana and family unfortunately had to put up with but hopefully enjoyed. After packing up we went to Dianas brothers house Tim – and his wife Jo and kids Matthew, Thomas and Kate. They had some friends staying also with some more girls who had kindly made cards and over a great BBQ lunch we then had a birthday cake etc… for Megan so an enjoyable birthday for her.

Tim and Jo’s house was amazing – an award winning architect designed house that would fit into the Dream Homes worldwide programme. A great view of the Waikato river and valley/plain out of 270 degrees of the house from on top of a hill – awesome location. Yet again we had great hospitality and the kids swam and played around – thank you to Tim/Jo and Diana/Todd for all your hospitality.

Then Tim took us on a tour of the dairy farm during milking which was very interesting to know that milk comes from cows and not the fridge. It was very funny – as we walked into the milking shed a cow released brown and yellow matter all over the milking man covering him from head to foot – that was funny but we also got covered from knee to foot! And then it happened again – Tim said the cows only did it when the English came to the milking shed apparently!! After our tour and quad bike ride (all NZ farmers now use quad bikes and more farmers are killed by quad bikes each year than anything else!) it was time for our last good byes to the Montgomeries and Stockers and head off on our 90 minute drive to Auckland for our flight to Hong Kong the next morning.

We really have had a brilliant time in NZ – such friendly people we met plus renewing and starting new friendships with previously distant cousins. Fabulous scenery and awesome activities (Bungy, swimming with dolphins, rafting, hiking, fishing, waterskiiing etc…). The lake Rotoiti which really is a special place and the country has a special feel to it for visitors as an exciting outdoorsy type of place with extremely friendly and hospitable people. So another experience on our trip with very few negatives!!  Another great memory for us all – next time Ian and Sheena will probably do NZ in an RV!

We got on the plane to Hong Kong/Asia a bit wary of the next stage of our trip as we would encounter a substantial period with out English as the first language; a period of relatively cold weather for the first time on our trip and school in China which we believe will be a hard challenge for the kids. But also we know we are visiting countries we have not spent much time in and so they are really different – but good for more experiences and learning of new cultures and meeting more, different people and seeing what makes them tick! We couldn’t wait……..