Christmas Eve we gave ourselves a rest from the home renovations and went to hang out at the beach at Scorching Bay….its one of those perfect little tourist beaches with a nice expanse of sand stretched out between rocks at either end.
Plenty of parking, clean public toilets, change rooms and outdoor showers, climbing structure for the kids, grassy picnic area and long flat beach for making sand castles/ tossing the Frisbee and playing cricket…..yep that’s the sport here….(well and rugby and even at the beach).
One can get yummy food at the little beach front café that straddles the coastal road……waitresses stopping the traffic to bring the food from the kitchen….
..we had ice-cream and buried our feet in the warm sandThe wind was up and had a chill to it but the tough little Kiwi kids splashed happily…we went in up to our knees and thought it was ok after your feet were numb.
After a nice leisurely drive passed two other beaches we went and got our new library cards so we could really feel like we are residents.
Besides getting a couple of fun novels, a math text book for Robert, Maori language book for me and a cookbook (500 cookies), we picked up pamphlets on the what’s on in Wellington this summer.(Art festivals and theatre galore)…so ya know …if the beaches become somehow boring.
Spent a nice evening with the upstairs neighbours and sang a couple of Christmas carols as the city lights twinkled on the bay.
Early on December 25th we joined in on a traditional Christmas morning hike, invited by new friends who live in a very comfortable sweet fully renovated “Bach” (batch) overlooking beautiful Seatoun village and beach.
It was great to have a guided hike round the peninsula learning new plant and place names…two hours later we were really ready for breakfast.
Then because it was such a lovely sunny day we took a nice drive up the west coast to Paraparaumu and went for a long stroll along Raumati beach where kids were frolicking in the rough waves…again we thought it enough to just get our feet wet and enjoy gazing over to Kapiti Island.
Later we opened our Terry’s Dark Chocolate Oranges and went to the neighbours to have snacks.....double cream brie, smoked salmon, yummy truffles and homemade chocolate éclairs.
On the 26th we phoned/Skyped back to Canada as there it was still Christmas day …..We are living in the future here…near the date line ….where time begins and everywhere else it’s a second hand day!
So even though we missed our family and friends, didn’t decorate a tree, exchange gifts or have snow…..we enjoyed our first Christmas here in New Zealand and feel very blessed.
Every thing was very quiet around the city for the week……most combine the holiday with their summer break and many businesses are shut down. Driving was easy going with no one on the streets…..so I took the scooter on the scenic tour round the peninsula.
We mostly just enjoyed being in our new place and in between the ongoing plastering and painting we explored our Maupuia walking trails.
New Years Eve was magical to drive over to the artsy community of Eastbourne and catch the last rays of the year’s final sunset…beautiful as it glowed reflecting off the water at Mahina Bay where people partied on their yachts...
...good bye 2009....it has been an exciting year.We toasted in the New Year with some 40 or more other Tangaros after a fun night of meeting and dancing with the new Tango crowd at The Beach Café.
The drive home to our hill top flat was perfect along the coast highway with random firework displays.....Wellington city all alight and on through Victoria tunnel where the cars honk (always….not sure why but I like it!), and round the bay where all the boats are docked...
...us feeling very good about being here.Happy 2010!
