Things have been quite busy in our neck of the woods lately which is probably evident by my lack of blogging recently. Josh and I had a very exciting Christmas though and I finally have a moment to talk all about it!

The plan was to go spend Christmas with Josh’s dad who is working as a DOC (Department of Conservation) worker at the moment at the Abel Tasman National Park but we were nearly heartbroken to hear that the road in there was washed away in the recent storm and flooding.

Where there is a will there is a way especially for these kiwis. Josh’s dad decided he would just come pick us up for Christmas on his boat and so that’s what he did instead. Some silly washed out roads weren’t going to wreck our Christmas!

Unfortunately, the closed roads wrecked a lot of people’s Christmases. There are usually over 900 people at the campgrounds and this year there were less than 200. The people there were quite thrilled (well, except for the ones who were trapped there) but I’m sure a lot of people would have still loved to get there, too.

So off we went to the DOC campground and there was Pete’s trusty bus. We got to stay with the DOC workers in the awesome part of camp so we felt special.

Finally we got a decent picture of a weka. These are my favourite birds EVER.

These trees are protected trees. They were there from the mid 1850s when the place was first settled and was originally a farm. It was some interesting history and I realized that I was turning into a boring old person because these sorts of things interested me.

Don’t worry, though – I also decided that this particular tree should have had the scientific name “TREEUS AWESOMEUS” – so I’m still a kid at heart. Then I started calling the trees “my protectors.”

Yup, the trees are THAT old.

Well, maybe the campers could register here if the DOC workers weren’t cooking me Christmas dinner. Mwahaha.

Unfortunately the beach is a bit dirty from the storm too. Usually it’s immaculate. Dumb storms.

Josh and I decided to go for a Christmas swim! This is where I get sunburned and won’t know until the evening. Stupid, stupid me.

This little guy was awesome and let me take pictures of him. He is a cormorant which is another one of my favourite birds.

BEST. PICTURE. EVER.

Jellyfish magnifying glass.

Christmas tea with the DOC workers! Guys… I ATE VENISON. I liked it.

After Christmas tea (dinner/lunch/big meal) Josh and I decided to go for a Christmas hike to work it all off. I don’t think these pictures need much explanation.

Josh decided to take the coastal way back along the rocks and I decided to take the same track back that we came. I took the camera and spied on him from above.

Apparently he made seagull mad because he found their nest.

HI JOSH

The pohutukawa! A beautiful coastal tree. I think it’s even quite Christmasy. :)

Oh, there’s Santa! I never knew my father in law was one of Santa’s elves!

Santa is giving lollies to campers and making them happy and jolly! The campers even gave Santa some beers. Don’t tell.

I saw a stingray!

I chased the stingray all the way down the beach while Josh practiced his casting. Then I was sad because I realized I had to walk all the way back and I was tired from walking around all day.

More Christmas food and even a surprise crayfish!

We fed the leftover crayfish to some eels. These are also protected eels. You can’t eat these eels or you’d get fined $3000.

It was a beautiful boxing day morning on the trip back home.

Josh and I were going to go camping but decided not to go because the weather was supposed to turn poor where we were headed so we went back home instead and left it for a different day. We already had enough adventures on Christmas and we were tired and sunburned so we decided not to try and jam pack too much into one weekend.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday.
The rest of the pictures are here if anyone is interested.

This entry was posted in Life