Akaroa summer sun, fun and lots of NZ wine

23rd Dec 2011-1st Jan 2012

We have spent the last week enjoying the xmas holidays in a small holiday town called Akaroa.

Akaroa is 1 hour south east of Christchurch, there are not normally many more than 500 residents. However for the xmas holidays loads of people from Christchurch head down to their batches (That’s Kiwi for holiday home) towing boats and jet skis to chill out for the week.

Now unlike cold northern hemisphere xmas holidays that means, Sun, Sea, Boats, Fish and summer fun!

Our Friend Gretchen’s parents have a ‘batch’ in Akaroa and Sarah and I were lucky enough to get an invite for the whole xmas break. So after the shock of the quakes we all headed down to Akaroa on Xmas eve.

The batch is a beautiful wood cladded house sat on the corner of a bowling green and playing field, with the beach only a 5 minute walk. The first job for Grant Gretchen’s dad was to hoist the NZ flag!

Akaroa has French heritage which is strange as it was first discovered by the English (Long story but the French told the English they were going so the English got in a faster boat and beat the French here by a few days!)

Xmas day was a beautiful day where the sun shone and the amazing NZ wine flowed. Unlike home xmas dinner is not a Turkey extravaganza but a seafood extravaganza! We had Cray fish, White Baite and Freshly caught smoked Tuna. In typical fashion the food was cooked outside on a BBQ.

 

Boxing day as in the UK is a quiet affair dedicated to getting over xmas day and drinking a little more great wine! We however decided with the persuasion of Nicks uncle to go for a game of boules at the green across the road. We didn’t expect to become addicted and go there 3 more times before we left!

We were again lucky enough to get to go out on Gretchen’s parents jet boat, Yes I said jet boat. Kiwi designed this boat is the same as a jet ski design, no propellers. With a big whopping V8 it makes a lot of noise and goes pretty quick! So we blasted out in to the bay and were lucky enough to see a group of Dolphins that swam all around our boat for 10 minutes jumping out of the water and playing around the boat. This was better than any tour we have ever been on to see dolphins!

Later in the week after eating and drinking too much we decided to take a hike up in to the hills on a cloudy day to get us back in the mode for our trekking next week. The walk was beautiful but when we got to the top we were not blessed with weather. However it was good training walking from Akaroa at sea level to 700 meters almost as high as England’s highest peak!

At the end of the week came NYE, the rest of NZ was under a foot of water as the North island had experienced record December rain fall but down in Akaroa the sun continued to shine! We had some drinks with Nick and Gretchen’s friends and went to a small local bar to see out 2011 and in 2012 (and yes Sarah was on the Jager bombs- oh dear!!!).

We need to say a massive thank you to Jen and Grant (Gretchen’s parents) for having us to stay and being so welcoming and accommodating over their xmas break, we appreciated it so much! Also a huge thank you to Nick and Gretchen for putting up with us for 2 weeks now, they still have another week of us in a few weeks we’re just breaking it up for them!

So 2011 has been and gone, but it has been an amazing year for us, we have been to many places, we have seen many things and met many people. We however have no doubt that 2012 is going to be equally as good. We’re going to miss the Olympic games, blessing or curse as we helped pay for them we’re not sure, but we will hear how great they are from family and friends with tickets.

2012 prophesised as the end of the world as we know it …..Lets see what happens they said that in 2000.