A Real Kiwi Christmas

We're baaaaack! (Long story, will illustrate at the end of the post.) But for the past week we've been having the loveliest laziest lollingest holiday in a bach in Pakawau, which is a bit past Collingwood, which is a bit past Takaka, which is over the world's worst hill road. The road left its mark on us, with Sebby making it to the top and past the worst of it, and then promptly hurling about seventeen litres of rancid yoghurty spewkle all over himself and his seat. And the car. And some of the bags. And bits of his sister.

Mmmm holiday memories! Or should I say flashbacks.

But we scrubbed things down and finally made it through to our little holiday home, which was up a long curly driveway, hidden in trees, and backed by a long lawn that reached down to the beach.

Not a bad back yard, eh? The beach right in front of us was very tidal, great for a tiny boy, but five minutes away it turned into a more standard beach. Here are Seb and his Daddy heading off on a backpack trek.

The day after we arrived, Molls and Bink went horse-trekking. For three hours their trusty steeds took them along Whakariki beach. The photos are spectacular, though they were both a bit cowboy-legged the next day!

Meanwhile, Seb was just interested in BEACH TIME, preferably the NUDDY SORT. That boy enjoyed himself so much. Every day he had one or two beach sessions, which invariably resulted in a compulsory shower or bucket-dip. Filthy! He's eaten about two kilos of sand this week, I swear.

Miss M doesn't eat sand. She just sits around being gorgeousness incarnate. What a dear thing she has been! So helpful and sunshiny. Love that girl.

Aunty Will, this is Proof for you that we made some effort towards Christmassiness. Not a BIG one, but an effort nonetheless. And Seb thought it was fab!

Christmas Day was gorgeous. We spent all morning on the beach (I'll try to post a vid tomorrow) and then went home for brunch on the verandah, accompanied by champagne and strawberries. Oh, it was so lovely!

After Seb's nap and the rest of the present opening (we were so spoiled, thank you everyone!) Liam cooked a truly divine turkey and we had dinner out in the garden. Seb was bemused by the hats but went along with his nutty rellies. He loved dinner so much that at one point he abandoned the whole spoon/fingers/middleman scenario and shoved his whole face into his plate.

And he loved all his presents! Adorable clothes, and the sweetest cuddly monster (he has named it URH! -- the exclamation mark is part of the pronunciation) and a car with a winch that SHUDDERS in a way that brings him a ludicrous amount of joy.

Here we all are posing after trifle. Looks like we all had a good day! It was really a wonderful Christmas, relaxed and easy and full of love; the only thing that could've improved it would have been having more of our darling family around us.

Next day we decided to feed Sebby to the eels at a funny little nature park. Whoa, they were some big and disgusting creatures! They didn't get us though. Molly, however, did get bitten rather savagely... by a guinea pig.

So after a truly fab week we packed up on a gloomy Tuesday morning and headed off up the road... for a good five minutes, until we came to this and realised that we were in fact NOT going to be sleeping in our own beds that night.

Worst flooding in years, all over Golden Bay. State Highway was impassable. Oops! Luckily, the people who were due to come and stay in our bach were stuck on the other side of it. So we got to turn around and spend another day in our little home. By afternoon it was even clear enough for more Beach Time for Sebalicious!

All in all, we had a whale of a time. Merry Christmas, everyone! And maybe this post will convince some of you to plan for a trip south this time next year :)