We interrupt this broadcast from Argentina.....

.....to bring you the Christmas 2019 highlights.
We towed the caravan up to Ohiwa on Sunday the 15th of December, as the weather and traffic on the Monday did not look as favourable. We got some showers, but it was the strong winds which  also very gusty that scared us all.

Fortunately our site is quite sheltered from rain in this direction

These two baby tui did not make it, which lead to very distressed parent tui

 We had an early Christmas Day with sisters Heather and Lyn. We began the day with a "high tea" brunch .

(Lyn wants you to know that she is raising a glass of water )

We had a very traditional roast lamb dinner and the proceeded to assemble our Mille Feuille (a thousand sheets) pastry, layered with strawberries, custard and cream and raspberry syrup.

Lyn was the only one of us to successfully eat hers without a spoon.

 The weather on the next two days was OK, but not warm enough for swimming. Also there was a rahui after White Island eruption.

 Lyn has asked me commissioned me to paint a scene from Ohiwa for her spare room for her seventieth birthday. She has a photo, but we had a lot of walking up and down on the estuary only to find that it must have been taken from the balcony of Todd and Nola's house! The norfolk pine and the pohutukawa are now crowded out by the swimming pool!

 On Friday the 20th we hitched up the caravan and headed off to Wren and Margaret's just out of Hamilton, and then around to Barry and Liz's new house, which is much smaller than they are used to, but a sensible move given our advancing years!!

Then we all went out for dinner at the Wayward Pigeon

 Next morning Barry and Duncan went out to play golf and Liz , Margaret and I went to see Dolores, She was very bright and talkative, despite only having 30% of heart function. She was heading to Australia for Christmas. Her next great mission will be to move somewhere smaller, but she still has quite a bit of sorting out to do with Bruce's estate. She very kindly gave us a bottle of red wine from Bruce's wine cellar, which we look forward to drinking soon.
Later in the afternoon we moved up to Clark's Beach. Not a great camping ground, but very close to the Anderson's at Waiau Pa. Next day Duncan played golf with Rob Dyas, an ex-Gisbornite, and some other golfers whom he also knows. I did some housework, and had a relaxing day.
Simon, Jackie, Theo and Claudia had flown in overnight, and we went and picked the kids  and bought them back to the camping ground.

Theo played very considerately on the tramp with his sister

 We went for a walk along the estuary but it was very tidal and not good for swimming.

And so windy it just about blew Claudia's dress off!

Theo was the only one to manage without warm clothing!

 Later in the afternoon we went back to the Andersons and had dinner with them and then we all went to the Glenbrook steamtrain Christmas festival. Jackie's brothers and families turned up too.

Phil and Claudie

Simon and Theo

Arriving at the station and Santa's grotto.

 On the 24th we picked Theo and Claudia up and headed to Butterfly Creek. Unfortunately the one part the kids did not like was the butterfly enclosure as it was very hot and humid, and there was quite a bit of rotting fruit about, as this liquid is all the butterflies take in.

 However there were lots of other displays which the kids enjoyed more. Claudia was a willing model.....

With a pirate skeleton

With a lizard

With a roaring brother

With a couple of old fossils

With a unicorn

With a couple of apes!!

with a white rabbit

fearlessly feeding the goats

with a watermelon fruju.

Theo offering a raptor some fruju. These models had moving parts and made noises.

 Simon came around to the motorcamp on Christmas morning so we could open the presents there and avoid present overload. There was yet another game of mini golf for the boys, then about 11.30 we went around to the Andersons.

I tried to get Claudia to sit forward more!

Water balloons on the lawn. The garden was looking a picture and will be open next month for a garden tour.

Then we all ate too much and sat and talked until about 5pm. I couldn't eat another thing, but Duncan managed some dinner.
We got a good start next morning - it was a bit ambitious to make it back in one day: 8 1/2 hours with the caravan and stops every couple of hours. But we made it by 5pm and at least got the food out of the caravan.