Merry Christmas?

Perhaps it's the Northern Hemisphere-ese (what exactly does a resident of the northern hemisphere call one's self?)in me, but this holiday season did not feel like a holiday season at all. I really think it had more to do with the fact of Christmas and the new year being in the middle of summer, than the holidays being celebrated differently here. Although, they are not nearly as big a deal here, at least so it seemed. What was perhaps funniest is that the Christmas carols are all the same. It is an odd sensation to be heading to the beach wearing shorts with the windows down, while listening to "Frosty the Snowman." Both days snuck up on me, and I only realized the day before each that they were arriving shortly.

Christmas Day, the Elys, the Peters, and I all went out to Karekare beach. This beach is on the West coast, south of Piha beach, which I have talked about before. They go south to north, Karekare, Piha, Bethells (which is my favorite). All three are absolutely gorgeous. We spent a while there, and played in the water. The waves on the west coast of NZ are huge. Much larger than the east coast beaches, which in some places have almost no waves at all, most of the time. After that we took a short hike from the beach (only about 10 min. walk), so some gorgeous water falls. There were a few smaller falls on the way in, but the main fall was absolutely amazing. It fell from what seemed to be, probably close to 200 ft. from the mountains, into a pool. I have a picture where a man had climbed up on the base of the fall, and he is tiny in comparison to the fall. It was really amazing.

Today I leave for my trek/tour of New Zealand! I begin my north Island tour today, it will last about 8 days. The south island tour will come after I am done with the north island. I decided to cut down the length my tours, for budgeting and timing reasons, but they are going to be great just the same. I will try to blog as often as I can, as I will have a great deal to talk about most every day; but will be limited to weather or not the hostels we stay at have computers, as I am not taking my laptop. Most of them do have computer access, but who knows. If you need to get in touch with me, email me (though it may take me a day or two to get back with you); or give me a call on my mobile.