Kiwi Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Woods Family!

Well we spent our first Christmas without snow, although back home they hardly have any either.  But it is + 25oC here, so I guess that is different.  It was great to have Grandpapa here as we missed seeing our friends and family over the holidays.  Christmas is certainly not as big a deal here as it is back home.  Here is a song from Air New Zealand to explain some of the differences.

We spent Christmas Eve at Tree Adventures in Woodland Forest.  The adults had a tough time keeping up with Naysa and Jonah.

The following videos likely can only be seen on a computer.

After a couple hours of adrenaline heights, we continued on to the West Coast to Muriwai Beach and watched the kite surfers.  Then it was all the way back across the country to the East Coast (a mere 45 mins later) to Takapuna to get ready for Santa.

Christmas Day we opened presents and had a nice brunch.  Then like every kiwi...we went to the beach!  Paddleboarding, kayaking and swimming, then back to the apartment for our Christmas feast with a few modifications (no sweet potatoes here, so used Kumara instead).

On Boxing Day we continued to explore the Waitakere Ranges.  This time we went to the very southern tip of the entrance Manukau Harbour to Whatipu Beach.  This is by far the coolest black sand beach we have seen so far!

Although not part of the Christmas holidays, we also participated in a Santa Claus Run earlier in December.  Quite the site to see 100 Santa's running down the beach!  Jonah and Naysa continued their fast running, each winning a prize for fastest kids in the race.