Christmas at Ohope

Well we finally made it to Ohope and met up with Mum and Dad and Harold and Pauline. We had booked 2 pitches at the camp site... right on the beach front. The campsite was lovely if a bit unorganised - the comment "Well not everything is open yet as it's not high season until Boxing Day" contradicted the high season prices we were charged for the pitches!!!

Just over the road from the campsite was KG Kayaks - great value and lots of fun. We hired 3 kayaks on Christmas Eve - individual ones for Steve and I and a double for Mum and Dad... Not too sure that Dad was enjoying himself but at least he gave it a go... Steve and I were very well behaved and didn't splash them or tip them out of the Kayak...

We did of course tip each other out and had a big splashing war... the water was a toasty 22 degrees as we were on the inlet which is really shallow (in this pic the water is about 2ft deep!)

After the Kayaking it was so warm that we had to jump off the pier - Steve having no fear jumped first... followed by mum... who threatened to push me off if I didn't jump - a little bit unfair!

On Christmas morning we had a Christmas tree and presents but it was so warm we had to keep in the shade or the chocolate oranges would have melted. I got 3 chocolate oranges - milk, white and dark chocolate :) I also got some new clothes and best of all I got this from Steve. Now I just need a car to put it on.

Steve got some new clothes and tickets to see AC DC in January. We also bought each other gym membership. Pauline brought some snow with her and we had fun trying to make snowballs out of it... well it wouldn't be Christmas without snow - a bit weird in 20 degree heat at 8am!

Harold was having a relaxing Christmas morning... he was comfortably sitting outside the camper until we decided it was time for a dip in the Pacific Ocean :)

It was so hot that it was actually really nice to go for a dip in the sea. The beach at Ohope is about 11km long and on christmas morning at 11am it had about 8 people on it... including the six of us :) The obligatory reindeer antlers:

There weren't great waves so no point taking Steve's board but we took mine in (freshly repaired) and of course everyone wanted a go. First Harold had a try...

Then Mum managed to catch a wave...

Then Steve and I had a splash about and caught a few waves before it was time to stop for dinner - Kiwi style. We had lamb chops, pork ribs, prawns and chicken skewers. Steve was in charge of the BBQ and managed to cook everything to perfection... no fires started!

After this lot and a Tesco Finest Christmas pud (thanks Pauline) with boysenberry ice cream we relaxed for the afternoon as it was too hot to do much else.

A really nice Christmas day :)