Merry Christmas!!

On Christmas Eve we went out toward Raglan. Near the coast is Bridalvail Falls. This 55m (180 foot) falls tumbles off beautiful green cliffs and into a deep pool. The weather has been very rainy recently so we figured the falls would be spectacular – we weren’t disappointed!

Bridalvail Falls through the forest

Beautiful!!

 Christmas is certainly different in New Zealand! While people still decorate Christmas trees, we didn’t find any homes decorated with lights or wreaths, etc. Also, instead of milk and cookies for Santa…Santa eagerly awaits his beer and cookies. No wonder he visits New Zealand first! Must be why he has rosy cheeks by the time he gets to the States too! One other difference that left us a bit sad was the lack of Christmas songs on the radio. No 24 hours of the Christmas Story either. We would have enjoyed even one showing J We did open the eyes of several friends to the awesomeness that is Elf.  

Santa like's Mac's!

Our GIANT Christmas tree - about 6" tall!

 This Christmas we were invited to David Hamilton’s house to join David and his wife Debbie and their kids for Christmas dinner. David is the professor at the Uni with which Kevin is working. David did up the turkey on the BBQ – something that’s fairly common down here. It was a beautiful day – we enjoyed Christmas dinner on the deck sipping wine and enjoying the sunshine!

After dinner we went for a walk and David showed Kevin his bee hives. David keeps two hives and Kevin and David added another row of combs to them. The hives start out with at least 1-2 layers on them – this is where the queen is kept and where the Papua are hatched from. As the bees increase their honeycomb production they need new layers added to the hive.

Kevin putting on David's extra bee suit.

You sure this thing is bee proof?!

David taking the top off of the hive. The two columns of boxes on the right are where the two bee hives were located. Each needed a new layer of combs (behind David) added to them.

Pulling out a comb - the bees are busy at work!

The active combs - these two hives produce about 20kg (~45-50 lbs) of honey a year!

On Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, we went out to Raglan to friend’s house there. We’re still not sure exactly what Boxing Day is all about – apparently it’s the day that people ‘box’ everything up from Christmas! Our friends Bronwyn and Regan live (literally!) about 25 feet from the water - Raglan harbor is their backyard! Boxing Day was another beautiful relaxing day!

We hope you all enjoyed the holidays and got to spend time with friends and family. For both of us this was our first Christmas not spent with family. It felt weird to be in shorts and T-shirts on Christmas! While we missed everyone back home, we don’t miss the weather!! (-: