More X-mas Down Under

Greetings from New Zealand. We are hoping everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa was good to you all.

Last time we wrote, it way mid day Christmas Day. We had a great Christmas dinner at a terrific restaurant. We ate at the same restaurant for Christmas Eve dinner too!! The kids initially selected it for its name-- "Y.not". While we had lots of choices for Christmas dinner, the kids and I wanted an encore dinner, so we thought Y.not!!!

The day after Christmas is actually a bigger holiday than Christmas in Australia/New Zealand. It is know as Boxing Day and virtually everything closes down. That meant a late Breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and dinner at KFC. The choices for food on Boxing Day are limited!! During the day, we drove along the seaside of the Coromandel Pennisula. More hours of windy, curvy roads up and over mountains but with beautiful scenery.

We then settled in at the Trout and Chicken Bed & Breakfast in Waihi and to no surprise there really are trout and chicken on the farm!! The inn is adjacent to an organic blueberry farm-- leave it to Sean to find us this one!!

Waihi is an old gold mining town with spectacular beaches. We spent the moring walking along the little shops of the town leading up to the town's gold mine. It is one of the world's most efficient gold mines and has basically been in operation since the late 1800's.

We spent the afternoon hiking in the Karangahake Reserve. We took a long walk in a beautiful gorge along a rocky river. All along the river were ruins of the old gold processing plant where they converted ore from the mine into gold.

On the way back, we stopped at Owharoa Falls and walked down to the base of the falls. It was beautiful.

We are now on our way to Rotorua-- one of the world's most active geothermic areas in the world. More to come....

Love to all!!

Deb, Sean, Caitlin, Connor and Shannon