X-mas Down Under

Let us be the first to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

We are spending Christmas in Auckland, New Zealand. Our Christmas is now half over. We just got back from a late Christmas lunch or early dinner depending on how you look at it. We had a wonderful meal following a late morning of present opening.

We arrived New Zealand after a ten hour flight from Singapore on Saturday. We picked up our rental car and headed north to the Bay of Isles. The three hour drive was beautiful-- wonderful scenery-- a mix between upstate New York and the tropics-- evergreens mixed in with palm trees. The drive was quite short from a distance perspective, but long in time travel. We had to wind up and down mountains on a twisty, curvy road. We arrived at the Anchorage Hotel looking out over the beach and bay in early evening.

On Sunday, we hopped aboard Dolphin Adventures-- a bright yellow catamaran. We sailed out on a beautiful sunny day amid beautiful green landscapes up against a background of blue skies and teal waters. We came upon a school of about 25 or more dolphins. We spent more than an hour there watching and sailing with the dolphins.

We then sailed out to see the famous "Hole in the Rock". It was beautifyl to see but the waters were too rough to actually sail through it. We spent the afternoon at a pristine beach on a largely unihabited island. Sean and Connor swam, Shannon and I collected shells and Caitlin took photos. We ate dinner at a lovely restaurant called Nine and had a fabulous dinner. Most of us crashed early after a long day of fun in the sun.

Christmas Eve Day we drove to the Waipoua Forest to see New Zealand's famous Kauri Trees. These trees are the the biggest, and oldest trees in New Zealand. Some of these trees have been carbon dated at more than 2,000 years old-- that puts them right about the time of the birth of Christ!! Kouri trees are enormous. We took a 30 minute hike out a boardwalk to see the largest two Kouri trees. The largest was 17.5 meters tall (55 feet tall ) and 13.5 meters around (about 45 feet). The Kouri trees are now a protected species in New Zealand--so you can't cut any live Kouri trees down. The only way to get Kauri wood is to recover fallen Kauri trees from swamps or those that are buried underground. Many believe these trees were buried by a major tsunami thousands of years ago. The extensive recovery process for the Swamp Kouri makes the wood extremly expensive!

During our drive to/from the forest we stopped at several places to view beautiful white sandy beaches, unbelievable blue/green and teal waters and huge sand dunes. We took several mini hikes along the coastal mountains overlooking the seaside.

After our tour through the forest, we had a three hour drive back on the twisty, curvy road to the Auckland Hilton-- a hotel that looks like a ship and juts out into the Auckland Bay. We went to sleep to the sound of crashing waves on the hotel breakwall.

As is typical of Henretta/Murray Christmas, we awoke late-- around 11 o'clock. We made the kids hunt for their presents. After thoroughly searching the rooms, Shannon had the big idea to check out on the deck overlooking the harbor-- which was in fact where Santa had left our gifts. After a few photos, we decided it was a bit nippy to open gifts out there so we had to carry in the gifts.

Santa was very good to us (for the second time as the larger, breakable gifts were given before we left for New Zealand). Connor and Shannon got the newest double screen game boys. Caitlin got lots of clothes. Sean got an iPod shuffle and I got new small digital camera (the only camera we own that is simple enough for me to operate-- try taking pictures in a house with two avid photographers-- you need an encyclopedia to take a picture anymore!!).

All in all a good Christmas though we do miss spending time with family and friends. Tomorrow we head off for new adventures.

Hope you all have a wonderfully Merry Christmas.

Love to all. Deb, Sean, Cailtin, Connor and Shannon