A low-key Christmas Day

Christmas is much lower-key in NZ as it seems to be more about the summer holidays than Christmas. As a result, there isn't the same commercialisation and the need to spend isn't thrust down your throats.

As we were off camping, there was even less atmosphere. But that might have been due to the weather that kind of dampened spirits somewhat. We had the tail end of Cyclone Evan, which had turned into a tropical storm, which poured down on us.

We ventured to Ahipara, at the bottom end of Ninety-Mile Beach in the Far North. The hope had been that we'd get out onto the sand dunes and boogie board down them. But fat chance of that. The wind and the rain made that a less-than-pleasant prospect.

On Xmas day itself, we headed up to the very tip top, the equivalent of John O'Groats, to see what Cape Reinga had to offer. It's a very spiritual place in Maori culture and we wanted to see it in its glory.

Sadly, the thick fog that surrounded the north cape meant that we experienced very little. We had almost reached the iconic lighthouse before we could actually see it. The spiritual experience lost on us a little.

But the weather did play ball with us a little to ensure that we could still BBQ our Xmas dinner! Lovely marinated lamb chops, baked potatoes and corn. Not quite your traditional, but very much the Kiwi way of doing things.