Day 160 : You better watch out ..

After a big old day of driving yesterday, rest was on all our minds. No chance! After finally getting to bed at gone midnight it seemed almost pointless going to sleep as my alarm clock was set to silly o’clock (4.15am)!! But why I hear you ask… to swim with dolphins on Christmas Eve of course!

High Point: Swimming with hundreds of dolphins. It’s not often in life you get to do something so incredibly special on Christmas Eve, and we lapped it up realising how lucky we were. It is extreme sensory overload as hundreds of the excitable fellas jump and circle the divers.

Noisy Point: The only way to keep the dolphins entertained is to make as many ridiculous noises as possible. I sang Christmas carols in a very nigh pitched voice, which the dolphins seemed to like.

Risk enjoyment level: 1/10 (Jamie is dominating at the moment and making far too much noise about it)

Random Christmas celebration: We swung by the local fire station in Abel Tasman to say hello. Confused friendly faces as they thought we were some sort of surprise for their Christmas party

And so this is Christmas: After the dolphins it was a long drive up to where we were spending Christmas. A very nice couple (James and Cat) lent us their house for Christmas which was incredibly generous of them. Like so many people that have helped us along our journey, their lives have been touched by cancer and they kindly jumped at the chance to help out. So dilemma time, we could not find the keys for the house, it was 11.30pm on Christmas Eve. Do we break in or camp on the road? In something that looked like a scene from Home Alone, the boys climbed up the veranda with a tool box donning Christmas hats. After a bit of crow bar action, me falling off the roof and some Christmas luck we forced the window to find the keys, a bottle of wine and a lovely Christmas note from our hosts. Christmas songs tick, Christmas tree tick and a glass of shampoo, lovely stuff. The tired crew soon retired as midnight came and we wondered if Santa would know where to find us. New Zealand is a long way from home after all…

Steve

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