Whanau Christmas and a very Happy New Year - Nelson & Hanmer Springs, Dec/Jan 20/21

 

This is what family Christmas looks like 
15 of us in all

Waiting for the ferry to cross to the South Island, we both choose to relieve the boredom of the queue in different ways ....

Some of us like to knit in the quiet times

And some of us like to sleep

We had a wonderful few months planned in the South Island.  We were ultimately headed to Nelson to a housesit and family Christmas.  But having a week or so up our sleeves, we headed to one of our favourite NZ fishing spots, Titirangi Bay in the Kenepuru Sounds.

First night on the shore of Aussie Bay
Queen Charlotte Drive

We had a wonderful few days fishing out of our kayak, catching plenty of gurnard to share with the family.  Weirdly, we didn't think to take any photos of our time in camp!  This is a DOC campground in the middle of a working farm.  The caretaker farmer couple has changed since we were here last three years ago, but the place is still as enchanting as ever .....

We headed straight to our housesit where we would look after Lizzie, a 10yo tabby cat.  We all took to each other supe quickly.  She enjoyed our company and it was good for us to have somewhere to stay independantly from the family although we did enjjoy most of our meals with them.

After a week of family frolicks we headed off to our next house sit in Hanmer Springs, stopping along the way for a night or two camping and fishing. James would have liked to have stopped for a dive round Kaikoura but the water was quite dirty.

Kaikoura coast

Caught a few small sharks!  All went back
to the ocean.  We don't kill sharks

We were delighted when we got to our housesit in Hanmer Springs and met our charges for the next few days .... this charming old girl, Marmite and her farmyard friends ...

And just look at these stunning views of the mountains. You just can't buy a view like that!

We had a daily visit from Marmite's friend Olive

And being right on the riverbank, we were able to enjoy daily romps, sploshing through the water with Marmite.  So much fun!