Merry Christmas!

Today is a beautiful, sunny Christmas Day here in New Zealand. Kristin arrived just over a week ago, and Madeleine has been enjoying lots of Auntie time. She was comfortable with Kristin from the moment we met at the airport, which is wonderful since Madeleine is starting to be a bit more hesitant of strangers.

Last week, Kristin, Madeleine and I drove north to the Coromandel Peninsula. On the way up, we stopped for a night in Taupo and took more scenic routes, like driving up the western side of the peninsula and stopping at this little rocky beach for a Madeleine-service stop.
The Coromandel is a beautiful part of New Zealand - full of inlets and beaches, green hills and lush forests.
We stayed in the little town of Whitianga, on the eastern side of the peninsula. This is the local beach, a few minutes walk from our hostel. Yes, we stayed in a hostel. The three of us shared a double bed in a small room with paper-thin walls. We all slept great, but I'm not sure if the same can be said for our neighbours who likely heard Madeleine squawking away at 7am each day. She loved people-watching in the hostel, and seemed especially taken with the many German-speaking travellers.
The first day, we drove to a nearby town of Hahei, where the beautiful red Pohutakawa trees were blooming along a white sandy beach. We hiked about 45 minutes to Cathedral Cove, a beach famous for rock arches and sandy beaches.
We enjoyed the beach for a few hours, and Madeleine packed away a few strawberries dipped in sand.
The next day, we took a 2 hr trip on the Glass Bottom Boat tour. We got to see some of the majestic cliffs...
and even got to see a pod of dolphins swim and jump around our boat!
They took us out to a marine reserve, where some of us went snorkeling. This is me, under the glass-bottomed boat, waving at Madeleine and Kristin (who both stayed aboard).
Later that day, we drove to Whangapoua and enjoyed another beautiful sandy beach. This one was very quiet and had beautiful views of green hills, red Pohutakawa trees, and islands in the distance.
These pictures of happy Madeleine were taken only after a good 20 minutes of fussing and downright screaming. It was strange for her, and I tried everything, except of course, a nappy-change. So finally, I clued in that perhaps it was her nappy, and I went to change it, only to discover a little ladybug-like insect squished right into her bum cheek! It had clearly been there a little while, as there was a definite bug-imprint on her cheek. The second her nappy was off, Madeleine was smiling and chatting, and ready to play.

We drove the whole way home in one day, which took us 11 hrs (including Madeleine service stops whenever she asked for them). She is a great little traveller, but she was VERY happy to be back home. Here is our decorated tree, with popcorn chains, red balls, and paper origami stars made by Kristin and me upon her arrival. The bounty of gifts below the tree are all thanks to our parents, who have once again been more generous than we ever expected.
Steve is on holidays now, and was thrilled when the weather cooperated and he was able to go out observing the last two nights. The long summer days mean that he is out from about 10pm until sunrise at 5am, so this Christmas Day morning, he is sleeping in. There is a comet in the morning sky right now, and Steve managed to catch a full view of it last night, from the coastline near his observing spot. It is named Comet Lovejoy - an appropriate name for a Christmastime comet!

We are looking forward to tomorrow morning's arrival of Steve's brother Chris, who will stay with us for a few weeks. We plan to have a Christmas sausage sizzle (barbecue) on the beach to welcome him to New Zealand!