Picked up at the airport in Auckland by Lana's old friend Bruce Gilbert. Bruce had immigrated to New Zealand from Canada about 20 years ago after he and his wife had visited there and decided it was the place for them. I think Bruce actually has Canadian, US and New Zealand citizenships which give him a wide selection of travel documents.
We travel, on the wrong side of the road mind you, about two hours to the small town of Katikati (Kate-y-Kate-y) on the western shores of the North Island. Bruce normally lives in the city of Christchurch on the south island but this year they had been planning on visiting with some relatives of Carolynn's in Katikati for the Christmas holidays. The Gilberts, and their relatives the Robinsons, had just rolled us up into their plans.
The Robinson's house at Christmas is a very, uh, interesting one. Barb Robinson, the mother, greeted us with “welcome to the zoo”. Normally there is just her and her husband Roy but for the holidays there would also be Lana and I, Bruce and Carolynn, Paula (their daughter), her husband Richard, their daughter Zara and Barb's son Brent. Of course there was a steady stream of visitors as well.
Their place is an interesting one with about 10 acres of Kiwi fruit, some avocado trees (which are much bigger than I expected), a front yard filled with various bearing trees (peach, walnut, apple, lemon, tangellos and macadamia nuts - but I might have missed one) and, did I mention the disabled Land Rovers scattered around the property? Roy Robinson likes Land Rovers and has collected ones that were a little worst for the wear over the years. Now they sit like sentinels guarding the Kiwi vines.
Remember that Christmas in New Zealand is the start of their summer season. There are decorations up on some buildings and White Christmas can be heard in the stores but it is no where near as over whelming as it is in North America.
We spent three days in the Robinson's household and they were very kind to us. Roy took us on tours of the countryside talking about old Maori sites and the difference between the different trees in the forest with equal enthusiasm. Babara spent almost all of her time cooking as it seemed to me that a major meal was planned every two hours or so for the 24th, 25th, and 26th.
To give us room Roy and Barb spent their nights in this sleeping tent perched on top of one of the Land Rovers. Would you do that for someone you didn't know? We even got presents for Christmas. Since they clearly enjoyed our company I offered to stay for the next few weeks but I think they wanted us to see more of New Zealand then their dining room table so they graciously refused. Thank you Robinsons. Thank you very much.
The only thing missing was our children. We did get a hold of David in Finland and Charlotte in Toronto but it just wasn't the same. Charlotte was with her boyfriends families and David was watching his new host Mom light real candles on the their Christmas tree with some trepidation.
Two other things. Thank you to Zara for distributing the Christmas sacks (yes I said sacks) so well. To Paula I can only say “Cheese”. (Inside joke – you had to be there).
The Gilberts, the Robinsons and the Burchetts at a local, what else, cheese factory.
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