Day 13

Xmas in Otautau with Leigh-Anne & André. The kids slept late and we got up to a racket of breakfast and opening presents. There was loads of loot, and Kenneth wanted to open everyone's gift for them. Clive got a fabulous Afrikaans music CD which we put on immediately - Aaargh, there were some real clangers, but he said it was a tradition for Di's brothers to send him a tacky CD for Xmas. We came away with lots of lovely NZ goodies - choccies, mugs, and Zack got an All Black teddy bear. We didn't go large by any means - we'd need to cart it all home to the UK via Australia and SA, and we'd rather not.

Kenneth with his treasured golf-clubs

Kenneth & Christopher playing with their walkie-talkies in Leigh-Anne's sleigh

Soon everyone was heading next door for our Christmas Day Party with the neighbours - Leigh-Anne and André and their extended family. They have a beautiful home (Andre is a builder) and we felt so welcome and treated. The lunch spread was expansive with ham, beef, chicken, turkey, veggies and all the trimmings. We met some other locals including a Dutch farmer and his wife who are our age, and farm dairy cows nearby. Just after 1, Zack was starting to get ratty so Keith took him next door for a nap, and at 2:30 I went and joined him for a wee bit of shut-eye. It felt like heaven to be able to go and have a rest (something Keith's family used to do when he was young) after a big lunch. Sadly I missed the opening of the presents but the debris was much in evidence when I woke up. Zack was very spoilt and was given a car and a book - both of which he thinks are the greatest. He can label some of the objects and knows that the book is about counting and spent a while saying "two, two, two" and pointing to each item. heh heh, my child is a genius !
The afternoon drifted into the evening and some guests left and others arrived. We were told "Tea" would be a seafood BBQ! Oh my, where were we going to put all that ? There was a huge seafood salad, and then fresh prawns, blue cod, grouper, gurnard, paua (abalone), lamb sweetbreads, venison AND steak. Eina !! (Afrikaans for "ouch".) All the fish was caught by Leigh-Anne's brother, so fresh as can be. More pudding, and more drinks. We left at about 10pm having listened to the jokes about how late everyone had stayed the previous year and been thrown out by Andre.