Narrated by Mike

After an action packed 2 weeks of adventure, covering over 2,000 sheep-filled kilometers of steep & winding New Zealand roads, we gave ourself a bit of a lazy Boxing Day. We slept in until about 9:30, then bummed around for another 30 minutes or so before getting up to shower & switch Dora from bedroom mode back into minivan mode (lamest Transformer ever, Optimus Prime would be so disappointed).

After getting cleaned up & presentable we did some time travel by Facetiming with both of our families since it was now Christmas Day in the good old USA. It was great to see & hear from them all since we haven’t been able to communicate much outside of a few texts & emails every few days.   

After sharing lots of Christmas cheer & Alaina answering lots of questions about her bungy swing experience, we decided to check out downtown Nelson. The downtown area is filled with any kind of shop you could imagine – from larger department stores to boutique jewelry shops to a surprising number of Thai & Indian restaurants. We spent the afternoon wandering in & out of stores & doing lots of window shopping.

 As we started to get a little hungry, we happened upon a brew pub featuring Mac’s beers – a local NZ craft brewery that I have made my go-to throughout our trip. To ensure an even playing field I got a flight of beers here to sample, just like we did at Monteith’s a few days back & Alaina added another cider to her resume as well. They had a great little outdoor beer garden in the back so we enjoyed yet another beautiful day sipping our brews outside.

Full & happy we decided to head to the beach to check out an enormous sandbar that we had seen yesterday from Simon & Dizzy’s balcony.

  The beach was hopping with about 10 different people kitesurfing (some more successful than others) & tons of people, kids & dogs frolicking around on the beach & in the water.

  We found about a billion sand dollars on the beach & threw them all back in the water to save their lives & even watched a fisherman pull in a sting ray. He said he’d never caught one before but planned to throw it back. But as we walked away he just stared at it looking slightly terrified, not knowing how to cut it loose without getting hit by the tail. We told ourselves that he eventually figured it out & the ray was just fine 🙂

 Returning to camp we decided to take advantage of the on-site mini golf course & the free game they gave us in honor of Boxing Day. Hardest. Mini-golf. Course. Ever. With strategically placed obstacles everywhere this course was definitely based on lucky bounces more than any level of skill. At least that’s what I kept telling Alaina to make her feel better after I whooped her butt. Woooo!!

We followed the golf match up with dinner at a nearby tavern right by the beach called Sprig & Fern. Another new beer for me & cider for Alaina along with a great dinner filled us up again before returning to camp for good to catch the sunset on the beach, do a load of a laundry, & gear up for a trip to Kaiteriteri & the beautiful beaches we’ve heard so much about in the morning. Until then!