You can't get much more culture than that.

So this year I spent my first Christmas away from most of my immediate family. It was odd not to do the usual things like opening the mass of Christmas presents under the tree, cooking Christmas dinner, going to see movies etc etc. But I did get to spend this Christmas with my dear Nana. This has happened less than a handful of times in my lifetime.

This is my Nana.


Nana woke me up at 8am on Christmas morning. She had been up since 6:30am so she was anxious to start opening presents. I felt as if I were a character in Harry Potter, I had a little pile of presents right next to my bed and I opened them without getting out of the covers.

Next, Nana and I headed over to my cousin Damon and his wife Kam's house. Their house was bustling with their other Christmas guests which included, my great uncle Whare and my great aunt Andrea.

Damon and Kam's two beautiful children Kiera and Ameria.


My cousin Andrew, his wife Cath, their cute little boy Cooper.


Cath's brother Brad and Cath's parents. Quite the group I know! When I was invited to their house for Christmas I expected it to be traditional Christmas dinner with Turkey and all the fixins. Little did I know that traditional was going to be taken a step further and we were going to dine like my ancestors. Hangi! The following is a little movie that shows the hangi being removed from the earth.



While we were gathering our hangi the local chooks came by and I met one aptly named 'Beaky'... can you see why?

Our hangi was made up of a variety of meats (turkey, beef, wild boar and pork) root vegetables (pumpkin/squash, potato and kumera) and cabbage. I tried a bit of everything and liked it all except for the Wild Boar. The taste of it made me think I had just eaten a bit of my arm... yucky!

After dinner Nana and went to The Carter's, family friend's of ours and then we ventured home. Full of food and good memories.

The next day I did something I hadn't done in years but when I was younger used to do almost every year and that was to go see 'The Lights' at Pukekura Park with my cousin Jadd.



Notice Mt. Taranaki (Egmont) in the background.


See how excited Jadd is cause we're at 'The Lights"??

Now I'll take you on a tour of 'The Lights!"












That same evening there was a concert going on at the park. So we stuck around and watched one of New Zealand's up and coming rappers delight the audience.


So that was my Christmas and Boxing Day. Both were full of new experiences and old traditions which I reckon is how the holidays should be. It's my New Year's resolution to keep this blog going so check back often. I'll try and update it at least once a week. Miss you all!!