lizard

This is going to be our 9th Christmas in NZ. I am not looking forward to it at all, it just makes me sad. I feel like I have missed out 9 times. I can't bear to hear Slade's " Merry Christmas everybody", it breaks my heart. Too many memories of great times in the pub over the years.

I don't want to have anymore BBQs for Christmas day, then a walk on the beach. It does not feel special. I want it to be cold, have a proper Christmas dinner, real Christmas TV, hear proper Christmas carols, go to the pub and have a laugh with people who have got a good sense of humour.

So we have decided this will be our last and the next one will be back in Blighty and all the ones after that.

I am just too English to stay away any longer, I need the country lanes, the Yorkshire moors, the village pub, concerts ( Roger Chapman and Family reformed and played Clumber Park and I missed it - f@#k)

I want to feel alive again.

MrsFychan

well lizard you have had a good length of time over here, I'm sure when you are packing up and near the time to leave you will have some good memories and experiences to take with you.
I do know what you mean about the topsy turvy seasons, last Christmas, our first here, was mostly spent inside with the air con on as it was just so hot. People under estimate how the lack of ozone makes a real difference to how you handle the heat.

snaps - before entering water please check that it safe, some places are not safe to paddle let alone swim in. Sure if it is a major beach area it would be safe but always best to check. As for parking tickets you are correct most places are free and I personally don't see burger vans around just lots of little bbq's set up mainly by shops providing sausage in some bread but litter is still a problem.
as for fairground rides yep can honestly say don't think they have things like that. Mind you if you do attend any organised functions just lower your expectations and all will be good

Persephone

As for the original post: I am going to be in the UK for Christmas this year and am so looking forward to it. Much as I like living in NZ, Xmas just isn't the same when the sun is out and the days are long I tend to let it pass me by-usually we're at the inlaws and it doesn't inspire. Everyone sits around in near silence watching TV, there's no decorations or cards or really anything to imply it's anything other than a normal family dinner. I suppose every family has it's own traditions...

I am looking forward to dark nights, hopefully with snow, Xmas lights and a tree, lots of laughter and talking nonsense, a proper Christmas dinner and left over turkey, wine and port and feeling like I'm a child again [I always seem to regress 30 years when I'm at my Mam or Dad's]

Lizard, all the best with the future. Remember this is your last Xmas here and try and enjoy it!

jmh

Gotta say though, that's quite unusual. The heat doesn't usually kick in until after Christmas and I'm very surprised you needed your air con. Mind you we had ours on last week, but that is unusual. It can be a bit chilly on Christmas day so have a back up plan for that barbecue or walk on the beach.

Stormer999

Yuk...just listened to the radio of peeps wanting reindeer for their Xmas dinner... Germany for instance want 100,000 animals for slaughter for Xmas...

Now Christmas makes me sad as well...won't be able to listen to that song again!

Spacecake799

I just wanted to add that in the six years I was in NZ Christmas was the saddest time for me as well. I didn't want to be on the beach or having a bbq, I wanted cold weather, Christmas dinner and some life.
We moved back last Christmas and my tree is up, twinkling lights in the morning and I love it.
Good luck

Tom1983

It's certainly different Christmas in the southern hemisphere - baking hot, no snow etc, it doesn't have that Christmasy feel

I love my summers and love the beach but the beach with a few too many sherberts isn't really christmassy. I prefer stuffing my face with far to much food as well as drinking far too much. I still drink a lot during christmas and the meals are still big but it doesn't have that fell like it does in the northern hemisphere

BEVS

Where did those Swimming in NZ posts go?
By magic pixie Christmas dust I have moved them to their own thread HERE.
The topic of safe swimming etc in NZ is very much worth a thread of it's own.

bearskin

Christmas makes me happy.

I'm not really bothered where I celebrate it. Yes, I will concede that Northern hemisphere is a better suited location in which to celebrate Baby Jesus' birth in the manner to which it has now become iconized (snowfall, twinkling lights, large feasts of food etc etc), but NZ does it differently and, in its own way, it's very good.

I miss family and my old friends at this time, more than usual, of course. Christmas here seems somehow less important as it is in the summer holiday period, and people are usually just waiting to get Christmas day out of the way so they can go off on holiday - the Boxing Day queues of holiday traffic here are legendary.

Justcol

I like xmas here, sure its different but I knew it would be when I left blighty.
The only things I miss at xmas are my boys who are now both in the uk.
I arrived 5 yrs ago as one of four and now there's only me left and at this
time of year I really miss two of the other three.

j19fmm

Love it

Still waiting to share a beer with you, come up to the winterless North (ha, not today) and see us xx

Bo-Jangles

Funny that, I believed all the hype and came here expecting hot sunny Christmases at the beach. muchconfused.com

The hot sunny Kiwi Christmas is totally overplayed IMVHO; like June in the UK when everyone thinks it should be summer and complains endlessly when it's not.

The weather is usually hit and miss and hasn't ever been too hot to cook in my experience of eight Christmases. Last year was dire and it rained in Auckland for about a week from Christmas eve onwards. Where would we be without those typical happy holiday disaster stories; usually involving some flooding and scenes of those diehards with all the belongings and tents washed away or some houses that have slid down a hill.

Snap Shot

Christmas in summer is just freaky. I dread it. I'm just about at the, 'laughing at how awful Christmas in the summer is' stage. New Zealanders are so, 'oh yeah, that' about Christmas. Something else that gives me heartsink. The middle-class indulgence of UK consumerism used to get on my nerves. I kinda miss it now.

The packaging of the mince pies etc is the same. That might not make much sense, but, to me, that just adds to the heartsink of it all.

Hopefully, this is the third out of five summer Christmases that I have to put up with.

I want to go back to Britain and do things properly.

Justcol

I might take you up on that and bring my new fiancé with me

cappuccino

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!