Christmas in Christchurch by Noreen

On December 23rd we made the marathon drive from Golden Bay to Christchurch. In the process we ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere (thank goodness for roadside assistance insurance!) and our trailer breaks caught fire. (They only flamed for a moment, but it demanded all of our newly filled water bottles to get rid of the smoke. We drank juice the rest of the day.) We had been in a remote area with no chance to Christmas shop, and planned to do it this day on our way into Christchurch. We knew one of NZ's stores, The Warehouse, would be open until midnight on the 23rd, so we planned to stop as soon as we found one. That didn't happen until we pulled into Christchurch at 10:45 pm. We woke the sleeping children and rushed around getting our shopping done. Steve helped the kids pick out a present for the sibling they had drawn, and I grabbed a few things for the kids. Christmas is certainly not all about the presents, but waking up to no presents would have been a little depressing. Since Christmas Eve was a Sunday and we wouldn't be shopping, we just squeaked it in. Like lucky Cinderellas we checked out right at the stroke of midnight.

Steve and I didn't fall into bed until 2:00 am that night, by the time we set up camp, and the only late starting ward in the area on Christmas Eve was a Samoan one. One of our goals has been to expose the children to many different cultures and languages, so we decided to attend. The only words we understood the whole Sacrament Meeting were Christmas and Amen! The great thing was, we felt the spirit just the same as attending any other ward. We also had the chance while touring the South Island, to go hiking with Jewish family from Israel, share a small rain shelter with Chinese University students, and made good friends with a family from England and a single mother from Germany and her adorable 18 month old son, Ruben. We heard French, Indian, Russian, German, Swedish, Samoan, Chinese and Japanese being spoken. We only met two other couples from the US at all the campsites we have stayed at, and people always ask us if we are Canadian. Apparently, Americans don't often do the Motor Camp circuit.


Getting back to Christmas, we forgot to buy a Christmas tree, so Whitney fashioned one out of driftwood and green contact paper we had for lining our trailer shelves. The kids decorated it with sea shells and pine cones and we were all quite proud of it. We had a simple and lovely Christmas Day playing together.

To see a map of the places we traveled so far in this series, click on this link: <http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&ie=UTF8&ll=-40.359103,172.875366&spn=8.067848,12.128906&z=6&msid=116765397961150020384.000451b63510a46db34d4>