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#36 - Christmas from Wellington to Napier




Traveling in a far away place is a bit like being a turtle - you carry a lot on your back. But instead of your house, it's your culture. You simply bring it, along with your accent, everywhere you go. 

Take today, for instance. 

After a day and a half in Wellington, a lovely small city, totally walkable to and from each museum, we awoke to Christmas Day.  
Quiet, empty, just like we expected. Lucky for us the biggest museum, Te Papa, was open Christmas Day at 10 am, perfect for a couple of hours before we started our four hour drive.  


I guess we figured it would be empty, just a few non-Christians looking for something to do. Guess we didn't count on all those travelers and tourists just like us. 

                                                               


After all, we are pretty much used to just a bunch of Jewish people doing a movie and Chinese. This was the first instance I realized how much of our American mentality we brought with us. 









I loved the museum, we had a great guide for our tour and it was the first real Maori culture we encountered.
  

                                                


We only had two and half hours and I could have stayed twice that. Hopping in the car, I am sure Steve was not terribly excited about another 300 kilometers but we knew traffic would be light, after all, everyone was already nestled in for Christmas dinner, fire roaring, snowmen in the yard. 

Oh right, it's warm here, so no fire and no snowmen...and no empty roads. We figured accident, or series of red lights, or dead sheep in the road but no, just hoards of Kiwis going places...the family home, the beach and who knows where else. 

But we finally figured out how do they celebrate. We had been so perplexed about the lack of lights and decorations, carols on the radio and crazy shopping. We finally got to see how they overtly display their Christmas cheer….nearly everyone wears an elf hat on Christmas Day! 


By Six pm we pulled into Napier, an Art Deco town in Hawke's Bay, another wine region. We knew that Christmas would be quiet but we were sure the Indian or Chinese restaurants would be open, just like we are used to. Luckily we had checked ahead, and absolutely, positively not one restaurant in all of Napier was open for dinner. The hotels did have a Christmas buffet available, but $115 NZD for a ham buffet was a no go.

                                BUSTLING DOWNTOWN NAPIER ON XMAS DAY          

So, after a walk on the esplanade by the ocean, we headed back to our room to picnic with the provisions we bought the day before - a bit of salmon, a blue Brie, crackers, hummus and a bottle of wine. There was great Kiwi made licorice for dessert and a bad American movie on TV. Not all that far off from a movie and General Tso.





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