It’s Christmas Eve in New Zealand, pouring rain, and we’re cozy in our little cabin in Franz Josef.
Today was the specially planned day for Grandpa, although we all had fun. We started in Shantytown, a reconstructed mining village complete with a comprehensive collection of steam engines and machinery. It’s a cute little place with several buildings in town that are designed to give you a sense of times along with a few set up in more of a museum style. We took a narrow gage train ride out to an old mine site as well as a logging mill. We got to pan for gold and are coming home significantly richer in flecks of gold than when we arrived. They also had a sluicing demonstration and chocolate bars for kids who get separated from their parents – looking at you, Alyssa.
Grandpa Bob sure knows how to speak the international language of railroading fans and was offered highly valuable information about a nearby model railroad in Hokitika. Their website said they were only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but we had it on good authority they were running today. We skeptically made our way to site, knowing it was a tiny detour from our route, and were very pleasantly surprised to find it fully operational. I think the engineers were just as surprised to see us, and very cheerfully gave us a ride around their beautifully maintained loop. It never ceases to amaze me how we end up in these places, but that’s life with Grandpa Bob.
Another fun surprise was the Kiwi place across the street from the grocery store. We had a planned stop at the grocery store to get rations for Christmas eve and Christmas day meals. As we pulled in at 2:30 we saw The National Kiwi Center Hokitika with a sign advertising Kiwi feeding at 3. What incredible luck! John and I went grocery shopping while the grandparents and kids went to see kiwis. It turned out to be a huge hit! The kiwis were really active during their feeding time, the kids got to feed eels, and there was a pond full of crawfish whose whole purpose in life was to be caught and released by small children.
After all of that we made our way to our hotel in Franz Josef and made Christmas eve dinner. I double and triple checked the time for the local Christmas eve service at the Anglican church and confirmed that it was 9pm. So we made the kids put on their nicest clothes and drove the 5 minutes to church. And whiteboard sign outside said the service was at 7.
That’s one of the things we are learning about New Zealand: double and triple check opening and closing times and if it’s really important call ahead to make sure. It’s small town life in many places so even the grocery stores close at 6 and NOTHING is open on Christmas day. You can’t count on things being available to you 24/7, so you need to plan ahead.
Generally, though, the people are friendly, helpful, and chatty, the parks and roadsides are completely free of litter (even though you also can’t find many public garbage cans). People carry their garbage out with them. Sometimes the radio will need to scan for 20 minutes before it will pick up a station. Restaurants are faster because you need to order your own food at the bar and get your own water and beverages. We see far fewer people on their phones. People out and about talk to each other!
Our new Christmas church plan is to tune in to St. John’s Nazareth live streamed Christmas eve service on Christmas morning.
Merry Christmas!
Today was the specially planned day for Grandpa, although we all had fun. We started in Shantytown, a reconstructed mining village complete with a comprehensive collection of steam engines and machinery. It’s a cute little place with several buildings in town that are designed to give you a sense of times along with a few set up in more of a museum style. We took a narrow gage train ride out to an old mine site as well as a logging mill. We got to pan for gold and are coming home significantly richer in flecks of gold than when we arrived. They also had a sluicing demonstration and chocolate bars for kids who get separated from their parents – looking at you, Alyssa.
Grandpa Bob sure knows how to speak the international language of railroading fans and was offered highly valuable information about a nearby model railroad in Hokitika. Their website said they were only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but we had it on good authority they were running today. We skeptically made our way to site, knowing it was a tiny detour from our route, and were very pleasantly surprised to find it fully operational. I think the engineers were just as surprised to see us, and very cheerfully gave us a ride around their beautifully maintained loop. It never ceases to amaze me how we end up in these places, but that’s life with Grandpa Bob.
Another fun surprise was the Kiwi place across the street from the grocery store. We had a planned stop at the grocery store to get rations for Christmas eve and Christmas day meals. As we pulled in at 2:30 we saw The National Kiwi Center Hokitika with a sign advertising Kiwi feeding at 3. What incredible luck! John and I went grocery shopping while the grandparents and kids went to see kiwis. It turned out to be a huge hit! The kiwis were really active during their feeding time, the kids got to feed eels, and there was a pond full of crawfish whose whole purpose in life was to be caught and released by small children.
After all of that we made our way to our hotel in Franz Josef and made Christmas eve dinner. I double and triple checked the time for the local Christmas eve service at the Anglican church and confirmed that it was 9pm. So we made the kids put on their nicest clothes and drove the 5 minutes to church. And whiteboard sign outside said the service was at 7.
That’s one of the things we are learning about New Zealand: double and triple check opening and closing times and if it’s really important call ahead to make sure. It’s small town life in many places so even the grocery stores close at 6 and NOTHING is open on Christmas day. You can’t count on things being available to you 24/7, so you need to plan ahead.
Generally, though, the people are friendly, helpful, and chatty, the parks and roadsides are completely free of litter (even though you also can’t find many public garbage cans). People carry their garbage out with them. Sometimes the radio will need to scan for 20 minutes before it will pick up a station. Restaurants are faster because you need to order your own food at the bar and get your own water and beverages. We see far fewer people on their phones. People out and about talk to each other!
Our new Christmas church plan is to tune in to St. John’s Nazareth live streamed Christmas eve service on Christmas morning.
Merry Christmas!