Day 59/72: Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!! What an exciting day. So strange waking up on Christmas day to sun and heat, we even had a white Christmas if you count the snow that was sprinkled on the mountain peaks around Glenorchy. Tom called his parents and wished them a Merry Christmas Eve night, and then we opened our stockings! It was great, sitting there in the van with a cup of tea, fairy lights, Christmas tree, holly and mistletoe hanging around. Not traditional but great fun!

We then went out for a run before it got too hot. Beautiful scenery, running around the smaller lakes of Glenorchy with santa hats and saying Merry Christmas to other people out for walks. We got to the main lake and ran along the jetty, threw our stuff down and jumped straight in to the amusement of many a tourist who took photos. One woman had recorded the whole thing and sent us the video! Very odd way to start a Christmas day!

We then ran back to the campsite and had shower and cooked ourselves a well deserved Christmas breakfast of eggs/bacon or salmon on toast. Feeling very pleased with ourselves, we chilled out and unvelied our other presents for each other, and then went to find a spot on the lake. We drove around to the other side, which was a bit of a catastrophe because we ended up doing through a ford and then getting to a bigger one and having to do a 17 point turn on a tiny gravel track and going back up a very steep hill, where we stopped at the top to walk down to the lake edge only to be attacked by flies and mosquitoes and upon trying to leave, lost the car key so couldn't escape! We scurried and slapped for a good 5 minutes before locating the lost key in its very safe place on the gear lever and getting away faster than a car from a bank robbery. We then swatted all the flies in the van for the rest of the journey back to Glenorchy, listening to Christmas songs and stopped at the lakefront we were at that morning. There is a small park on the front, so we chilled out there for the rest of the afternoon, jumping in the lake when we felt too hot and playing cards, frisbee and snoozing. It was very relaxing.

That evening, we made our Christmas dinner (chicken and potatoes, simple yet tasty) and tucked into our vast array of cheese that we'd managed to collect over the past few days. It was fantastic, and we had a bottle of wine out of paper cups, and let the sun go down as we chatted and ate. We both called our families on their Christmas morning. A really nice Christmas day all in all, and Glenorchy was a brilliant place to spend it in!Read more