For centuries there has been different interpretations of what Christmas means to different people from different lands.

But there’s one theme that seems to run true to whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you see as your idea of Christmas.

And that theme is the colors of red and green.

A Christmas tree sits proudly in a corner, green and decorated with baubles, tinsel, little ornamental reindeer, chocolate Santas, colored balloons and all sorts of trinkets and sparkles.

Father Christmas is everywhere. And he is a red suited emblem of Christmas past, Christmas present and he’ll be bounding around in the his jolly suit for generations to come. 

But it doesn’t matter where you are, what the climate, what the customs are that you live by, Christmas trees will always be green and Santa’s suit will always be red.

So, how do you reconcile the standard image of Christmas of sleighs and reindeer, snow covered chalets in the mountains, shoppers wrapped in their winter woollies as they search for last minute gifts, with a summer of barbeques, sandy beaches and holidays in the sun.

New Zealand in the summer is full of  red and green images and for those of you who need some reminders of a Christmas in the sun, here’s a few red and greens to feast your eyes on: 

1. Pohutukawa Trees

Every morning when I wake up I can look out the window and see a row of Pohutukawa trees in full flower.

Known as the New Zealand Christmas tree, I’m surprised that kiwis haven’t caught on to the craze of decorating them with fairy lights and shiny baubles.

2. Hobbiton – Behind the red door.

As I begin a fanciful journey around the country I can imagine the sights and sounds that would greet me.

At Hobbiton, I hear the jingle of bells and the rhythm of Christmas carols as the Hobbits cover their pine trees with tinsel and trinkets, prepare the Xmas ham for the oven and wrap gifts for their little hobbits.

3. Rotorua Geyser

A journey to sulphur city is never without a Christmas reminder.

You would never want to cook your Christmas dinner in that steam. Although tender, it wouldn’t taste the best!

4. Wellington Cable Car

The red cable car, set against a backdrop of green ferns, parkland and hills. 

A Christmas view for 365 days of the year.

5. Flags of the World

What can I say? Countries across the world come together in a show of unity with their splattering of Reds and Greens and everything in between.

6. Queenstown

Summer in the winter wonderland of skiing and snow-capped mountains.

Our beautiful Queenstown oozes summer with a touch of Christmas color.

7. Walter Peak Station

Why not cruise across Lake Wakatipu aboard the TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak Station.

Red roof, red flowers, green lawns and green trees… 

It’s a view, typical of a Christmas picture postcard.

8. Greymouth

I could be tempted to stop of for a piece of Christmas cake and a glass of Christmas cheer as I pass this delightful little West Coast treasure.

9. Akaroa

And say a wee prayer to help me on my way.

10. Avon River

What a way to spend a blissful Christmas afternoon. Basking in the glory of a river bank worthy of an artist’s easel. 

11. House and Flags

Take a detour down any side street and you’ll be surprised at what you will find.

A mix of French and Kiwi?

12.  Mercury Bay Winery

Beautiful!

Food, wine and a view to die for!

13. Pukeko

Even a red beak and a green lawn backdrop.

Christmas colors everywhere!

14. Strawberries…

Yummy… All I need is some vanilla icecream and a dusting of icing sugar.

15. …and Cherries

On their own, they are a delight.

A Christmas experience to behold!

16. Swing Bridge

A single red bauble in a sea of green.

I’m in heaven!

17. Sunset

At the end of the day, the sun goes down. Redish beams filter through the trees to cast the final light of the day on the green pastures below.

***Merry Christmas Everyone***

End

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…and that’s not the only thing going up.

The mercury’s inching up and that summer feeling is certainly in the air. And, the biggie…Christmas is just around the corner.

It’s time to brush off the barbie, lock in a stock of Christmas cheer and prepare to relegate 2017 to the rear view mirror.

It also means it’s time to climb on board the holiday travel train. To join the hordes of holiday makers heading to the beaches for their annual fix of summer sun.

Popular tourist hang-outs will be overrun with jandal-footed, scantily clad bodies. And the smell of a hundred SPF 50’s will clog your nostrils for weeks to come. 

But it doesn’t have to be that way. And just maybe you don’t have any annual holidays left to let you escape for a week or two.

Often it can be better to plan the odd day trip or overnighter, from your base at home.  It doesn’t have to be to places that are high-traffic tourist locations.

Every year I make a point of visiting at least one new location, and that can be either at home here in New Zealand or to some overseas destination.

So, now I’ll share a few of the more out-of-the-way places that Teddy and I have visited over the years. Places that have provided us with a wider lens from which to view this beautiful country. And it’s not always in the popular touristy places where you find these precious gems.

Our challenge to you is to find just one little treasure of your own and let us know back here on this post; where it was, what you did and how you can encourage others to visit that place.  On the other hand, if you already have a trove of “special” destinations in your travel pack, let us know where they are, then share the post with your friends and family.

To help you on your way, I’ve complied a short list of just a few of the “out of the way” places that Teddy or I, or both of us have visited over the years.

At the time of our visits, some of the places seemed very isolated and today with advances in infrastructure and communications, it may not be the case now. But the value we find in visiting remote locations, is that it gives us the chance to see for ourselves, the treasures that our beautiful country has to offer.

So, are you wondering what to do over the holiday break? Then maybe this will give you enough of that “holiday feeling” to get yourself, your family and friends together and climb  on board your own starship Enterprise and go “where no man has gone before”.

Well, maybe not quite that remote. There will be a reasonably well trodden path to many of these locations, but it is great to have that feeling that you’re a little bit “off the grid” when travelling to remote places.

Teddy and I have still got a few places to explore and we’ll be trying our darnedest to get there some time in the not too distant future.

Here is our own starter pack of remote(ish) places to visit. We’ll start in the Far North and head south:

1. Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach – Far North

It’s a powerful feeling to stand at the top of the country and gaze out to the blue horizon. It must have been around twenty years ago when I visited the lighthouse at Cape Reinga. This is New Zealand’s (almost) northern most point where you can watch as the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean merge with the warmer waters of the Tasman Sea.

In fact Cape Reinga is second only to the Surville Cliffs, 30 kilometres further east as taking the trophy for the country’s most northern point. Nevertheless, its a great feeling to stand at the lighthouse and watch in awe as the two oceans come together. Sometimes the waters are calm and the merging of the two bodies is gentle and serene. At other times the water and waves swirl and agitate as if powered by a giant underwater washing machine.

To get there, one option is to self-drive, preferably in a 4WD so you can travel the return journey along the sands of ninety mile beach. 

Alternatively, full-day coach tours leave daily from Paihia and Kerikeri. This was the option I chose so I could sit back and be guided though the region. The driver/guide provides a great historic commentary as you pass through kauri forests, dunes and beaches. The full day-trip takes about 11 hours from pick-up to drop-off.  

2. Waitomo Caves – “Wai” – Water; “Tomo” – Entrance or Hole – Southern Waikato

You may wonder why anyone would want to venture underground to go hunting little worms. Well that’s not quite what you find once you’ve descended into what seems like the bowels of the Earth. Teddy and I both, at different times in our lives, have visited the famous glowworms caves in South Waikato.

Generally the beauty of this country is found above the ground in it’s mountains, lakes and beaches, but the Waitomo Caves present the opportunity to see that the land is more than skin deep. Its subterranean landscape of unique limestone formations and cave systems is like another world. And the ultimate goal is to get close up and personal with those “glowing little worms“. 

To get there, is an easy hour long drive south from Hamilton. Several tour companies operate coach tours out of Rotorua, Hamilton and Auckland. If you leave from Auckland, the full day trip is about 8 hours long.

3. Cape Kidnappers – Hawkes Bay

Back in the 1960’s I went on a school trip to Cape Kidnappers to visit the remote gannet colony. At the time I knew very little about the gannets and the significance of that particular colony.

The colony consists of the Australasian gannet (Takapu) which is one of three species of gannet belonging to the booby family.  Over 20,000 gannets at peak time, are spread over four main nesting sites. And these sites now form four separate colonies: The Plateau, Saddle, Whalebone Reef and Black Reef colonies.

Although gannets are found in other areas of New Zealand and around the world, Cape Kidnappers is the largest mainland nesting site in the world.

Our school group travelled to Hastings by bus and then on to the beachside settlement of Clifton. This is the starting point of the 8 kilometre  walking track along the picturesque coastline to Cape Kidnappers.

It’s recommended to start the walk, 3 hours after high tide and for the return journey, no more that an hour and a half after low tide. I remember that long walk along the beach and at one stage we had to clamber over some rocks to avoid the lapping tide below.

At that time, the beach walk was the only way to reach the gannet colony. Now there is the additional option of a tractor safari operating every day (except the occasional days when the tides are not playing ball). Each tractor excursion lasts approximately 4 hours.

There is also the slightly more up-market (more expensive) 4WD overland safari departing twice daily. 

Apart from the extremely chaffed inner thighs (which cleared up in a couple of days) suffered from the six-hour trek through sand and salt water, the fun and learning experience has stayed with me for decades. 

4. Cape Palliser and Lighthouse – Wairarapa

A favourite place for our holidays in the 60’s and 70’s was the tiny oceanside settlement of Lake Ferry which lies at the mouth of Lake Onoke on the southern Wairarapa coast.

From the camping ground at Lake Ferry, we’d travel the 50 kilometer drive along the rugged coastline to the Cape Palliser Lighthouse.

The journey was amazing and the views, breathtaking. I remember Dad taking my sister and I on the journey and I was captivated by the ruggedness, and windswept outlook towards the Cook Strait. 

Along the way, we stopped off at a seal colony to watch the adult and young seals, lazing on the warm rocks. I remember during my early writing career, I wrote a travel article in which I focused on the memorial gravesite of a group of seafarers from the Zuleika, a ship that ran aground in Palliser Bay in April 1897.

Of the 21 sailors on board, 12 perished. Of the dead, 8 were buried in the grave, one was taken to Port Chalmers to be buried in a family plot, and the remaining three bodies were never found. For some reason, the memory of visiting that grave site has stayed with me. 

I’d like to go back along that piece of coastline one day, but in the meantime, there’s a lot more places to go, people to see and things to do.

To get there, head south from Martinborough and follow the signs to direct you to Palliser Bay. Tour companies currently operate coach excursions from Martinborough and Wellington. 

5. Moeraki Boulders – Otago

I found these boulders fascinating. 

The Moeraki Boulders are large spherical stones that have fallen away from the hillside as the bank recedes. Some of these “little stones” weigh up to several tons and are over 2 metres in diameter. 

Aside from the pure pleasure of wandering along the beach and seeing and touching these huge monsters, I’ve since spent many hours researching the various theories surrounding their existence. 

There is much folklore surrounding their origin and many theories have been suggested as to how the boulders were formed. From Maori legends of washed up remains of calabashes and kumera, to theories of being alien eggs or giant egg shells of sea-born dragons and on to a raft of scientific theories on their creation some 60 million years ago. 

Regardless of where they came from, I was fascinated to see such huge boulders lying across the beach, being partially covered by the incoming tides, and then fully exposed during the receding tides.  They now have legal protection and it is no longer permitted to damage, graffiti or remove them.

To get to the Moeraki Boulders, travel south from Oamaru along SH1 for about 20 minutes and the turnoff to the beach, café and carpark are well signposted. 

6. Stewart Island – Southland and Beyond.

As a teenager, Teddy travelled with Mum and Dad down to the country’s southern-most point; Stewart Island. Our Dad, a worker on the railways during those years, and would make the most of his annual “free rail pass” to cart the family around the country.

I recall both Mum and Dad telling me what a great experience it was to see so much of the countryside that they’d never seen before. It also helped that some  “rellie” would somehow come out of the woodwork on the journey, either an “uncle” who worked on the Cook Strait Ferry and give them access to a few extra perks than they’d be afforded as regular travellers.  Occasionally it would be some “old town boy” who used to know someone who was related to someone. And so it went on.

Teddy clearly remembers the day back in the summer of ’65 (a tad early than Bryan Adams Summer of 69), and their cruise across the Foveaux Strait on the ferry from Bluff to Oban, the major township of the Island. The population of the island still sits around the 400 mark and has seen little movement in population for the last few decades.

This has to be one of my bucket list entries in the future.

 Flights and Ferry Services run regularly every day. Ferries sail between Bluff and Oban (Stewart Island) and travel time is 1 hour each way. Flights operate between Invercargill Airport and Oban and flight time is 20 minutes.

As I have said, I still have some places that I want to visit. Neither of us have travelled the South Island’s West Coast, and that is high on both of our lists. I plan to visit Bluff one day and maybe too, take the trip across the Strait to Stewart Island. 

End.

Remember, let us know of any of your special “out of the way places” that you have visited and maybe we will add them to our bucket list as well. 

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