Christmas in New Zealand

[Graham Ritchie]

Well I hope everyone here on the forum is safe. I always think its a bit strange to have Christmas in the middle of summer, yesterday we put up our Christmas tree thanks to our grandaughter Ella calling in after school to do the decoration bit. In a week or so, the schools close up for the summer break, and folk, will generally take there summer holidays just after the end of December, January is a good time. Anyway yesterday, the temp was 30C/86F and I had to push myself to get the old artificial Christmas tree out of its box.

PS Can't go past Christmas without a re-run of this you-tube video

[Lee Mannering]

Delightful video Graham.
and I can confirm it's a little chilly in the UK.

My wife and I made a permanent OO gauge railway layout for under our snowy tree with 6 favourite locomotives in steam at different time.
We built a model cinema for it with a dinosaur outside and the film is Jurassic Park. It's not lavish but it sure was fun doing it all.

[Graham Ritchie]

Lee

You will need to post some photos?

Here is a a bit of Christmas cheer from NZ Police two years ago .

[Graham Ritchie]

Well folks if you want to get away from it all here is a holiday that I think would be interesting. After 43 days at sea getting here, and going through rigorous quarantine, both here and back in Russia, this ship arrived locally just last month. The ship has a clean bill of health from NZ and will take up to 50 passengers. The ship was built for polar exploration and research, but is also ideal for navigating New Zealand's islands and inlets.

My understanding that there has been strong support for those NZ cruise trips, from New Zealanders. Now one thing, that did catch my eye, and you will need a bit of money to do it, will be a 30 day voyage to the Ross Dependency in Antartica in January and February.

For once in a lifetime trip visiting Antartica which would be summer down there, would really be something.

I should add its not the first time they have been here, great to see a bit of ship cruising going on again



Captain...Aleksandr Pruss and Chief mate Dmitry Medvedev having a few drinks in Lyttleton.

[Graham Ritchie]

Well its not just summer cruising that is good news, its also the Russian and Ukrainian deep sea fishermen that have been arriving from Russia to crew there fishing boats for this summer season. All up around 400 have flown in and gone through the quarantine process. The fisherman come here every year with a six months on six months off to return home. Because of the virus, this time frame of stay might need be extended. Its a good example of the fishing company making sure there business is up and running along with the needs to work with the NZ govt departments, and most of all the safety of the fishermen themselves, as you don't want to get sick at sea.

This shows that if everyone works together on control measures of the spread of the virus, its to everybody benefit

[Graham Ritchie]

Well it might just be of topic, but its fun to watch American Stephen Colbert who is a huge LOTR fan I should add, do this, as the last of the three part look back this month, when he visited NZ last year .

Its what I would call living your dream

[Graham Ritchie]

From Auckland, New Zealand

[Graham Ritchie]

Going through some old summer photos at the moment, that Yvonne took of a visit to "Nelson" two years ago to visit a friend, "Top of the South Island".

[Patrick Walsh]

Merry Christmas everyone! Being in the festive mood I have dragged out THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE which I am screening at my cinema on the 30th Dec!

[Lee Mannering]

A great movie and cast enjoy

[Bill Phelps]

Those are some beautiful pictures Graham!

[Graham Ritchie]

Thanks Bill

A couple more that Yvonne had taken while "up up and away"

[Graham Ritchie]

Well Christmas has come and gone, but here is a neat little video, captured from a drone, when this lady was out swimming a couple of years back

[Graham Ritchie]

I thought that this was a nice story of a local nurse in the news who was working at the city isolation facility. All up 570 foreign mariners from Russia and the Ukrainian have gone through it. Many are heavy smokers, however this young lady working there lately has managed to get 20 to stop smoking altogether with another 15 to reduce there habit. One fisherman told her that she was an angel and that he no longer smoked

So there you have it, things can change if you are stuck in isolation for a couple of weeks

Although we are not totally clear of the virus in NZ, one lady who came into the country in the North Island did have the South African type. The reason I mention this is the fact, that while she visited many places, she used her "phone contact tracing app" everywhere she went. Thanks to her for using this app, they managed to quickly contacted and isolated and test those she had met. Using this technology is a huge plus in control of the spread.

Anyway Christmas has really come to many from the Pacific Islands coming to NZ with the first flights starting this week, hope it will be able to continue.

[Ali Hipperson]

They're both very heart-warming stories Graham 😊