The design of NZ houses (based on the somewhat small sample that I have visited) tends to have separate rooms for toilet and bathroom. This is an advantage in that you can go for a pee when the bathroom is occupied, but a disadvantage when you get up in the morning and go straight into the bathroom. Do you go back to the toilet (and risk losing your place in the bathroom) or pee in the shower? The disadvantage is further compounded by the fact that they haven't thought to put a wash basin in the toilet room, so you can't wash your hands if the bathroom is occupied.

Big family Christmas festivities were quite fun. With three generations (mum, Big Sis, niece) living (in separate houses) in the same town, we have met up in each house for evening meal - with people bringing food in. It has a bit of a Waltons feel to it. We had paper plates when we went to Niece's last night - "I've not got a dishwasher and I'm not doing washing up for that many people". It was only Big Sis who objected - the rest of us thought it was quite amusing (both the paper plates and Big Sis's (anticipated) objection). She keeps her house extremely tidy and immaculate - you daren't put anything out of place. So we all thought it highly amusing when I discovered a strand of a cobweb on the kitchen windowsill.

Christmas in a warm climate feels more like a summer family party than Christmas. You don't have the feeling of hunkering down against the cold and dark that you get in the UK. Personally I prefer the UK version - I suggested to Big Sis that she should come over one year to remind herself of what it is like.

Christmas Day we started as sis's for champagne breakfast and present opening, then wandered off to do our own thing for a few hours before returning for meal in the evening. The reason for this, Niece explained later, was to prevent "major meltdown" - mainly because Sis and niece tend to wind each other up when together for a long period of time (as they are so alike, and both refuse to back down). Niece also told me that mum said I was the "cruisiest" of me and my sisters, which apparently was a compliment. She'd spoken to her paternal grandmother earlier in the day and mentioned that I was visiting. She (paternal grandmother) had said that she'd always liked me and that I had been the best of all the uncles and aunts at looking after Niece and Eldest Nephew when they were kids.

Eldest Nephew and I went out to do a bit of shooting - firing at plastic bottles with a rifle and a shotgun. He is quite into hunting and shooting (which is generally more accepted in NZ than in UK). Eldest Nephew's Fiancee calls me the diminutive form of my name that only my nephews and niece get away with calling me - though she doesn't prefix it with "uncle". She thought it was my name, as that is all that Eldest Nephew ever calls me - but I said it was OK as she was virtually a niece.

Niece lives on a dairy farm - her bf is farm manager - and yesterday I wandered up to watch the milking. I wasn't going to get too close, as I was wearing only shorts and daps, but niece's bf said it was OK to come into the pit in the milking parlour (the cows stand either side, and the pit means the clusters can be put on the udders from behind and without bending over). The cow shit also falls into the pit and I hadn't been there long before my legs were splattered.

Yesterday we went to Rotorua (sp?) which is a bit of a tourist town. We went on the luge - based on the winter sport, but the tea-trays have wheels and the track is concrete, and you sit up rather than lie down. It is great fun - we (Eldest and Youngest Nephews, niece's bf and I) went down three times. There are three tracks - scenic, intermediate and advanced - so we went on each, and raced each other. There is a chair-lift to bring you back up to the top, so you don't have to walk back up the hill.

After that we went for a walk round a geothermal park - lots of hot springs and boiling mud pools - and then round the town's formal gardens.

We were going to go to White Island yesterday but the weather was bad so we have postponed that to next week. White Island is an active volcano just off the coast. It is covered with white sulphurous deposits, hence its name. I have been told that you have to wear a gas mask because of the stench of sulphur, but that may just be a myth. Will find out when I get there.

Here are some photos to illustrate what I have been talking about.