25.12 : Merry Christmas!

Hello Sweet Friends and Family! Happy Holidays from the other side of the world.

My time in Auckland has been so wonderful and blessed as I have felt very connected to the culture and people in this great city. At the beginning of the month, I sadly moved out of my flat in Grafton and packed up my stuff. Thankfully, my flatmates have said I could stay with them when needed and we've already made plans to share New Year's together.

In early December, I flew to Sydney to meet Laurel, one of my bestest girls from home. We had a lovely holiday together. Beginning in Sydney we explored the city including downtown, the Rocks (which is the first place that settlers built, which is amazing buildings built entirely out of rocks), the Botanical Gardens, and Newtown, which is where we stayed. Newtown is an eclectic part of town where hippies, gay people and other funky young people live in harmony. There are fun shops, restaurants, theaters, cafes and more in Newtown. Laurel also treated us to a beautiful dinner at Cafe Sydney in the Customs House, which overlooks the Sydney Cove and has breath-taking views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

After a few days in Sydney, we flew to Queensland and the Whitsunday area. We flew into Hamilton Island and took a ferry to Airlie Beach. Our days consisted of relaxing by the lagoon (an enclosed sea water area, because the actual ocean is full of stingers this time of year), reading, and just enjoying our holiday time. Airlie Beach is a very small town full of other young locals and backpackers, so the entire town felt very much like a summer camp for young adults. We did a kayak and snorkel tour, which was a fun and somewhat challenging trip at times. We kayaked to a small island, had morning tea (an Aussie and Kiwi tradition, which basically means a snack, as no tea is usually served) and did a short snorkel session. The island had a beautiful rocky look out that we climbed to see several of the 72 islands that comprise the Whitsunday area. The kayaking was challenging, because we crossed a ferry channel and had to paddle super hard to get across the choppy waters before a boat crossed our paths. We made it after a bit of a hard work out. :) We also saw a magnificent sea turtle during part of our paddling. He came up for water, with some curiosity as we paddled back to shore.

After a few days at Airlie Beach, we took a ferry back to Hamilton Island and stayed on the resort for two nights. Hamilton Island has 16 hotels and is the largest resort in the Southern Hemisphere, we learned. The entire island is traveled by go-carts and it's quite touristy, which I wasn't really expecting. However, the beaches and pools were relaxing and so gorgeous. Laurel and I took another snorkeling tour and were guided by boat to a coral reef bay where we swam with the tropical fish and saw wonderfully colorful coral reef displays. We saw clown fish, parrotfish and so many other fish I can't name. The snorkeling was just magnificent. Our boat tour stopped off at Whitehaven Beach, where the sand on the beach was 98% silica and so pure, white and gorgeous. The water was a deep blue and so amazing. I had seen pictures of this beach, but didn't believe that such a place could exist (without the help of Photoshop and color manipulating pictures), but I was so mistaken. Whitehaven was easily the most beautiful beach I have ever visited.

After spending a week in the sun and sand, Laurel and I returned to Sydney for a few more days of the city, a "jungle out of concrete" as one local described the city to me. We took a surfing lesson one day and headed out to North Cronulla beach with a group of mostly Americans and French tourists. The class was an all day affair and was quite intense, but so much fun. We all stood up at least once and I stood up and surfed 2.5 times. I was surprisingly pleased to learn that surfing is somewhat similar to yoga. I also learned that surfing on a giant foam board, when an instructor is pushing you through the waves, is easier than doing it on your own. However, the surfing was one of the highlights of the trip, definitely.

Some of you may have heard about the rioting taking place on the in the neighborhood of Cronulla in Sydney. Indeed, there was some rioting that resulted from a "peaceful protest" on the beaches, but the police had things under control and people have been doing their best to have their lives return to normal. Sadly, the racial tensions between Lebanese men (mostly) and the locals have come to a head. Laurel and I weren't in the area during these riots, but heard a lot about them in the media. As you can imagine, the actual troublemakers were very small in number (approximately 50 people out of 5,000), but the media inflated the situation making it seem worse than it actually was. The following weekend, however, they did arrest a handful of men, dressed in camouflage with the makings of Molotov cocktails and other home made weapons headed to Bondi beach, which is north of Cronulla. A few were arrested in their cars (complete with white supremacy stickers on the back) and a few were arrested on the bus. All in all, these events brought much needed attention to some tension and issues that need to be addressed. Hopefully, soon all businesses in those areas will be open and positive progress will occur for all.

After Laurel returned to the US, I stayed in Sydney for a few days and visited many museums and other parts of the city. Sydney weather was warm and humid, but beautiful! Now, I'm back in Auckland and had my first Kiwi Christmas with my flatmate Chris and his family. We had a lovely lunch in their beautiful home in Mission Bay with champagne, wonderful food and gifts... Then, we took a walk on the beach. Very different from the holidays I'm used to having in Seattle, but still wonderful in many ways.

I hope this message finds all of you happy, healthy and full of life and love. I am thinking of each of you on this special Christmas.