Best yet..

This Christmas was probably the best one I've had ever! Seriously! I'll tell you guys why.



On the 23rd I was getting kind of worried about how to fill up my time on the 24th considering the circumstances (by myself and my day off), and so I got a great idea, go on a fun dive! I called the shop and checked out if I could take go out on a fun dive the next day and they gave me the all go. Sweet as! I wake up the next day, nice and early, and the weather is amazing! A bit cloudy, but nothing too dramatic. Get down to the shop and find out that I would be able to dive with one of the staff that day who was also going out for a fun dive, which was perfect, because that gave me my buddy for the day. Get on the boat, and the customers on board a happy bunch, and the ride out proved to be pretty calm compared to the other days where it's been an average of 1-2m swells. During this time the weather is still holding, and I do two dives that day which were both really great! Saw a bunch of stuff, and I got a good deep dive in there as well (27.6m). And the boat ride home was even better since we were surfing the waves back, it made the ride even smoother.



So far, so awesome!



I get back on land and get my new schedule sorted from the dive shop, and head back to camp to prepare for the evening to come (the temperature now is about 25 degrees and full on sun!) I go to the communal room and find Rob sitting there with someone else. So I join them and watch some TV after a "hard days" dive for about 30 minutes and felt I needed a small lie down. Go back to my tent, lie down, read a book, remembered I need some desert, so I went and bought some ice cream at the dairy, and finally have a small nap. Like I said, the temperature was just amazing, and the sun is on my tent full blast (read: hot as hell or sauna) and after waking up in a pool or my own sweat, I figure it best that I go and take a shower, and clean up for my big meal.



After trimming my goat tee, shaving, and taking a nice 7 minute shower (yup, that's all I get for 2.50 SEK) I head back over to my tent and put on my nice clothes which consists of my khaki cargos, black shirt, and shoes (decided against wearing jandels this evening). And finish it all off with some deo and some wax in my hair. I felt like I was on top of the world, and I was super excited about the feed waiting for me.



The night before I did a small food run down in Whangarei and bought me 3 steaks, some spuds (potatoes) and some delicious chili/walnut dip for the meat. And when I got back to camp, I put the meat in a marinade consisting of ground chili, salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil. That got to marinade over night and while I was out diving the following day. So, I got out all of the ingredients and started to make my dinner and while I was cooking, a Canadian girl invited me to her table for some drinks when I was done cooking. Before she approached me, I was really happy, and after the invite, I was super stoked! The night seemed to be getting better and better as the minutes ticked by.



Once I was done cooking, I make my way over to the Canadian girls (she was with a friend) table just outside of the kitchen. After making the quick small talk, I dig into my meal, and wow guys! It was...orgasmic? No, I probably wouldn't go that far, but it was probably one of my best meals I've made so far! And when I was done eating the steak, I quickly ditch my plates and dig into my little ice cream that I had bought my self (cookies and cream in a cone). It was a perfect ending to my dinner!



Once all the food was dispensed, the liquids were brought into the picture. Now, do you remember me talking about how I got a present from the German couple a while back, yeah, well I opened it, and it was German Xmas drink. Yeah, well, we didn't really touch that, it was too much like Jagermeister, which just brings shivers down my spine. But it's a funny bottle (damn, I didn't take a photo of it, next time) either which way, and a very kind gesture of them. Anyway, we started talking and drinking, talking about how I was celebrating Xmas on the 24th and not 25th, how different cultures celebrate Xmas differently. It was great. After a while, the girls tell me that they have some fireworks to get rid of, so I recommended that we go to the local beach and fire them off, and they thought it to be an excellent idea! I grab each of us a beer for the walk down, and we make our way to the beach like the Froddo was heading off to Mt. Doom.



When we get the beach, the girls regret that they didn't bring their swim gear, and I innocently suggest that clothes aren't required. And boo yah, we go for a good ole night swim with the full moon lighting the ocean (and three more moons in the water, think about that one). We're swimming around for a good 15 minutes and decided it was time for some fireworks.



Get out of the water, pop on our clothes and start preparing for the big beach finale. Which proved to be not so spectacular after all, but fun either way.



We head back to the camp, and half way there, we have a massive group hug in the middle of the road because we were in NZ, it was my Xmas, and it was Jessie's Birthday in Canada (oops, yeah, the girls names were Jessie and Kristin). We plopp ourselves back on the bench and continue drinking (champange was opened for Jessie's bday) and start playing some cards, and talk even more about God knows what. This goes on until about 04.30 in the morning when we were just finally all way tired after everything.



Head back to my tent, with a huge smile on my face and fall into a beautiful sleep (followed with a small hang over in the morning).



So let's round all of this up, eh?

• Great weather


• Great dives


• Great food


• Great company


• Skinny dipping under a full moon


• Fireworks

Seriously guys, how can you beat that? Oh, and I got my Christmas came true too! I wished for company during the evening, and I got it, and then some!

Now you know why this Christmas so great this year! I have now proven that you can still celebrate Christmas by yourself and have an awesome time!____________________________________

The next day wasn't as great weather wise mind you, it was raining all day, and just all around grey. So I felt kind of sorry for the rest of people celebrating on the 25th. And I was invited to the home of the camp manager, and had a couple beers with him and his wife, which was really nice. And they treated me to some nice ham, home made chou chou, and hot mustard. Yum is the only way I can describe it :D

So as you can tell, I'm still having a blast, and today I'm going on a small road trip along the coast by myself just to get out and about and try to get some good photos too.

Here are some photos guys, enjoy!