Christmas Day 2024 started with an absolute belter of a sunrise!

Both the wind and surf had dropped off during the night, so while the beach was still empty and quiet, we transitioned, a little bleary eyed, from bed to beach.

The water was warmer than the air temperature, so it was surprisingly pleasant walking into the waves! There was still a few foot of surf, so we timed our walk out between the sets, then dived through the next big ones!

It was actually warm enough to swim for a while and body surfed in on some of the bigger waves. Having said that, we were still pretty glad to be able to dash back up to the house where the sheltered balcony was baking in the heat of the morning sunshine. Hot coffees and egg butties were soon produced and eaten to expedite our warming up.

In the afternoon, we hike out west along a cliff top path, past some big houses, old rock formations and some bright flowers.

We found a comfy rock to shoot the breeze on and watched the gannets dive bombing into the sea like bullets at terrific speeds.

Back at the pad, we enjoyed the cheese and port course of our Christmas dinner. But decided to have it as our starter rather than waiting until the end! Neil had gifted Clare some bottles, so we’d managed to fit one into our panniers for this occasion.

We saved the main course until after a walk out to the church, where all our nephews and niece called at once!

Between the main course and desert, we unwrapped the pressie from aunty Norah, which had also found its way here along with a few other Christmas bits including one of Aunty Jenny’s famous Father Christmas’ from circa 1990!