We were given a coupon for a complimentary champagne breakfast. Mmm, you’re thinking. Not so much. The champagne basically served to help you choke down the food that was not delicious. I guess you take what you can get when you are asking a stranger to make you your Christmas morning meal.

We drove to a town called Rotorua, the most geothermic(ly?) active place in NZ (read: smells like sulfur sometimes). Most of the shops were closed. We had decided not to pay US$180pp for a dinner the hotel was offering, so we went to a gas station and bought some Cups O’Noodles. We walked around the downtown area, which was nice. It was on a lake that blends with the erupting thermal vents. We walked around the hotel property, and sat on their dock and watched the swans.

The funniest thing was that there was a movie on, Christmas with the Krunks. I never normally would have watched that, really, but it was that or cricket, which I believe I already mentioned is as exciting as watching an ice maker. The movie is about a couple deciding to “skip Christmas” and go on vacation. Yeah, like us. So, after our noodles for dinner, we had a bottle of wine and decided we’d celebrate Christmas the next day. It was, after all, Boxing Day, and we had a big day planned.