Matt and Lisa's Adventures

27 December 2023

We travelled up to Whakatane on the 22nd of December after finishing work the previous day. We had a fantastic Christmas time with all of the family. Especially our nieces and nephews who are fun and hilarious. Christmas Day was delightful with church then food and drink all day long. (Note: Lisa laughed at the use of the word “delightful”)

Unfortunately the Whakatane weather didn’t cooperate. While warm it was generally overcast or raining. This limited our ability to get outside and enjoy the beach. We had some great swims at the pool at Mum and Dad’s apartment which was a lot of fun. It was funny watching other guests start to use the pool then get overwhelmed with all the noise from our group before giving up and exiting the pool.

On Boxing Day we finally had some good weather and were able to enjoy the beach. Zoe and Ella were very excited and Lisa and I were roped into helping with castle and moat building. We even made it in the ocean for a brief swim. It was cold so I didn’t get any deeper than my waist. Zoe had been steadfastly against going in the surf but once she was in she loved it and had a great time body surfing in the waves.

On Christmas Eve and Boxing Day Lisa and I managed to do the walk to Kohi point and back. This is a section of the Toi’s challenge path I would normally run but it was very nice to get out for some exercise especially after all the amazing food we had eaten!

On the 27th Will drove us to Tauranga and dropped us at the airport. We were very early and our flight to Auckland had been delayed by 30 mins so it was a slow start at the Koru lounge.

The flight to Auckland was uneventful and we then settled in to the Koru lounge for our five hour wait. Thankfully, we got to use the showers which was a blessing for us and the people around us on the flight!

I watched Interview with the Vampire which while an old film is one that I hadn’t seen before. It was really good and made me question why it had taken me so long to see it. I managed to get a few hours of sleep, a big improvement on the flight to Dubai a year ago where I didn’t get any. I had purchased a turtle neck pillow which I tried for the first time. It wasn’t perfect but I do think it helped. The flight was almost an hour early and we landed in Shanghai at 6:30am.