To celebrate Christmas without your family can be pretty hard, I don't think I've ever felt as homesick as I did the three first weeks of December. I think the hardest part was seeing all of the photos on Facebook, see the video clips of people singing Lucia songs and just the thought that everything will be like it always was at home, even without me. I wished and wished for my family to win money so they could come visit me during Christmas, I had dreams about flying home for Christmas and then fly back and I had absolutely no idea how I was supposed to handle everything. Is it a good thing to try to keep as many of the Swedish traditions as possible or would it be better to embrace the kiwi tradition and try something totally different? I went for the second one.

 

I decided to take the bus back to Raglan, I didn't want to be by myself during Christmas and I wanted something to look forward to. Christmas at the Karioi Lodge was amazing, different but amazing. We went to the beach during the days and had a pot lock party in the evening on the 24 December (Christmas for me, I know weird Scandinavians). The food was amazing and there were so much to choose from since we were over 25 people (I have no idea how many but definitely over 25). 

 

I went down to the water, after eating until I wanted to throw up, to Skype with my family. They had sent me a gift so I opened it while they had Christmas breakfast, I got a book and some clothes. I don't think I've ever been happier to receive a gift. 

 

We spent Christmas Day at the beach, I could not go for a swim though because of the tattoo which was unfortunate since it was super hot and the black sand burned everything that touched it. But I'm not complaining, you're not always that spoiled with the weather in New Zealand.

 

I left Raglan, after a few awesome days, and headed down to Wellington again. Mette gave me a ride to the bus in Hamilton, extremely nice of her! The bus left in the evening and I were in Wellington early in the morning, not a lot of sleep. I spent the whole day in Wellington, tried to get some sleep on a bench by the sea but it didn't work that well. The ferry finally left 2.30 am and arrived in the South Island about three hours later. I am usually a very tired person so anybody with a little bit of imagination could figure out that I felt more dead than alive after two nights without sleep. Good thing though, I didn't have to pay for a hostel! Yey!