Friday, June 26, 2009

Holidays in the Sun

Blogging for fun Friday - Holidays in the Sun! Blue Bay Camping Grounds, Mahia Peninsula, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.

My husband of then comes from a family of nine. Me, just mum, dad and me. Christmas is always one of those times fraught with who will we spend Christmas with this year. We always did the turn about, alternating each year with my parents and the inlaws. Being just me in my family we always tried to spend part of Christmas day with my parents, usually breakfast, followed by the hurried, opening of presents, photos, shared relaxing time with babies and toddlers in a house where the most spoken words were "careful don't touch that it will break"!

Without appearing to be rushing, we then threw the kids in the car again to travel the hour and half up the road to my husbands parents for the 2 o'clock lunch, with a variety of brother and sisterinlaws, associated children - party time, well for the men it was, for us woman folk it was more work. The children by this stage were tired, over excited, over indulged in 'sugar' because Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without all that 'sugar'! Needless to say, Christmas was stressful, tears and tantrums were always the long lasting reminder of that day - always looking forward to next year.

Then we happened upon the idea of camping. 14 years ago now we started and went every year for 5-6 years. No more family riotious Christmas's, just relaxed, back to basics (well we had the usual creature comforts, fridge, bbq, table chairs etc. Woke up everyday to cicadas. The boys fished, swam, found old friends again from the previous years, new friends. My husband played golf, just across the road, very relaxed, you could play in shorts, t-shirt and jandals (summer footwear). New Years Eve was always great fun, the camping ground usually always put on a show of some description that all and sundry could participate in to any degree that you fancied.

We started camping there when our youngest son, Sean, was 22 months old. The most fabulous family holidays ever, my four boys still reminisce about these fantastic holidays. These were the beginings of our best Christmas's ever too! Waking up to quiet, only a few of us camped for Christmas, it was lovely. Like all good things these came to end, my husband and I divorced and the camping grounds were sold to developers that have now turned the grounds into a coastal resort with beach front apartments.

After that we had to make new memories, I started bringing my boys to Australia, Surfers Paradise - the gateway to sun, fun, theme parks. They got to have the time of their lives at the likes of Wet n Wild, Movie World, Dream World and Sea World. I got to enjoy their enjoyment, share in the terror of the latest new ride, they got to enjoy my screaming on every ride they took me on and they being boys thought it was hysterically funny - as boys of that age do.


Those were definitely the days, our best holidays in the sun. We love the sun and heat, not big on wet, cold, ice brrrr...!

What were your favourite holiday jaunts?

Cheers to you all.
Julie McClelland

4 comments:

Melissa said...

I would so love to go to New Zealand, what a beautiful country. I am jealous.

betchai said...

i love camping too, and your camping trips sound so lovely. and i love blue sky and blue water, well, gray sky marine fogs can be dramatic sometimes, but for a fun vacation, i prefer really blue sky and blue water.

Janet Giacoma said...

What a delightful description of your low key holidays.... I almost could see and feel it!

r4 card said...

Thanx for the valuable information. This was just the thing I was looking for, I was planning my honeymoon at Newzealand...keep posting. Will be visiting back soon.