Nevertheless, when I arrived I couldn't help asking my dive instructor Gov in private- what does TRACC do for Xmas? He responded (in a classically Gov way)- well what do you do in New Zealand? I said, we eat food, go to the beach, eat more food, and pass out in a food coma. And he said well that's exactly what we'll do. Perfect!
Christmas Day began in the lazy Pompom way, with people awaking one by one with a "merry Christmas". We then pulled out the Christmas hats, dive tanks, and set up for our Christmas dive. On Christmas Eve, Allia and I had made a badass driftwood Christmas tree. We decided to attach some weights to it and take it into the ocean. At 30 metres a group of 10 of us met up with our beloved concrete octopus (made by past volunteer Tomo). After attaching a Santa hat to its head we took our seasons greeting TRACC Christmas photo (and plenty of selfies!) before checking out house reef. We had a little bit of trouble bringing the Christmas tree back to land after it became waterlogged- but it was all part of the Christmas fun.
After the dive we had a light lunch and lazed around in the sun. Around 3pm everyone started preparing a dish to share for our feast. We made a bonfire and shared some pina colada (with real fruit and coconut- thanks Vanessa!) before digging into an eclectic meal consisting of duck, baked potato, portagese rice, garlic bread, soup, green veges and more piña colada! We then hung out playing games and sharing laughs into the evening
My TRACC Christmas was one to remember, but in all honesty had everything a kiwi Christmas needs- sunshine, beach, great food and my fantastic TRACC family.
