Now bring on the festive season slog!

It rained cats and dogs on Christmas day, we physically had to pull the last six trucks on to the Raglan grounds with the tug of war rope.

The rain stopped and our Xmas party/ secret Santa was safe. For secret Santa I got an amazing Croquet set(thanks Craig)!

We had the first of our summer twilight sessions(DJs and dancing) on that three day fair. My brothers Dallas and Jaz lit up their fire-staffs for their first show on fire!

Tired and happy we booted it to Waihi beach in one day to set up and trade for another three days. Swamp thing played for our second summer twilight session on New Years eve. Awesome music and dancing! We counted the New Year in under the stars, dancing. I was a bit sad because Tiwai and Lettie couldn’t make it as their bus had broken down.

Now very tired and trying to stay “positated”(Dallas’s special word) we made the long haul through Auckland to Matakana, (once again with just one travel day) to set up for luckily just a two day fair. That weekend we sizzled in the hot burning sun.

We surfaced Monday morning exhausted after 13 days straight with almost no air;”just keep swimming, just keep swimming”.

Talking about swimming, we headed for Keri keri and Rainbow falls for a blissful 3 days of eat, drink, swim, repeat with a day of boating around the Bay of islands thrown in.

Thursday night we drove onto Waitangi Marae grounds for our first ever weekend trading in Paihia. The treaty of Waitangi was signed here in 1840. Te triti(the Maori version) is considered by many Maori to be the true document.

We had a beautiful surprise welcome from the Komatua. They blessed us, they blessed our fair and they blessed our weekend. I had my first Hongi(mingling of breath with noses touching) with the guardians of the Waitangi Marae.     I have to say I was a bit nervous, but afterwards I felt honored.

An exciting thing has happened! I have a summer job on top of all my other summer jobs. Working in the Lucky Star cafe. Its new and stimulating and gives me something to do! I am taking orders and handling cash at the counter. The first day was ridiculously busy and there was only two of us working! Thrown in the deep end and I loved it.

 

That was the incredibly busy, fun, exhausting festive season. Now finally back to a normal pace. Next weekend Whangarei.

Bye!