Sunburnt on Christmas Day

Column December 2018

In the northern hemisphere many people decorate their houses with some Christmas lighting during Advent season. This makes little sense in New Zealand, as the sun sets really late at this time of the year. Various shops in the mall play Christmas music on repeat. The fact that these songs are usually about snow and coldness doesn’t seem to bother anyone. The holidays in Aotearoa mark the start of the long summer break and the barbecue season.

Usually I spend Christmas with my family, so this year I was going to do that with my host family. On December 24thwe headed off to Christchurch, the South Island’s biggest city, because my host family had lived there for a long time. Once we arrived, we met Morgan, the son of my host father who had returned to his home town after graduating from school in Nelson.

Unlike in Switzerland Kiwis celebrate Christmas on December 25th rather than on Christmas Eve. My host father is of Samoan descent. Hence, I got to experience “Samoan Christmas” with my host dad’s relatives. Samoa is a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean east of Fiji and belongs to the cultural area of Polynesia. A “Samoan Christmas” is like a big barbecue outside either at the beach or in your backyard.

What would Christmas be without presents? All teens and adults took part in a special kind of game called “Secret Santa”. Each player had to put a gift worth about $35.00 in the middle. Then the order of gift selection was determined by drawing playing cards. Even stealing presents from one another was allowed. Because of these rules I temporarily had a waffle iron, which then turned into a pillow that I was able to exchange for a basket of biscuits and chocolate in the end. Unfortunately, I got myself a decent sunburn while hanging out in the garden for the whole afternoon. Well, that definitely could have never happened in Switzerland!

St. Stephen’s Day doesn’t exist in New Zealand. On “Boxing Day”, December 26th, Kiwis become bargain hunters and burst into the shops in droves. To get away from those crowds I fled to the city centre and did some sightseeing. Christchurch was hit hard by several earthquakes back in 2010 and 2011. Almost every building was damaged. This was the reason to why my host family left Christchurch after living there for some twenty years. Due to the demolition of many old buildings, countless modern structures make up a big part of the cityscape today. At the same time, the heart of the city, the ChristChurch Cathedral, is still a ruin and inaccessible. All these contrasts make Christchurch a very special place.

We travelled back to Nelson for New Year’s and I already looking forward to reporting on my experiences from my time in New Zealand in 2019. With that said: “Kia Ora!”