Christmas in the Cavalli Islands

Bamboozle
Jamie and Lucy Telfer
Sun 1 Jan 2012 18:59
035:00.460S 173:55.998E
 
Here are some pictures of our not particularly traditional antipodean cruising Christmas in the Cavalli Islands off Northern New Zealand.
With not a shop in sight, Lucy set to making Christmas decorations.  Here is our tree which we were quite impressed with but the four children off Pickles felt we needed a bit more and gave us a wonderful collection of home made streamers, snowflakes, trees and stockings to deck out Bamboozle's saloon.
23rd December........ we were warned about the Christmas rush but maybe they are all stuck in the traffic leaving Auckland?!
There is a wonderful ridge line walk right across the main island of the group.  The wreck of the Rainbow Warrior (see below) is just this side of the far island.  Jamie would not necessarily have chosen to wear this decade old t-shirt if he had known this picture would have been included in the blog!
The Cavallis also provided our first successful scallop diving.  There is nothing that makes Jamie happier than a bit of hunter gathering.
A fat juicy scallop!
Chopped garlic, freshly ground pepper and a dash of white wine then straight on the BBQ.
Seabed to table in under an hour.  Undoubtedly the freshest and tastiest scallops we have ever had.
Andy and Rhian off Zephyrus bring over a freshly baked Christmas cake for the "big nibbles" drinks party on Bamboozle on Christmas Eve.
It just wouldn't be right without Christmas Napkins.  Even on the boat Lucy likes to do things properly!
Guy entertained us with his annual rendition of "The Grinch That Stole Christmas".
Joanie and Julia enjoying the performance.
William delivering the biggest tray of home made cookies you have ever seen.
Christmas morning.  Heading off to dive the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace ship that was sunk by the French Secret Service back in 1985.  We realised just before setting off that by an extraordinary coincidence it was Jamie's 200th logged dive and Lucy's 100th.  Andy and Rhian joined us and we all really enjoyed this not particularly traditional way of starting our Christmas Day celebrations.