Time Slows Down In Middle Earth (Part 2): Christmas Eve With Sheep

Christmas Eve was spent in a bucolic, tranquil way in New Zealand. We trekked around One Tree Hill, which incidentally was the third volcanic peak that we climbed in Auckland. We woke up to a brilliant day of sparkling sunshine and cobalt blue skies dotted with pure-white beguiling clouds, the types of which we can only find in New Zealand skies.

One Tree Hill, Auckland, New Zealand

As we ascended One Tree Hill, we saw hundreds of sheep and cattle scattered all over the slopes of the sprawling hill. They are wild and unfettered, with probably the city council overseeing them.

Can you spot the sheep?

It is wondrous to find spots of wilderness and pastoral living just minutes out of the city. An excellent juxtaposition of idyllic rustic living alongside frenetic urban lifestyles. It made it so much easier for frazzled city dwellers to escape into an arcadian, verdant paradise.

We trekked and ambled in the bush and rambling slopes of the hill, chatting with sheep that chewed on grass just an arm's width from us. Little Bee even sang incessantly to them, much to their annoyance.

The Bees creeping up to the top of one knoll to observe the sheep

These newly shorn sheep stared at us suspiciously and with much caution, but learned to ignore us once we kept quiet and did not disturb them. The line between humans and animals living in the wild is so thin. Most animals react to how humans treated them in the past, so we try to keep our profiles low whenever we want to observe these animals at close range.

It was so therapeutic and rejuvenating to be strolling in seemingly boundless and undulating meadows, with not a sight of other humans. 

With every step we took, we were able to appreciate nature's beauty rather than artificial man-made perks. Beauty in the resplendent red blooms of the pohutukawa trees (also known as New Zealand's Christmas trees because they only bloom around Christmas!).

Beauty in the placid and cautious behaviour of the sheep - we can literally spot idiosyncracies of each sheep once we observed them closely.

Beauty in the hundreds of sheep and cattle dotting the pastures, almost like polka-dotted snowflakes on an art piece.

Beauty in the rich emerald green slopes that shield potentially tempestuous volcanic activities just miles underneath the halcyonic surface.

We found a spot to settle down for a little tea break, on a bench high up the slopes, overlooking the entire city of Auckland with a massive border of rolling meadows. There, over apples and Tim-Tams, we laughed, we played, we sang, we giggled. Just the perfect way to spend a beautiful Christmas Eve afternoon.

The view from our picnic spot

On the evening of Christmas Eve, we sat down on our apartment's dining table and started decorating and writing Christmas cards for one another. Each of us would decorate and write thankful wishes on 3 different cards. Afterwards, we all sat around the bed and read our cards, what we thought of one another, our wishes, our flashbacks. Lots of laughter ensued, and it was a perfect way to count down towards Christmas.

Wherever we are, whatever we do, being together with our loved ones at all times is what matters.