"Beaches and brimstone" Fyrelizard's photos around Whakatane, New Zealand

A TripAdvisorâ„¢ TripWow slideshow of a travel blog to Whakatane, New Zealand by TravelPod blogger Fyrelizard titled "Beaches and brimstone" Fyrelizard's travel blog entry: "My second kiwi Christmas came round. Rick and I decided to take advantage of the summer ad headed to Whakatane. Whilst lovely, Christmas in the sun is still taking a bit of getting used to! Somehow the warmth and sunshine just feels wrong- I started getting into the christmas spirit one very rainy day when we were all wrapped up in jumpers at school and the kids couldn't go out to play all day! For Christmas day, we drove out to Ohope beach, cooked mussels, drank champagne, dipped strawberries in chocolate and watched the surfers. Accompanied, somewhat surreally, by a man playing the bagpipes. Fortunately he was pretty good, otherwise the beach may have been deserted very quickly! For diner we managed to get a table at one of the only two restaurants open in the town. As this was an Indian it meant we got curry to go with our turkey, and the traditional Kiwi dessert of pavlova. (A small war can be provoked by opening the debate of whether pavlova is an Australian or New Zealand invention). On Boxing Day we decided to be a bit more active, and so was our destination. White Island is an active volcano, named (as are so many places round here) by Captain Cook, who saw it from afar and thought it was white. Bits of it are- but it is also red, black, orange and yellow. Walking round inside it is a bit like ...