Richard Moore: Hi, hi, my American's pie

Richard Moore predicts he will still be eating Christmas ham well into next year.

Christmas this year was a wonderfully relaxing day with family and friends enjoying beautiful weather and even more beautiful food.

Our menu included a ham, turkey, cranberry sauce, a fabbo potato salad and pumpkin pies.

My pavlova efforts were not needed - due to an over-abundance of fine items on the menu - and so they got deferred until Boxing Day.

In fact, pavlova has fallen down the demand list on special occasions as my sub iwi - the Ngati Wallabies - have been seduced by the delights of my American lady's pumpkin pies which, it has to be said, are sensational.

The ease of the main feast, however, was brought about by a lot of hard work on the preceding days as we shopped, baked, cooked and organised our meal.

Our Boxing Day started reasonably early as we had guests down from Auckland and so set off to the heart of Papamoa in search of breakfast.

We searched, and searched and searched and searched. But could we find one cafeteria open in the entire suburb?

Fat chance. It seems that some of the foodie fraternity in our little tourist mecca don't want to open up and make money while gazillions of out-of-towners are in town.

In the end we had to drive all the way over to Tauranga to get a cooked brekkie which, it has to be said, was well worth the time and petrol involved. The staff at the Elizabeth cafe were smiling, excellent and the food was delicious.

So the next marker of the festive season is New Year's Eve and then the bright, shiny prospects of 2016 begin to loom large.

I have a few predictions about the coming year.

Firstly, I'm likely to still be eating Christmas ham - and pavlova - well into January.

Secondly, it will take me until June to clear the backlog of travel stories that are on my to-write list.

On a more serious note the NZ flag will remain unchanged, as will the driving habits of Kiwis.

Airline security around the globe will continue to be tightened until the only folk allowed to fly are the cabin crews and pilots.

In the US elections Donald "My Hair is Alive" Trump will romp in as the Republican Party's presidential candidate only to be taken out of the race when a Hispanic, burka-wearing woman throws a hair dryer into his lap pool. Observers will note she says: "You're fried!" as she does so.

Hillary Clinton will become US president and immediately surround herself with 18-year-old male interns. First Chap, and ex-president, Bill will have to follow five paces behind her.

Finally, I was chatting to a pilot mate of mine who had just flown in from Western Australia.

While sitting waiting for a Tauranga flight he told me of an incident at Perth airport when he had misplaced a travel document.

The Aussie security guy said: "Don't worry mate, we never stop Kiwis heading eastwards."

Have a great New Year folks and we will see you in 2016.

richard@richardmoore.com

Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer.