Surf Lifesaver Josh Gallagher. Photo / Michael Craig
Surf Lifesaver Josh Gallagher. Photo / Michael Craig
Sportspeople and lifesavers give up family time to keep us entertained and safe.
Christmas is for spending time with family and friends, but as much as life might slow down for the holiday it doesn't stop entirely. Spare a thought for the people who work over Christmas. We spoke to four of them.
Ross Taylor: Black Cap
Cricketer Ross Taylor. Photo / Warren Buckland
Taylor reckons he's had one yearin the past nine where he hasn't had to spend part of his Christmas day training.
This year will be no different when the Black Caps play their Boxing Day test against Sri Lanka at Hagley Park in Christchurch.
Training on Christmas morning will take Taylor away from his wife and two young children for a few hours, but not before the annual gift giving is taken care of.
"The kids get up at six and training's not 'til 9.30, so it leaves a bit of time - they always find a way of opening presents," he said.
Travelling to Christchurch for Christmas turned out to have some advantages. "We don't have a chimney at home and my little daughter was asking where Santa was coming down, but we told her we were going back to Christchurch and the place we stay in Clearwater actually has a chimney, so we said he'd be coming down there," Taylor said.
"So it's actually worked out quite well."
Taylor said the test match wouldn't stop him from indulging at Christmas lunch after training.
"You've still got to treat yourself - the boys have had a bit of laugh because the last two Boxing Days I've been run out. Maybe I've had a bit too much Christmas pudding."
Josh Gallagher: Surf Lifesaver
Surf Lifesaver Josh Gallagher. Photo / Michael Craig
Gallagher is only 16, but will give up an important day with family to help keep others safe in the water.
The Massey High School student put up his hand to guard Piha, one of Auckland's most notoriously dangerous beaches, on Christmas Day.
An eight hour shift means missing Christmas lunch and morning gift-giving, but Josh said the sacrifice was worth it. "It's good looking out for people and I like it. Someone has to do it."
Josh has been a lifeguard for three years and although his shifts were usually volunteer work, the Christmas shift would be paid.
Initially, his parents were less than enthusiastic but they swung around after seeing how good a thing it was to do.
"They're a bit bummed I'm not with them, but life's life, you have to miss out on some things.
"I just love the beach, can't get enough of it."
Opie Bosson: Jockey
Jockey Opie Bosson. Photo / Greg Bowker
It's been a big year for Caulfield Cup-winning jockey Bosson, who will be racing at Ellerslie on Boxing Day.
That means a quiet Christmas with his wife and son.
"It'll be a quiet day really, I'll have to lose a little bit of weight the night before," he said. "I try not to eat too much. I usually have my Christmas on the 23rd with my family.
"I've always got to keep an eye on it [his weight] - we'll probably just have a BBQ lunch, just keep it light."
He relies on pre-race sweat baths the night before to drop to his ideal racing weight and trusts a few slices of pavlova won't compromise his performance. "You've just got to be sensible. Your body gets into a routine because you're riding every day of the week, [but] I can take off a couple of kilos in the bath easy."
Leanne Howison: Trade Me policing team
Crime never sleeps and Trade Me never stops, which means a dedicated team of fraud-detectors operates 24/7 to keep New Zealand's biggest online trading site ticking along smoothly.
Howison has worked for Trade Me for about four and a half years, but this will be her first Christmas day working.
She said scammers work in different time zones, so at 2am in New Zealand, phishing scams in Nigeria or Romania might be operating.
Last year she took the holidays off to get married, so this year Howison thought she should take one for the team and work the day.
She didn't feel working the Christmas shift was too big of a sacrifice.
"People are always talking about oh, it's less time with family, but you know, Trade Me's a big old family. It'll be like hanging out with work family. "We'll just be munching on cookies and catching up on gossip, playing terrible, terrible music."
Howison will celebrate Christmas early with her family in Wellington, a good arrangement given her parents also work Christmas day.
Howison wasn't sure what her husband would be doing while she was at work. "He'll probably be playing Xbox."
