Santa’s Kiwi Holiday by Maria Farrer & Deborah Hinde

From the publisher: After all his hectic work Santa feels he needs a rest. He scans the globe for where to go. He wants sea and sun, not ice and snow - mountains, rivers, native bush. So where does he choose? Why sunny New Zealand of course. Over the days that follow Santa visits popular tourist sights throughout New Zealand until, with batteries thoroughly recharged, he returns to his North Pole home to prepare for next Christmas.

Reading this book reminds me of the John Hore Grenell version of “I’ve Been Everywhere, Man”. As a family we’ve tiki-toured our own country first of course so where Santa goes, we paved the way (sometimes literally although Bran has now outgrown that unfortunate stage). Love the illustrations on this one.

And here the link to Grenell’s version and a little bit of trivia for the John Denver fan – guess who he got the name from? Scroll to the bottom for a bit of a surprise.