Welcome to my fifth day of the #7dayculturechallenge - for the rundown of why I started this new challenge check the introduction post here

A huge part of the New Zealand culture is summer - summer in New Zealand means beaches, barbeques, road trips, good music and christmas! Summer is something I have missed and am looking forward to in Europe (we moved to Spain after last years summer so have had 2 winters in a row!)

Beach and road trips

Because New Zealand is a small country, almost anywhere you live you are fairly close to the beach! As a child I remember being so excited for summer as this meant spending hours on the beach, making sandcastles (and destroying them!), swimming and trying to surf. New Zealand has some lovely beaches - it is famous for the length of the beaches - there is even a beach called ninety mile beach. The temperature in New Zealand in summer is warm, but still fairly moderate - it can get to around 30 degrees celsius on the hottest days.

A part of summer for a lot of New Zealanders is the ‘road trip’ - this usually means going away as a family, or as teenagers/young adults going away with friends. Road trips in summer are a time to relax and enjoy the countryside - and a good excuse to visit some of New Zealand's many beaches!

Barbeques

Having barbeques over a summer is very common in New Zealand - it is a great way to socialise and meet up with friends and family. Because of daylight savings over summer (an extra hour of sunlight everyday) we often have evening barbeques (and a few drinks!). This often includes many games of backyard cricket (cricket, but with a few different rules based on the dimensions of playing in a small place).

Christmas!

Summer in New Zealand also means christmas time! This isn’t something that I had given to much thought about until we moved to Spain, where christmas is in winter. It was interesting experiencing christmas in winter for the first time last year - I think I prefer christmas in the summer, enjoying the sunshine and the beach!

Music

I have shared a fair bit of music from New Zealand recently as last month was New Zealand music month. A big part of summer is enjoying music, and because its summer it is relaxing music - mainly dub and reggae, of which New Zealand has some great artists. A great song that reminds me of summer in New Zealand is ‘So True’ by the Black Seeds. The video also shows a lot of the stereotypical things people in New Zealand enjoy over summer - road trips, the beach, barbeques and ice cream!

The Black Seeds - So True

The rules:

• Write a post about an aspect of your culture - e.g. food, arts, dance, economy, money, governement etc
• Do this for 7 days in a row if you get nominated
• Mention three people who should do this on each day.
• Tag it with #7dayculturechallenge and include these rules at the bottom of your post
• Include a picture of something from your culutre related to yoru story if possible
  Post these rules at the bottom of your post
  Note - if you like the idea of this and would like to participate but werent nominated, feel free to join in and just mention that I nominated you :)
  If you are still doing a different challenge and are nominated feel free to start this one once you have finished the last one!

Thanks for reading :)