The Chinese trio met in Dunedin yesterday as part of their respective working holidays, and celebrated Christmas together at the annual Dunedin Town Hall Christmas Dinner.
They discovered each other online, on a special website for Chinese people working in New Zealand.
Topics of conversation included how nice it was to be in a room that did not smell like fish, and how fortunate they felt to be spending the day with great company, rather than in a flat on their own.
"It’s nice to smell a bit of roast beef or roast ham for a change."
Miss Wang said they enjoyed the Christmas dinner, but it was inevitable they would reminisce about some of the Chinese Christmas traditions they had with family back home.
"At this time of the year, I always think of turkey or some apples."
She said in Chinese culture, the sharing of apples during Christmas was symbolic, because the word for apple was similar to the word for peace and apples were traditionally associated with wishes of harmony and wellbeing.
Now that the trio have become friends, they plan to spend their two weeks of annual leave together, travelling around the South Island’s tourist sites.
Miss Wang said she was particularly impressed with Dunedin on Christmas Day.
"I think it’s very beautiful and interesting, very cultural — and cold."
Christmas dinner organiser and Dunedin Christmas Charitable Trust trustee Rob Riddell Tigeir said about 550 people attended this year’s dinner.
Many of them were people who had recently moved to Dunedin and had no family or friends yet to share the day with, and there were others who were the only remaining people in their family, or people who could not afford to make a meal.
"They all just want to come and have a good time.
"We had one family one year who told me that they needed neutral ground, because neither of them wanted to go to each other’s houses.
"And so, the compromise was to come here and everyone could be here.
"There’s all kinds of reasons why people come to this event."
He said there was a "lovely festive spirit" at the dinner, which made all the organisation worth it.
"I’m not really a Christmas person, so I don’t know how I ended up doing this, but I’m absolutely loving being involved in this. It’s amazing and everybody really enjoys the food and the live entertainment.
"Being able to create this and to have it be so rewarding for myself and other people, is really a pleasure.
"I mean, looking at the smiles on people’s faces, that’s the bit that gets me.
"On Boxing Day, my feet and my cheeks will hurt — you know, from all the running around and smiling that I’m doing today.
"It’s great."
In Caversham, community eatery The Bowling Club hosted a free Christmas brunch from 10am to 1pm.
Co-owner Liam Arthur said the social restaurant had hosted the meal for the past three years for anyone wanting to be around people and looking for a nice meal.
"We try to run this event not just like a charity day because we try to get the whole community to come and enjoy it.
"It’s just like to bring people together."
He said about 250 people had turned up for the celebration.
Along with a spread of food that featured Christmas favourites such as ham, pork pasties and shortbread there were also a few hundred presents distributed.
The presents were donated by customers and marked for different age groups.
One of the staff members dressed up as Santa and handed out the gifts.
