Otago Museum science presentation co-ordinator Amadeo Enriquez Ballestero was back at work today, but was still revelling in the "amazing experience" of body boarding with dolphins on Christmas Day.
Spanish-born, Mr Enriquez Ballestero missed not being with his parents on Christmas Day but nevertheless greatly enjoyed a special day.
On social media, he has described himself as "a bit of star dust turned into a human, privileged to enjoy life doing science communication".
In a recent Facebook post, he added that, as a palaeontologist, Curio Bay was "one of my favourite places in the world".
"What better way to spend Christmas Day but opening presents around some of the oldest Christmas trees in New Zealand," he said.
The petrified forest in the area had "beautiful petrified trees that where covered with mud 180 million years ago".
"I'm sure dinosaurs would have been opening their presents around the trees there then!"
This year, he and his partner had decided to go on "a Christmas adventure with the presents our families had send us from our home countries".
As their families battled the cold "closer to the North Pole", he and Kaitlyn went for a swim late in the afternoon, and spent two hours in the water.
To their surprise, this included "swimming with a group of very curious and playful Hector's dolphins".
He and Kaitlyn knew they should not disturb the dolphins by going to them, but "they certainly came to us", sometimes in quite shallow water, he added in an interview.
The couple jokingly called the dolphins "water reindeer", and one particularly curious dolphin, which kept coming back to see them, they named "Ruldolf".
Being away from his family this year did "feel weird", he said.
"But the amazing people of the Catlins, the incredible nature, the fossilised Christmas trees and the most friendly water reindeer made our Christmas an unforgettable experience."
