Weekend photos

Market of food and colour


Writing my "This I Believe" essay for NPR


Dinner of dips, spreads, rice, and bread

Sunset off the deck


Wine with Linde and a bit of Lindy Hop!

Laura's visit - misc adventures

Laura and I also had mini adventures of the everyday kind. We've been here so long now that many things no longer seem different, so Laura's fresh eyes (and desire to photograph all the signs) were a real treat.

I had completely forgotten how cool the money is here. It feels a bit like plastic (and washes much better than the greenback). The dollars are different colours and have these little see through bits.

They also are handy for going to the market. This is our new market only 10 minutes from our country cottage.


We also explored the nearby regional park, complete with a one person 'V' gate.
And lots and lots of bridges with chicken-wire traction.

We had some random girls get invited to our house (by our neighbors) to make American Biscuits. They insist that we made scones, but I maintain that scones are slightly different from biscuits.
I also took Laura to the Marauni Surf club for yummy food at the start and end of her trip. At the start we had time to sit and eat there.

If you look closely there is a small glass bowl. That is what a 'large' salad comes in. It does not look large. However when you pour it out onto your plate it is HUGE mountain of food. It completely made me rethink the volume of a bowl of cereal!

Weekend moments

I'll keep it simple...

I drove down my hill


I bought $35 worth of fruit and veg and the new local market


I went to a party on a farm with alpacas just outside the city.


At the party I discovered that I like archery. 

It was a good, albeit short, weekend.

Sunday recovering...

Bit by bit, I'm recovering from whatever ails me. I'm still not 100%, but I drug myself down to the market today.  Today we went to the market next to Te Papa instead of the one off Willis Street.

On the way back to our car, we snapped a couple photos of the wide sidewalks perfect for young kids learning to ride bikes.  These paths connect Te Papa to the great playground with the slider thingamajig I think looks so cool.

We then headed over to Kiawharawhara to find an organic food shop I had read about. It was okay, but the really great part was that just up the road was a park with a stream running through it.

In the end, we managed ended up with the following purchased at the veggie market ($20), organic store ($20), and a conventional store ($50):

It sure doesn't look like much...

Sunday Drive

Spring
There are so many signs that spring might already be here after the shortest winter of my life!




Car
And with spring comes new beginings, such as our new-to-us car.  I never thought you could love an object as much as I love our car.  It is straight from Japan, and has a crazy contraption inside that speaks to us in Japanese. I currently call it my laugh medicine, because I crack up everytime I hear the voice and imagine what it might be saying.   We hypothesize that it could be any of the following:  toll booth money reader, music player, navigational aid, or alarm system.  I'll have to call in a Japanese speaking friend once I no longer crack up laughing when it speaks - its just too great to have a free laugh creater, but once the effect wears off I'd be keen to know what it is



Market

With out brand new-to-us car, we were able to sleep in an extra hour before heading down to the market for our weekly fruits and veggies.

This is the herb table, all herbs are $1 and you get quality over 
quantity.  Today we boughtbaby baby basil.







Moore Wilson's
We also drove over to Moore Wilson's, which is a grocer, fish market, home goods, and warehouse store all in one. I always enjoy it, then later regret going for how much I spend. The prices don't seem that amazing, but then again we found the best sausage so far here today, so all was not lost.






Hiking
With our car, we were also able to sneak in a hike with friends.  We started at this soccer field, that is complete with signs saying "do not climb fence, dangerous animals"



this is because the zoo is right behind the fence. The Baboons can literally watch kids playing cricket and soccer if they want.


From there we explored the hill you can see from our friends' house.


On the hike we had great views of Island Bay,

Cook Straight

Lyall Bay and the end of the WLG runway


Our favourite cafe at Lyall Bay


and the view towards the hutt valley, with evan's bay in the foreground (the other end of the runway)

and the city

June Chilies

Today I was annoyed by a fella riding my tail. It was a cop, so I opted to pull off the road at the first good pull off. And the place I pulled off was a farm stand shop. I went wild in there, even though I was running late. Five minutes later I had a mountain of yummy food.

Mushrooms, courgettes (which is how I think they spell zucchini here), yellow squash, broccoli, peppers, parsley, kiwifruit, spinach, bok choy, red mystery fruit, and an impulse buy -- chilies! I love it when my impulse buy is something like a bag of red chillies!


Okay, my other impulse buy was this fruit to the right. I am sure there is someone out there that can identify it for me - and reassure me that it is edible raw, cuz I just ate a bunch!

We took them home and attempted to recreate the spicy leek chicken dish we love from our favourite restaurant. The chopping is easy enough, even if I still hear grumbles about my idea of 'bite size' pieces, but I get lost when it comes to nuances stir fry flavours. So I pass that bit on to my handy fella...

While Trav mixed, tossed, and danced about the hob (kiwi for stove), I kept myself busy with the chilies.






Trav mumbled that we wouldn't have any fireside activities to do after dinner if I strung all the chilies before tea. I laugh, because our only source of heat in our partially insulated flat is a 10 inch space heater! There are times that I do curl up to it like a fire, but not to do 'fireside work' tasks - more like try to stay warm as I pull socks on in the morning

At any rate, here are the fruits of our labours tonight..



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