NZ Veggies

This post is for my mom.  She adores vegetables and would love to pinch, prod and hug the ones we have here in New Zealand.  There are leeks as long as my arm, lettuces and cabbages bigger than my head, and the gigantic celery and carrots taste wonderful.  Strawberries, blueberries and pineapple are exceptional.  Mark likes the new varieties of apples there are to try.  I can't buy enough plums and nectarines for the fruit flies in the house.  We still love to eat (and cook) and are very happy to do it here. Mark has some homemade chicken broth bubbling away on the hob (stovetop) as we speak.  It smells wonderful.   I have planted cilantro, kale, chives and they are starting to take.  It is the end of summer, but I hope they will settle in and grow a bit before it gets too cold.

Rubbish!

Garbage, that is.  As with many things, rubbish is handled differently here.  The turquoise bag on the left is a recycling bag that is free and contains plastics 1-7, metals, and paper / cardboard.  The yellow bag is for regular rubbish and costs $2 for each bag (which is about the size of a medium sized kitchen bag).  We put the bags out on the grass by the road and they are gathered by hand.  Glass is also gathered in a separate bin, but we don't have much glass given our non-imbibing ways.

The Windy House

This is the home of Donald and Rupa.  Like many New Zealanders, their house and land is perched on a hill.  One of the ways they have made best use of their yard is to build a complex series of terraced decks to enlarge their back yard.  It allows them many different special spots to enjoy their little corner of the bush.

 Here is the koi pond.

 The flower garden.

 The greenhouse deck.

 And around another corner, "The Windy House," a fairy house for their little girls.

 The trampoline deck shows a little zebra, Lucy Maurice, hiding.

 The myriad stairs and decks were all built by Donald over the years, by hand, with a hand saw.

 A bit of the bush, filled with the native plants and birds that are actually scarce on other parts of the island.  They live very close to the Otari reserve, so this is part of why the native forest thrives here.

 Donald's newest deck project from this summer, the reading place, when they need a bit of quiet.

 

NZ Money

The money here is quite beautiful, both in terms of color and design.  On one side of the bills you see famous NZ people and on the other are NZ animals.  The bills are all different colors and sizes and now that we are experienced with it, we like this difference; it is easier to tell apart than American money.

50       Sir Apirana Ngata, a Maori member of Parliament in the early to mid 1900s

            Kakako, a Wattlebird

20       Queen Elizabeth

            Karearea, a Falcon

10       Kate Sheppard, a NZ suffragette

            Whio, a blue duck

5          Sir Edmund Hilary, the first man to climb Mt Everest

            Hoiho, a yellow-eyed penguin

On one side of the coins you see the Queen and on the other side you see:

2          Kotuku, a great Egret

1          Kiwi, a unique NZ bird

.50       HMS Endeavor,  the ship James Cook used to “discover” NZ

.20       Pukaki, a carving of a Maori chief

.10       Koruru, a carved face

Bugs

Lots of bugs here.  The stick bug was at our service project.  The cicada shells are clinging to our front fence.  It is end of summer here and the cicadas are sawing away all the time.  They are actually blue and green and shimmery in person.  These are just their skins they have shed.  They still stick to the fence like glue with their strong little claws even after they are gone. 

Then there are Wetas.  This one's body is only about 2 inches long.  There are a couple different kinds and they can get 6 inches long.

Walking on the Beach

One of Claudine and my favorite things to do here is to walk on the beach by our house.  We ventured out further the other day and saw such interesting scenery.  New Zealand has fascinating geologic features.  We wish one of the geologists we know was with us to tell us about it. 

This is natural terracing.

Here is some erosion at work.

Finally, what caused the formation of the red rocks?
 

Makara Beach

We went to Makara Beach on Sunday afternoon.  We hiked on the hills above the beach—there were some incredible views.

We also explored the coastline and found some interesting plants and animals.

We found a few more treasures to bring home.

Cooking like a Kiwi

Pavlova anyone?  Wow, we love this stuff.  Evelyn loves helping.  Meringue, whipped cream, and piles of fresh fruit.  What's not to like?

Cleaning House

One of these kids is more excited than the other to clean house.  Can you guess which kid that might be?

Mormon Helping Hands

This Saturday our family participated in a service project to help clean grounds and fix a building that is going to become Maori/indigenous plant and animals community centre.  We sanded, weeded and the girls helped with food preparation (and playing).  We are all making friends.