Mother's Day treat, 2017

The day before Mother's Day, Jeanne and I went to Mt. Eden. I wanted to take her out for a little treat. We had a very nice time, and discovered someplace new. 

We did not climb the Mt. Eden that you see in this picture. We wandered around the suburb that is named for this volcanic cone. This photo shows clearly how hilly the terrain around here is.   

This is a shot of the train platform at Mt. Eden as we arrived for our day out. The picture itself is pretty blah I realize, but I like to show you what you would see if you were here, and this is it. Trains heading into the city and Britomart go away from the camera on the left, trains heading for our home approach us on the right. 

This is a shot I took at the top of the walkway from the train station platform. The top of Mt. Eden is just visible the in background. 

The centre of Mt. Eden, the suburb, is about 4 kilometres from the downtown Auckland, and walking through it, you can see that it is an older section. There are some new apartment buildings but most of the storefronts we passed are quite old and many were vacant. I did not take many pictures. Here is one that I took on another visit to Mt. Eden. 

We found a Thai restaurant that we liked the looks of and had lunch. I was very pleased that the food came almost instantly. I guess it doesn't take long to throw the ingredients together in a wok and toss it around a bit. We chose our selections wisely and the food was even better, we thought, than the food we get from our Henderson Thai place, where they tend to overdo the sugar. 

Our real find of the day came after lunch. I had seen this place the first time I explored Mt. Eden, but it wasn't open then. Since we came by in the afternoon, they were doing a brisk trade. 

 I'm always ready to check out an Alehouse.

 Especially one that looks like this one does. 

Galbraith's is in a 111 year-old building. It was originally constructed as the Grafton Library. 

 Hmmm, look at that. I took two pictures. One of the doorway and the second of the floor and I almost got them lined up. I didn't mean to do that but I like the expanded view it produces. 

This is the entryway just inside the outer door. 

I enjoyed sipping my beer while admiring this gorgeous and historic bar. Actually, part of the bar is pre-historic.  

(Also, the clock doesn't work, it's actually about 1 p.m.)

 Take a look at the counter from this angle, 

And now, from this angle. Resting your elbows on this bar is, in itself, worth the price of the beer in my opinion... 

...Because,  this bar is made from 40,000 year old Kauri wood. Kauri are huge trees that can be up to 200 feet tall. Swamp Kauri are those that fell over at some point and were pressed down into the deep swamps that preserved them. 
(DSIR stands for the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research) 

The picture below shows one such tree. Products made from swamp kauri are available but very expensive, as you might imagine. I wonder what that bar counter cost originally and what it would be worth today?

 I tried a half pint of the Russian Stout that you might have noticed advertised on the sign in the entrance, and a half of Redemption. The stout was okay, but the Redemption was extraordinary. It was Delicious with a capital D when it first came out of the tap. I noticed though, that it began to taste a little sweeter as it sat in my glass and the CO2 diminished. This was not terrible, but it surprised me. And this beer was only 2.5% alcohol.  

Another view across the room. 

Even a brass rail for the comfort of your feet. 

If Jeanne and I had not already had lunch, I would have enjoyed one of their hamburgers. 

(A sort of side-bar thought here...In New Zealand, they do not call hamburger meat hamburger, like we do in the States. They call it mince. Why then don't they call the sandwich made from it a minceburger?)

This bit of cozy seating is next to the brewing area, which can be seen through the glass partitions on the right.

I've seen Galbraith's beer in the stores, but never knew it's story. Now I do. 

We will definitely visit Galbraith's again and I hope it will be soon.   

Update: I went back to Galbraith's the following Saturday. Jeanne decided not to come this time. I tried a bitter and a porter. Very interesting. 
Both of these beers were chilled to only 50 degrees Fahrenheit compared to about 37 for most tap beer. And they had noticeably less carbonation. The bitter was not bitter at all and the porter was very dark like a stout. I've very glad I tried these and intend to continue to learn. There are currently three more varieties of these traditional English beers on tap.  -djf 

It's harvest time in Henderson.

While Michigan is enjoying springtime, we are rapidly approaching winter. We've seen some winter-ish weather already in the form of frosts but have plenty of beautiful fall days still ahead of us. And it's harvest time here. I always loved fall at home and I love fall here too. 

Here are some pictures that reflect what's going on here lately. Some having to do with the abundance of the harvest, and some just because I run across all sorts of interesting things.

I was given permission to help myself to all the Butia fruitia that I want. Here is my first picking ready to be made into juice. 

These are two types of guavas that I combine to make juice. 

That's guava juice on the left and Butia fruitia on the right. They are more like 'nectars' than juice since they have a lot of body.  I have kept the sugar to a minimum so they still have a hint of tartness to them. 

Jeanne made a super smoothie the other day. She used pear, apple, banana, persimmon, yellow guava, feijoa, red guava, and butia fruitia. Some blackberry syrup that we made a year ago was also added. 

Our oranges are not ready yet, otherwise at least one of them would have gone into the smoothie. 

 

There are still quite a few feijoas on the tree.

Our peach tree, which has never produced a single peach, is winding down another busy year of taking up space. 

I mentioned that we had some frosts. Here's the proof.  

It's just about time for the boys to leave for school in this picture.  The sun will take care of the frost in short order.  

Look who (plural) got off the train at Sturges Road just ahead of me the other day. 

Nice bird, huh? 

These two guys were very friendly and the bird was happy to pose. 

We haven't had a chance to try this yet. I had better hurry. 

Hobbiton

(This is the last post in the series from our recent adventure in Rotorua. Why I sandwiched in the post on Marid/Auckland, I don't know. Just felt like it I guess.)



"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole, with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

That is the opening line from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. Jeanne introduced me to the book shortly after we met back in 1971. She lent me her very well used paperback and I read it, and it's sequels, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, while listening to the music of the Moody Blues, which seemed to me to be the perfect accompaniment to the moods set in the books. I have never forgotten the experience. (I should have been studying my organic chemistry during the hours I spent in the company of Bilbo and later Frodo, but now, looking back and considering which did me more good, I think I made the right choice after all.)

Some years back, Hollywood started making movies from the books and now, there have been a total of six of them produced. In case any of you aren't familiar with the books or the subsequent movies, and think possibly that you haven't missed much, since the opening line from The Hobbit makes you think it is a childrens' tale, consider that Each of the movies has earned just under a billion dollars. That is a billion a piece....so far. 

The movies have been amazing. They are perfect examples of what today's film-makers can accomplish with huge budgets and powerful computers. I did enjoy each of them, mostly.

I have almost never liked a movie as well as I have liked the book that inspired it. My greatest disappointment in a book to movie adaptation came when I watched Cannery Row, from the book by John Steinbeck. One exception to this was the movie, The Grapes of Wrath, also by Steinbeck as it happens. That, in my opinion, was very well done and effectively conveyed the message.  

The film-makers made changes from the book in the Hobbit movies, as they so often do, so the films did not completely follow the story line. Further, the movies concentrate a bit too much on the battles that occur. Still, because of my memories of the books, I enjoyed them. So, when we came to live in New Zealand and when I got the chance, twice now, to visit the Hobbiton movie set, I jumped at it with both feet. 

Today's post will cover the tour that we took on the way home from Rotorua.  I'm told that about 640,000 people visit Hobbiton yearly. Our bus held 40 people. That means that they run 16,000 buses through per year or about 44 buses per day. They are closed only on Christmas. Part of my pleasure of this tour was to watch how expertly they managed the logistics of moving that many people through. 

This, in the movie, is the lane along which Gandalf the wizard drives at one point. Frodo meets him and jumps on to his cart.

It's also the route from the bus parking lot to the start of the tour.  

Becca, our tour guide, is outlining the plan for our walk through Hobbiton. 

Meanwhile, another group hehind her is making it's way through the set.  

We learned that none of the interior scenes of the movies were shot here. All of that was done down in Wellington. This is the one Hobbit hole that can be entered. The boys spent a few minutes looking out from the door...

...And from one of the windows. 

This is part way up the Hobbiton hill, looking toward the Green Dragon, the inn in the center of the picture.   

We are approaching the most famous of all Hobbit holes, that of Mr. Bilbo Baggins.

BTW, the tree on top of the hill is an artificial one. The original was cut down after some filming, and it was realized later, that additional shooting would be required. They had to recreate the tree from photos. Becca explained that a couple of the branches are missing right now. They are at the shop being re-leaved. The wind and weather take their toll. 

I think that everyone on the tour wanted a picture of themselves or others in their party at this point. 

And this is another famous door. Samwise Gamgee's house. The setting sun was really bright against the yellow door. 

The long structure to the left of the bridge is the Green Dragon. 

To the left, in front of the Green Dragon Inn,  

and to the right. 

Becca is rushing to get me a mug of dark stout and Arram a mug of apple juice. 

Here is our crew enjoying the comforts of the Inn. We were each given one complimentary drink. The ladies tell me that the light ale they enjoyed was very good, befitting the reputation of the Inn.  

 A Hobbit shaped door that doesn't open,  but a beauty. 

This is the one part of the tour that I didn't like. We had only 10 minutes in the Green Dragon. I could have happily sipped a second stout with Jeanne in front of the fire place. 

The Green Dragon food counter. We made a quick stop here for genuine shire-baked muffins. 

(The Shire is the land or area where Hobbiton is located)

One more quick picture outside the Green Dragon before we leave. The shadows are getting long. It's nearly 4 p.m. 

And, as the sun slipped lower still, we started the walk away from Hobbiton and back to our bus. 

This is the view that was taken not far from the header photo. It's right across the road from the Hobbiton ticket office, cafe, gift shop, bus stop and sizeable parking lots. 

Hobbiton was beautiful, but so is the rest of the real 'shire' surrounding it.  -djf