Fukuoka Gardens

There is a Japanese Garden not far from Western Springs. It's a quiet, relaxing place. 

Maybe you know of another sort of restful area.  


Fukuoka Garden Haiku-  by djf

Comforting summer
Blue water- lush garden flows,
I am fortified.

-djf

A Party in Ponsonby

The weekend of the Lantern Festival also saw a Saturday celebration in Ponsonby. I went into the city on bus 133 and hopped off on the corner of Great North Road, Ponsonby Road, and K' Road. I was as usual, a bit early. The real excitement got started after I left, but that's okay. After a life-time of work that demanded early bed and very early rising, my body and brain are still geared to such a schedule. Late nights just don't work for me. 

My post today will show you Ponsonby Road getting ready to party hardy. 

 You've seen this picture before, but I like the view of a city in the midst of a building boom. 

 The street has just been shut down to traffic and here come a couple of 'empty street inspectors' to ceremonially turn it over to pedestrians. 

 The crowds are starting to build.

 The vendors are ready. Both the takeaway folks...

 ...and the sit-down with a glass of wine sort. 

By this time, I was starting to feel a bit peckish myself. I sat down at Burgerfuel for a box of their Spudfries. 

 Here we go, the people are moving into the street. 

 Here's a store that hasn't forgotten the canine members of the crowd. 

 Where this guy and his friends came from I don't know. 

 We've bought lots of bread from this place in the past and I've just bought a treat to take home to Jeanne and Allie. She favours me with a bright thank-you smile. 

 One of the Red Bull fleet of vehicles.

 Buskers are beginning to busk. 

 I stopped in at a gift shop that was featuring items celebrating one of my very favourite artists, Frida Kahlo (de Rivera), whose image on a pillow you see beneath the woven basket I am pricing. 

Just in case you're interested: https://www.fridakahlo.org/frida-kahlo-paintings.jsp

The party atmosphere is increasing as the day moves toward evening. I've had enough fun. It's time for me to head for the bus stop and the ride back to Henderson. It'll take about a half an hour.       -djf

Chinese Lantern Festival

As part of the celebration for the Year of the Pig, a Chinese lantern festival was held in the Auckland Domain. This area is also the home of the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Wintergarden. 

On Friday evening, 2/15/19, I took the train to Grafton and then walked over to the grounds. It was only about 10 minutes away from the train station. Jeanne had planned to come with me, but again, her knee was acting up and she decided, wisely I think, to let it rest. 

The festival is open each night this weekend until 10:30 so the lanterns can be seen in all their splendor. I just didn't want to stay out that late. I think my pictures taken in the sunlight are nice enough. 

As I was leaving the domain about 7 pm, I realized that arriving and leaving early had been a good idea. There were hordes of people arriving as I was leaving. That place was about to become a zoo. 

Here is my album of pictures and a couple of shaky videos. 

 This is the War Museum. It houses plenty of items unrelated to war as well, thank goodness.

 Displays were set up in practically every nook and cranny on the grounds. 

This dog display, while very handsome, reminded me what it must be like for kids to walk up to a large dog.  

 You'll see that many of the trees in this area are hung with lanterns.

Whether it is a county fair in Michigan that's going on, or a lantern festival in Auckland, food is one of the big draws for the crowds. Who doesn't like to eat afterall? The literature I saw stated that there were close to 100 food vendors hoping to cash in on the hungry dinner crowds. 

I was hoping that at least some of the foods offered might be ones that you don't normally see at the Chinese takeaway places that are so common here. In that, I was somewhat disappointed. Most of the food was very mainstream. Chinese mainstream of course. I think they were offering those things that the greatest number of people are accustomed to. Things like sweet and sour chicken/beef/pork, or chicken/beef/pork with vegetables.

However, I did manage to find a few things I hadn't tried before. This next section of the post shares my dinner with you. 

 I got excited when I saw this sign. I don't know which foodie on TV or You Tube first did a segment on stinky tofu that I saw, but they definitely piqued my interest and I wanted to try it now. Five bucks. I didn't have much to lose if it turned out to be horrendous. 

 Here it is. I asked for a spicy sauce to go with it. As you can see, they didn't stint on the peppers. It had been fried on a very hot griddle. the surface of the tofu was crunchy in fact due to the level of searing. I started by carefully smelling my serving, ready to be offended, but there was no stink to this stinky tofu. Hmm, I thought, this won't be so bad. 

My first bite was acceptable too. I liked the crunchy outside and soft inside. The sauce was excellent, good and spicy, but not unpleasantly so. It was only after I chewed on my bite a while that I became aware that this stuff was indeed aptly named. The stinky part does not hit you if you simply smell it. It does not taste stinky either. In my opinion, the stinky part rises up through the back of your mouth and enters your nasal passages from that direction. I did not find the experience pleasant. It wasn't horrible, but it sure wasn't good. Words like fart, sewer, and swamp muck came to mind. I did finish one piece, just so I could say that I gave it my best shot. Then I put the rest of it away for Jeanne and Allie to try when I got home.  

They added 'dirty cow barn' to the list of flavor descriptors. One small bite was enough for them.    

My next stop was more like it. My duck bun was delicious 

 I was near a stage at this point so I took my bun and headed toward it. The video below was shot as I stood and ate. The one-handed phone hold and the wind conspired to make this shake more than I like. 
And I wish I knew what they were saying...

tps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y74SOCRX9Y&feature=youtu.be

 I don't think I've ever showed you a picture of the police over here. They don't normally carry guns.  

Some laws here are a bit stricter. For example, I can't carry a pocket knife at all times like I did for years at home. Knives are certainly allowed on a picnic because cutting food may be necessary, or if you are engaged in a job that requires the opening of boxes, knives are allowed. But to carry one on your person because you may discover a use for it during the course of the day is Not allowed. Not even little pocket knives with a two inch blade. I find that disappointing. 

 It's getting busy. I may leave soon, but I'm thirsty and need some dessert to finish off my meal. 

Oh man, that was the best drink I've had in a very long time. 

 These might be good.

 They were. Freshly deep-fried with sweet durian filling. I'll take two of these home to the ladies for sure. 

The arrow is pointing the way out. Just before I left though, I stopped to watch this... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgauI8aqB2Y

I walked back to Grafton Station. When the train arrived, I found that it was standing room only in every car of the six car train. There were about 20 of us waiting on the platform and I just barely fit into one of the cars. The doors tried to close behind me but hit my backpack and rebounded. A guy next to me told me he'd mash my backpack flatter for me and then the doors closed. It would have been impossible to fall down because of the tightness of the pack. 

The crowd was due to a game being held in Kingsland. That was just two stops away. The crowd disappeared then and I found a seat for the rest of the ride home.   -djf

Maraetai

Allie suggested 'a Sunday drive' on Saturday, November 17, so off we went. Maraetai is actually located to the east of Auckland. (And pronounced like Ma rye tie.) When you look offshore from Maraetai, you see Waiheke Island about 5 kilometers out. 

It's a beautiful beach on the Pacific with very light surf, almost none, and very popular with families. The beaches here are made up of what appears to be about equal percentages of sand and pulverized bivalve shells. We spent a couple of hours hanging out, ate some ice cream, and came home tired. 

(caution: changing subjects here)  I can't say enough about how much the new tunnel has benefitted us. We drove to Maraetai about 1pm the usual way and breezed through the city. By 4 pm when we were returning, Google warned Allie that the north-bound motorway through the city was bumper-to-bumper. We therefore headed for the airport and from there the tunnel which connects the southwestern and the northwestern motorways. It's 2.4 kilometers long. When we come out of it, we are essentially home, with only about 5 kilometers to go on our local motorway before our exit on to Te Atatu Drive. 

Here is an album of our afternoon...oh, oh, before we start, I want to show you a treasure i picked up on the beach at Maraetai.

 When I found this among the rocks on a point of land, I thought I had found the skull of a crested bird of some sort.  I noticed that it was perfectly clean. It had obviously been around for a while, washed by the waves and bleached by the sun, but I also saw that it had not been damaged by the rocks. The edges were all in perfect shape. Even the delicate crest. I was excited. 

 

This is the front of the skull. I think it resembles a space monster of some kind. Don't know if it is the one that menaced Sigournie Weaver in Alien or more like the creatures from Independence Day, but it's got a pretty ugly mug. 

I started researching what sort of bird it might be but very quickly discovered that it's not a bird's skull at all. It is the upper portion of a snapper's skull. A snapper is a fish, Pagrus auratus. 

But let's get started looking at the beach itself. 

 I think it took less than an hour to get here.

 Just arriving and doling out the sunscreen to those who didn't slather at home.
You can see Waiheke out there. It doesn't seem like 3 miles out, does it?

Looking toward the left. White sand and crushed shells, a boardwalk, benches, bright sun, warm breezes. 

And looking toward the right.  Looks like a postcard scene, doesn't it?

Amiri goes by on his paddleboard.

Beside paddleboards, there were lots of kayakers like this girl has.

 Jeanne and I are taking a walk down the beach. See that wind-sculpted tree down there on the point? Jeanne will soon shelter from the sun under it. 

 I found the snapper skull just in front of that boulder in the right foreground of this of this picture. 

Gotta have some ice cream.

These last two shots were taken at another beach about 10 minutes south of Maraetai. (We just went exploring.)  Many fewer people here, maybe because it is a less protected spot. The water was a bit choppy. 

Still, it was a gorgeous setting.      -djf