Another fall in Auckland

I don't need to talk very much about fall. I've done more involved fall posts in the past. This year I think I'll mainly just show you what it looks like here. 

I think this is an Aminita and it's the first one I've seen in New Zealand. 

This was taken on June 7, 2018. June here corresponds to December in the northern hemisphere. You'll see in a couple more photos how plants here all keep to their own schedules. 

The trees in the background show that it's fall here, and what do we play in the fall? Why football (soccer) of course. 

Arram is in control. 

A feature of the weather here in the fall and winter are almost constant showers that appear and disappear. Many of them are so light that no one takes much notice of them, unless you happen to be looking up and see the rainbows that accompany them. 

I love these things. They seem to give off light. They're another plant that doesn't know it's fall I guess. 
Photo taken in early June, 2018

This is the rainy season. Even the wide tires of the mowers left lines of mud across the field as they mowed. 

That's about as brilliant a display of colour as I've seen here. 

This looks inviting, doesn't it?

Each of those little flowers is about 1/4 inch long. This picture was taken on 6-6-18. 

It's true that we have flowers pretty much all winter long to keep us company, so we have it pretty good. No white-outs here. And I think our northern Michigan climate  have given us an advantage when it comes to living here...

I was sitting at the main bus terminal in Henderson about a week ago. It was what I would call a perfect fall day. The sun was warm and the breeze was mostly warm, but seemed to be carrying with it just a hint of a bracing kind of coolness. I had on shorts and a short-sleeved shirt with a t-shirt underneath it. A woman in long flannel pants and several layers under a hooded parka came and sat next to me on the bench. She looked my way several times and then she seemed to lose patience and said to me, "Aren't you cold? That wind is biting right through me." 
I said to her, "No, I'm not cold at all. I do have two layers on," indicating my layered shirts. "Yeah," she said, "But those layers are nothin', I get cold just looking at you." I said, "Well, where I come from, this is a beautiful day." 
My Yooper blood is still doing it's job I guess.                   -djf

With a doughnut in each hand, anything is possible... Jameela Jamil

When you absolutely, positively have to have a doughnut, whatcha gonna do? Call Foster Express. 

Okay, sorry for the mixture of old ads and movies but I think I'm having a sugar rush. I'll calm down soon, wait a minute, hold on a sec, somebody is calling me....What did you say? There are just three left? Save me a bite...

I'm back again. Sorry about that. A little internal house memo was passed up to me from the kitchen. I guess my sugar rush might last a little longer. One of the boys is sharing the last of the Krispy Kremes with me...Ahhhh. 

We recently heard that New Zealand's first Krispy Kreme opened up down in Manukau. That's a suburb to the south and east of Auckland. And guess what else I discovered? It lies less than a kilometer from the Manukau train station. I can ride down there for free! Yeah, it takes a while to get there, but I have the time, and it sure beats driving with the traffic like it is.  

And I think I might be able to shorten the total time by hopping off the Western Line at Newmarket instead of Britomart, taking the Southern Line as far as Otahuhu, and then transferring to the Eastern Line for the last little bit. Worth a try anyway...

All the way down today, I thought about how much fun it would be to surprise the boys with a treat for dessert tonight. Let's look at my pictures...


I started off by riding our Western Line into Britomart...

 I'm on the Eastern Line train now and we're heading south along the shoreline. The headland at the far left is Northhead, home of the World War II gun emplacements and tunnels, and that's Rangitoto of course about 4 kilometers off shore.

 I've made it to Manukau, and wow, this station is gorgeous! There is a huge open space in the middle. I don't know what the levels around the perimeter of the station are for. That might be a project for another day. (When I come down for more doughnuts) 
The trains arrive/depart from the basement level. 

 That's it from the outside. 

 There is a big park right next to it. 

 It may be fall, but this bird-of-paradise doesn't apparently care. 

 Woo hoo, there it is. 

 Business is brisk

Lots of room in here.  

 And there is the heart of the operation.

The fancy ones are good, but I like the original ones best I think. 

In case you're wondering, I did get my free one. (I signed up for their newsletter.)

This one is slightly out of focus but it shows the boys working on after school laptops and sporting Krispy Kreme give-aways.     -djf

The Ports of Auckland

That is Fosters Ship Chandlery dead ahead.  The word chandlery originally referred to someone who made and sold candles. A ship chandlery though, provides provisions and all things required for ships. 

Seeing Fosters put me in the mood for our excursion today. We toured Captain Cook Wharf, an area not normally open to the public, and admired the displays and entertainment provided there to celebrate the Ports of Auckland. 

Come along and see the sights. 

We're here at about 11 a.m. but there's already a good crowd.

I thought this was especially nice. They had several of these free stations around the wharf. 

These are for the moving of shipping containers, of course.

How'd you like to start your work day by climbing that ladder? 

Hmmm, a Yooper daydreams..."I wonder if they sell used ones? 
Wha'd'ya think the Blue Book is on one of them anyway?
Wha'd'ya you suppose it gets per gallon?  
I wonder how it corners?
I wonder if anybody ever really opened one of them up? Just to see what it can do? 
Whoa, with four foot tires and eight-wheel drive, I could pay for it with the snow plowing jobs I could get.  
I'd never have to worry about hitting a deer again, that's for sure.
Hey, I could enclose that and live it it too!
I wonder if it could be considered a deer blind? No good for bow season though, too long a shot.  
....well, it be fun to have for sure, but building the garage would be a killer.  Oh well. 

And talk about working in high places. 

The Navy had a ship on either side of the wharf.

Some entertainment

 This took me back...Here, fire fighters are demonstrating a Jaws of Life. 

I remember our Gourley Township Fire Department being called to a car accident late one hot summer night. A young couple was driving at high speed and didn't make a corner. The car went airborn and hit a large tree head on. The man was killed instantly. His girlfriend in the passenger seat survived, but barely. We were able to get her out of the wreckage but the jaws of life guys worked quite a while to free him from the metal crushed around him. 

 The Air Force was also represented.

 Out in the harbour, a tug boat was having some fun.

 He wasn't exactly hosing down the crowd at the end of the wharf, but his stream was close enough to them that they got some of the wind-blown spray from it's edges.  It was a hot day; probably felt good. 

 Oh boy, another freebee  They were handing out marinated and sauteed mussels.

The crowd is getting heavier. This area is lined with food stands along both sides.  Jeanne bought a spicy sausage for lunch from a German couple at one of the booths. The guy identified us as Americans by our accents and proceeded to tell us how much he likes Trump. He was a bit of a character. He loudly predicted that Trump will win a second term with a landslide vote. 

 This Navy ship is leaving. The tugs get into position. 

Meanwhile, across on Queens Wharf, a cruise ship rests. 

It looks even longer from this angle.

Lifeboats have come a long ways from the old days.   
Can you imagine the provisions, supplies, fuel, hardware and everything else that such a ship would require? Chandleries must be very busy places.   -djf

Avondale Market

What you're looking at in the header is Jeanne's patch of lemongrass. I thought that I'd start with it since today's post is about a place that is ALL about fruits and vegetables. 

Here are some big lemongrass stems.  I tug and pull the fattest stems out of the clump, and generaly they loosen with a bit of root attached.  The part that is used is the bottom center part; you have to cut each stem into 3 inch pieces and then peel away the fibrous layers until you get to the white center.  Lemongrass is very fragrant, very lemony.  It gives a bright flavor to Thai dishes and rice.  To use it, I crush up the peeled center and saute it with the spices, onion, garlic and so on when I'm cooking a curry sauce, or I add the crushed pieces to rice before I steam it.  I remove the pieces before serving.  And yes, the leaves are what lemongrass tea is made from. I also made some sweet chili jam with lemongrass, using apples and a big handful of long red chili peppers I bought at the Avondale Farmers Market. I was improvising, and added several pieces of lemongrass to the apples and peppers as they cooked. The jam is so delicious, we adults and Amiri love it on toast over a thin spread of cream cheese!  -  JF

Like Jeanne mentioned, I am going to take you to the farmers' market in Avondale. That's the suburb with the giant spider sculpture downtown. It's also the place with all the Samoan takeaway places that I like so much.

I had been told that this was a big market and that is true. It is huge. Come along and take a look. 

Overcast though it may be, the market was full of people when we arrived at about 11 a.m.

I'm sure there were at least 100 vendors. Jeanne is after chili peppers, and lots of them.  She intends to use them for that pepper jelly.

The prices were good, even very good. 

We both had trolleys and brought them home about 3/4's filled.

Some of these were on the too-ripe side of things, but I chose two that were perfect. 

Here is a food stand that I liked very much. If you look closely, you'll see that it sells Koko Samoa along with it's famous banana pancakes. I bought us some of each. The Koko was exactly like I expected it to be. That told me that I had made it correctly when I tried it at home. 

And here are the pancakes. I was surprised too with their shape. These are not quite the size of a tennis ball. The outer crust is crunchy and the inner part is springy. It's like a very dense giant donut hole I suppose. The banana taste is very mild. One of these and a cup of Koko Samoa is really satisfying. 

There were several musicians at work, adding to the mood of the place. 

I really tried to find out what this is. I was only partially successful. I asked it's name twice, but I just couldn't make out what they were saying. I learned that the white liquid is sweetened coconut milk, but the green stuff is still a mystery. It tastes very bland by itself. 

But put together, the combination is wonderful. I intend to buy some more next time we go to that market and I will get to the bottom of the 'green stuff' mystery. I think green food coloring must be involved. 

 I have had khao tom, that is, sticky rice, with either banana or taro, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed, many times and love it, so I thought this might be along the same lines. I found out that it was quite different.

Instead of being very slightly sweet like khow tom is, this was something completely weird. I can't begin to describe the flavor. The red beans that are in it were not at fault. It's just that whatever spices were used are absolutely foreign to my definition of 'tasty.' 
 Now, I have tried hundreds of new foods since moving to NZ and most of them I've found to be at least 'agreeable'. This one was not on that list. But whether or not I personally find a new food to my liking, I value it for the experience of tasting it. I just don't want to taste this one again...ever...please don't make me... 

I have shown mainly photos of the vegetable, fruit and food stands in this post, but this market has everything imaginable in it. We'll go back sometime I'm sure.  

So, here is Jeanne's pepper jelly. Rather than just using an apple jelly base, as most people do who make pepper jelly, Jeanne has used apples, feijoas, and lemon grass, besides plenty of jalapenos and other peppers. You can see the pieces of pepper in it and the color of course comes from the peppers. The amount of heat in this is just right. I'm a lucky guy.  Btw, the bread slices come from what they call a 'pide' loaf at Zeki's in Henderson.      -djf