MOTUTAPU !

Motutapu Island - its full name, rarely used, is Te Motutapu a Taikehu, "The sacred island of Taikehu".
It is a recreation reserve. We went out in the boat today to visit it, because Sophia has been there twice for tree planting days.



It's close to Rangitoto, so when it erupted it was burned and covered in ash - it is still mostly meadow and grassland, but there is a huge reforestation effort underway.
We did the walkway across the island, it was hot and peaceful. Then picnicked on strawberries before swimming back to the boat. Greg lost his hat on the way back!

QUEEN'S STREET !

We went into Auckland City today to get into the Christmas mood and discovered a trail of giant baubles glittering along Queen's Street towards the Harbour.



We also found the giant Whitcoulls Santa (which has been renovated especially) which dominates the Main Street. It's the NZ equivalent of Oxford Street and yet nothing like it!



We did lots of girlie shopping, had lunch in the sunshine at a cafe and found the most awesome gelateria down by the Harbour! The girls bought summer clothes and we all agreed that it should snow, because it's hard to believe it's nearly Christmas..

SANTA PARADE !

The Santa Parade in Howick was busy this year! We decided to skip the main Auckland street parade this year and to our surprise thousands lined the streets of our little town! We even have a Town Crier who led the parade!



After getting Greg organised with his Coastguard float Jess and I went to find a spot to watch from and when I next saw her - there she was - Queen of the Coastguard Float! Wonders will never cease!



I did see one float that inspired me - The Red Hat Society - all oldies wearing the most amazing red hats and purple outfits - remember the poem 'when I'm old, I shall wear purple'? Looks like the Club for me!



I got quite excited by the kiwi and the pukekho on the floats - so I took photos!





I liked the way the kiwis see Xmas as a Birthday celebration - quite uncommercialized.



Miss Howick 2009 and 2008 joined together to do a drive by..



Howick is sometimes caled Chowick - there are a lot of Chinese who live here, so it has a nickname! But they know how to do a parade!



The Johnny Depp look-alikes had a turn...



The Historical Village had a float - to do with the fencibles..



Cinderella made an appearance, Disney has made it over here..



There was a lot of sunshine and merriment on the streets - we were sad that Sophia missed it! (she's at Field Centre)

DECEMBER !

The pohutakawa are in brilliant red flower, so we know it will be Christmas soon!

SCULPTURE GARDENS !

We went to the Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens today. Every year the Botanical Gardens displays twenty New Zealand artists and Sophia makes sure we see each and every one - so, I thought you could share our experience...



Here you have 'The Teenage Text Bunny' (we liked the tortoise logo on his shirt) apparently he's a typical teenager, brought to the gardens by his 'olds' but he doesn't want a 'bar' of it! The girls thought it was funny!



Then there was this one called 'Intensified Rain'. It was actually quite pretty when the sun shone through and which gave us some ideas for what to do with our cut-glass dishes..



They didn't seem to realise that they couldn't hide behind it..



but then, neither did I.. this one got two of our votes, as you can tell!



This one, is in typical New Zealand style - it's called 'Water Tanks' (which is exactly what they are!)only, they have somehow become 'art' and cost $15,000 each!



Greg liked this one - I suppose it was functional!



Here we have 'Listen and Learn' and we could hear the bells ringing before we saw it. This was a 2.9 metre high bronze work in the shape of a bell, with bells hanging from it.



Next was slightly unbelievable.. the mound of grass the girls are irreverently standing on was our next sculpture..'The Land is Slowly Liquid' and price was on application!



This is Todd Butterworth's masterpiece 'Wedge,Skew,Splice' which looked a bit like an out-of-kilter Toblerone.



Apparently Mr Butterworth likes bees and repetition - as you can see..



This was different, it's called 'Screen' and, since it was windy while we were admiring it, it was quite spectacular. And it only cost $3000 for your garden!



"It is based on the human figure" says the artist (can you see it?) A snip at $25000!



'Ancestral Light' was made out of macrocarpa, so it looked like stone, or bone - Henry Moore inspired methinks..



Now, here was a weird one.. 'After The Flood'



"The Sacred Grove' was recognisable, and we liked his 'Big Rock Dog' last year..



It was dedicated to Geoff Park, in his memory.



And here you have my least favourite, but then I've never looked at clowns the same again since Stephen King! The sculptor, Richard Wedekind is an "earth scientist" when not sculpting (what is that?) This is $8500 and called 'Bread & Circuses'.



This one was an optical illusion and changed shape as you walked around it.. 'Ascension' got one of our votes. We then picnicked on strawberries and sage paninis stuffed with fresh salad and feta. Nice day..

SEAFOOD COOKING CLASS !

This was one of my Birthday presents! (Thank you Jon!) A day out at the Auckland Seafood Cooking School.
It began at 10 am and I arrived at number 22 ready to cook.



We were greeted by white-aproned staff and seated on red cushioned chairs and served with a glass of wine.
While we gathered - there were about 30 of us, the chef appeared to meet and greet us - it was Peta Mathias - and we looked at seafood recipe books on display.



Once everyone had checked in we were guided to the demonstration room, where Peta cooked the meal for us that we were going to cook for ourselves later - you can imagine the concentration.
In between cooking the 3 course meal - this was smoked oysters in batter, pesto and gruyere paste on bagels and whole salmon roasted in rock salt with herb stuffing - she regaled us with stories about her cooking travels and her views on men!
She has written the famous book 'Can We Help it if We're Fabulous?' and her recent satire 'Just in Time To Be Too Late - why Men are Like Buses' is now on my must-read list!



Once the hour demonstration was finished and we'd had question time we were ushered into the cooking room, where we were in teams with one hour to cook the same meal!
You've never seen a Team work so well! Boning the salmon, making the stuffing and creating the rock salt mound was hectic.. at the same time we were making batter and chopping vegetables, peeling asparagus and blending the soup.



I grabbed the pestle and mortar and pounded the paste, covered the salmon with salt, made stuffing and peeled and chopped until my head was in a whirl and I was ready for my next glass of wine! All the time there were sous chefs at your disposal, clearing away bowls and supplying items - cooking with no mess and an instant assisstant (my idea of heaven)



We paused to eat our starters at long tables set up for Christmas, with shining glasses and a goodie bag on each chair, of foodie items and recipes.
There were two selected wines, one for the oysters and a second white chardonnay chosen to go with the salmon. We all got quite tiddly.



Then it was back to check on the salmon, serve it out and eat with the chef who came and gave her considered opinion of our efforts. We were all quite proud of our end product (there were 5 of us - 2 sets of mums and daughters & me) except that we think the cornflour was in the soup by mistake..oh well!
What a lovely morning! She runs a cooking trip to Marrakesh next year - I'm sorely tempted!

THE VIEW !

This was the view from the balcony this morning!