A Day Out

Sunday, April 10th, 2011
Nelson

Yesterday was the first Saturday that Matt and I have had off together since we arrived in Nelson, and we took advantage of the timing and visited the Saturday Market, perusing stalls and talking to the vendors, who are all incredible characters, and stocking up on gifts to bring home next month (next month!!). It was a nice warm day, and while I was more interested in looking at the handicrafts, Matt got sucked into a stall selling used old-fashioned hand tools, and came away with a gorgeous handplane for his surfboard shaping and other woodworking. After the market, we treated ourselves to a late lunch at a cafe on the market square called Yaza! and found it to be delightful. They serve Pomeroy's coffee, which is a local roasting company, and I just had to take a picture of our preferred drinks (which were some of the best coffee I've tasted in awhile):

(Click on Photos to Enlarge)

A flat white (mine) and a mocha (Matt's), with the handplane in the background :)

And I thought some of you might enjoy a photo of some classic (upscale) Kiwi cafe food:

On the left is my roasted pumpkin calzone with spinach, feta and red capsicum, and on the left is Matt's bacon, red onion and roasted kumara pizza. Both were served with typical Kiwi condiments: aioli, chutney (in this case made with carmelised onion and mustard), and relish (tomato). It was all fantastic. And I should add, ALL food in NZ is eaten with a knife and fork (British style), which I have entirely adopted by now.

We didn't make it back to the market in time to hit the produce stalls, so we went to the fruit and veg mart near our work, where we spent $12 and came away with all of this:

Nice haul, eh? The white pumpkin is very typical of New Zealand, and it's hard to come by any other kind, but that's okay, because we're crazy about them! It's what we used in our pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving, and they are so delicious and creamy when roasted. 

I have another day off today (and another tomorrow, we're down to working just a few days each week, which has both advantages and disadvantages) and have kept myself busy working on some top-secret craft projects (the travel sewing kit I brought with me has definitely come in handy) and also baking a coffee cake and another batch of bread. This time I used this bread recipe from Down to Earth, with wonderful results. With significantly less yeast than the recipe I have been using, I got almost twice as much bread out of this one, so I don't think I'm going back! It also came out lighter and fluffier, and held its shape better, which is good because I don't have any loaf pans here!

I'm still using the same seed mix I got a few weeks ago, of pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and dried cranberries. Rhonda's trick of wetting the loaf slightly and rolling in the seeds before baking worked a treat!

Matt and I both work on Tuesday, and then we both have the next three days off, so we're going to get out of town and head over to Kaikoura (kai-KOHR-uh) for a couple days to hopefully get some surf, and just see some new territory. We filled up Lucy's gas tank yesterday for the first time in about 5 weeks, which feels really great, especially with the price of petrol over here. The last time we filled the tank was in Blenheim, before we drove up to Spray Point Station. Since then, the only driving we've done was from the station to Nelson, and a couple trips to the supermarket. Those bikes are definitely paying for themselves. 

I managed to snap some pictures of the changing leaves yesterday, as evidence that the season is well on its way to winter:

Further evidence is found in the fact that it's getting dark around 6 pm now, since we moved the clocks back a week ago. This also means that with the clocks moved forward back home, we're back on the 5 hour (and a day) time difference again, up from the 3 hour difference we've been operating on for the last six months. This is also why I got up at 4:45 AM today to Skype with my brother and my parents at 10 AM their time! It was a wonderful taste of home, even if it feels like a bit of a dream now, since I went back to bed after we hung up. 

Hopefully my next post will have some new travel stories and photos as we head down the coast to Kaikoura, and until then, enjoy whatever season you might happen to be residing in on your respective ends of the earth!