Saturday 30th January 2010
Maxine took us to Half Moon Bay to catch the ferry to Auckland as no-one fancied driving back from the Auckland Seafood Festival. Max and Darren were going to watch Harry play cricket but we met up with Kenny and Helen, Kathy and Alex, Pete and Christine, Monkey and Paul. The ferry left at 12.45pm and sped it's way along Bucklands Beach towards Auckland city centre, a much more refined way to travel into the city than driving. The ferry was pretty busy due to the public holiday long weekend (it is Auckland Day on Monday) as we made our way to the port. Upon arrival, we made our way into the harbour area and paid our $15 entrance fee, to be met with a host of stalls that were all things maritime. There was food being served from just about every country in the world, with a maritime theme. Sorry Pat, but I can't recall seeing any 'traditional Canadian food' but I did see someone wearing a Toronto Blue Jays t-shirt and there was a waitress in one of the bars that was from Montreal. She was Frernch speaking but was learning English in NZ. We visited the variety of tents although I must I must admit that most of them were purveyors of alcoholic beverages. We sampled different foods and I even went a to cookery demonstration that showed how to cook fish correctly on the barbie. Lucy, do you remember when you and I went to Valencia in Spain for the America's Cup Yatch Racing a couple of years ago? The Team New Zealand base is in Auckland and there was an opportunity to go out to sea on the America's Cup yatch. There is a photo attached for you.
Nothing much more exciting to report on except that we got a taxi back to Kathy & Alex's house for a couple more drinks before calling it a night. Their house is beautiful and has a lovely terrace area beside a swimmimg pool and jacuzzi. They even have a pull down screen to watch TV outside, quite the business.
All for now, hope to report on something more interesting tomorrow.
Kenny, Helen, Kath and I got a taxi back home at around midnight.
I'm suprised that nobody had maple syrup. I have had Arctic Char cooked with this as one of the ingrediants..wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI loved your earlier pic of a beautiful beach with mountains in the backgound. We are very envious! The sun is shining brightly as I write this..but it's bitterly cold with a wind chill of -20. Nessa and Dusty don't spend much time barking at the fence there days. It will be interesting to see how you compare Australia with NZ. Thanks for the blogs!
It's cold back home too - your poor children are freezing due to the unfortunate simultaneous failure of both boiler and gas fire in sub zero temperatures, I'm afraid you'll need to pack up and return home at once ...
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean, 'No chance!!' ??