April 11-12 City to Country

Mostly about food ….

Sunday morning in Auckland was rainy, but the showers stopped long enough to let me walk to the Cathedral for the early morning service held in the glass Bishop Selwyn Chapel – which is on the site where the first Bishop of Auckland actually preached before there was even a cathedral.  It was a lovely way to begin the day.  This being the Church of England, we gave thanks for the life of Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and prayed for Her Majesty. I was impressed that there were In Memoriam cards, someone was prepared.

I walked part way back with a fellow congregant, Nick, a retired HR director from Fonterra.  Fonterra is a co-operative of dairy farmers and one of the top six dairy companies in the world and the leading exporter of dairy.  Nick emigrated from the UK in the 1970s and has lived in Auckland for more than 20 years.  We talked cathedrals and the advantages of living in New Zealand, just enough to carry us to the intersection where we went our separate ways.  I just love these serendipitous conversations and chance getting to know strangers just a bit.  Pandemic living has deprived us of that.

I stopped off at Warehouse Stationery to print out my notes and then I thought, why not have a good breakfast, since the rest of my day would be devoted to report writing and I knew what was not in the refrigerator.  The breakfast – a salmon avocado rosti stack with a poached egg – was really good, even if it took a while. 

Then I set to work on my research report.  Not photos, but the mental cogs were turning.

This morning (Monday), I packed up, cleaned the apartment, took the rubbish out to the dumpster (I had to unlock the padlock on the lid.  I think the idea is to lock out unwanted rubbish not that the rubbish inside is valuable) and headed out of Auckland.  By Kaiwaka, the drizzly Auckland weather had given way to sunshine.

I stopped in Kaiwaka to get some specialty cheeses from the really good cheese factory.  I was a little early, and the place hadn’t opened yet, I treated myself to a long black and a date scone at the Eutopia Café.  This place is really something and the coffee and date scone were pretty good too! 

As I drove into Dargaville, I was struck with how lovely the Wairoa River looked.  They had a bit of much-needed rain up here and things are greening up a bit. Usually I have seen the river as muddy, but today it reflected the blue sky. 

Helen had warned me that she would be out mustering her stock for the stock agent when I arrived.  I made myself thoroughly at home, cleaning up the mouse (dead) on the kitchen floor and the cat throw up and then spreading my stuff out on Helen’s dining room table, so that I could work on my executive summary.

 Somewhere along the line, I was a bit peckish and realized that Helen had baked some delicious cakes.  All set!

I’ll have to investigate the new creature additions since I was last here, although I am not hoping to find more mice.  For now, though, here’s Lambi, just a few days old, and still a bit wobbly.  Helen had to deliver him in the middle of the night by emergency caesarian.  When you are a farmer, it helps to be a vet.  Lambi’s mother and brother and sister didn’t make it, but we’re rooting for Lambi.  Lambi is being bottle fed. By Day 2, that will be my job. He’s about the same size as Helen’s little dog and cats, so he fits right in!