There were so many people at the the Rotorua Farmers Market that we had trouble finding a spot to park, but really, that just makes total sense. The regular stores sell nothing healthy, everything is full badness levels, and the produce, while decent quality, is really expensive, but at the market, produce is much cheaper, just as good of quality if not better, AND the selection is much much greater.
This one was a little different than last weeks, there weren’t as much other goods being sold, but there was a flea market aspect to it. There was still grand stalls of fruits and vegetables, one stand of breads, one of coffee, one jams, one dessert. It was fun to walk around and see all the different things. There was quite a bit that I didn’t know what it was, but there was also one stall that was selling Durian.The takeaway food (which we planned our dinner on) wasn’t as easily portable as the first one. There was lots of local foods, mango chicken rice, fried breads, hot sandwiches. The two that we did take advantage of was the waffle/crepe stand. We shared a maple syrup waffle.
It was perfect size to share, hot and crispy, and since it was meant to be carried, no plates, which had me worried about the syrup, but he carefully squirted a tiny bit into each square. And then Tim bought 5 kabobs (3chicken/2lamb) for part of the dinner later. We got spinach, mango, and red pepper to add to our lunch/dinner.One of the towns between Rotorua and Hamilton was called Cambridge, and we drove right by their Saturday market, so of course we had to stop and look for the ever evading fresh figs. No figs, but a really good cheese sample, and we bought date/walnut bread (very hearty), Tim got a steak Cornish pie for dinner, and I got a strawberry brioche for dessert to my fruit/veg dinner. Two farmers markets by noon? Well done!
We arrived at Hamilton around 11, and wish we had known about it right away. This was the place for us to live. Both of us said it right away. Neither one of us had read a single thing about it, but that’s shocking because a town of this much culture, and of this size, with this nice of a downtown district, but still looked totally livable and workable, should be ranted and raved about totally.
Add in perfect sunny day with a light breeze, so that was we drove around with the windows down, we were in total bliss. Having spent so much time in the car, that’s really saying something, but the weather was perfect, there was tons of stuff to look at. 
We got out and walked down to Barton Street so I could take a picture of the graffiti I had seen earlier, of a robot lazer beaming a cat.
It was actually kind of cute in an odd way. Walked around a bit more, but got to the car around 1, decided to go at least attempt to check in to the hotel early. And were greeted into our awesome Bella Vista ground floor haven of awesome. We pulled everything inside, and I mean EVERYTHING. The windows of the van all got rolled down all the way, sun and moon roof open, and it had the next 4 hours to air out as best as it could. There was a great breeze, and the air was really warm from the bright ever shining sun today. As we worked in the hotel room even, we had the door slid all the way open and the window in the bathroom open. We kept the laundry going all afternoon, the dryer didn’t work very well, so we snagged a drying rack and put it in our room. There were clothes everywhere. We were busy simultaneously doing laundry, updating the internet, unpacking and sorting all of our gear. Snacking on occasional pieces of the date bread. Next thing I knew it was 5pm. I did 15 minutes of abs on the floor while Tim continued to work, and then we headed out for a walk right at sunset. The weather was still nice though. We walked rather aimlessly, just in the general direction of “stuff” just a stroll.
So we saw a Countdown and picked up some raw chicken, peppers, and tomatoes to use with our leftover taco seasoning. I have also decided that these people have a liquor and gambling problem. The sheer vastness and hugeness of all the Liquor Saves everywhere. And there seem to be Lotto stations in every possible nook and cranny. Not machines, but actual kiosks with people that you buy Lotto Tickets from. And there are usually at least one or two people at them, no matter the size of the town.
I had brilliantly found illegal versions of ‘Til Death, and Modern Family for while we packed. Once we were close, I called a break for our ice cream and to watch Survivor (illegally of course). I showered, and with the water pressure of a raging river rapids, came out very clean, but feeling like a drown dog. But I would take that hard of water pressure any day, put away the last of our stuff and Tim was in bed by 11:30.
No comments:
Post a Comment