Alex Hallatt 5/6/19 Alex Hallatt 5/6/19

Living in New Zealand: Nature Reclaims Things Quickly on the West Coast

Helping out at my friend’s place on the West Coast, I was reminded how rampant nature is over there. The mild, wet climate means things grow even faster in a country where the intense sunlight means things grow like crazy. The native bush is full of tree ferns and nikau palms and the temperate rainforest is ready to move in once buildings are left vacant.

The koru. Click to see options for using the image

One of the New Zealand artists who used the symbol of the koru a lot in his work was Gordon Walters.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/11/21/62092/reclaiming-the-koru

Alex Hallatt 5/3/19 Alex Hallatt 5/3/19

Living in New Zealand: There Are Good Independent Breweries Here and One of Them is the West Coast Brewery in Westport

West Coast Brewery (Click to see options for using the image)

If you are a beer drinker, you can't go to Westport without stopping in at the West Coast Brewery. It doesn't make the sweet dishwater that passes for beer with the big NZ breweries and it is still independently owned. If you want to taste the beer, you can get it straight from the tap without getting a “flight' of beers served in fancy glasses that disguise the fact you have paid good money for sips of substandard beer.

And at $18 dollars for a pack of six beers of your choice, it's worth taking a few away.

Part of the range of West Coast Brewery’s beer

Alex Hallatt 5/2/19 Alex Hallatt 5/2/19

New Zealand Garden Diary: Growing Sunflower Seeds to Feed Birds

Growing your own bird seed (Click to see options for using the image)

When the weather gets colder, I will be buying seedy fat balls from the Lyttelton farmers market to hang out on the bird table I made. I also put out seeds, grains and water. But in the meantime I am happy to let the birds fatten up on the sunflower seeds from the heads I saved. I think next year I will grow a lot more sunflowers as I love the look of them and I love watching the birds.

Alex Hallatt 5/1/19 Alex Hallatt 5/1/19

Living in New Zealand: Pies are an Important Fast Food and Essential on Road Trips

Before I came to New Zealand, I very rarely ate pies, especially savoury pies. But savoury pies are some of the best fast food you can get here. We're really lucky in that we have an artisan pie shop in Lyttelton itself. Our friend Craig is the pie maker extraordinaire at Hope River Pies and sells them out of his commercial kitchen on Norwich Quay on Thursdays and Fridays (and some Sundays). He also sells at many of the farmers markets in Christchurch, including the Lyttelton farmers market. His pies are great, especially as he does a lot of vegetarian and vegan pies.

But when I am on the road, I sometimes cheat on Craig to stop for a pie elsewhere.

Pies are an important part of any New Zealand Road trip. Click to see options for using the image

Most of those pies just fill a hole, but I can recommend the pies at the cafe in Hampden, Otago and now at the pie shop in Sheffield, Canterbury. This is a traditional place for my friend Crispin to stop when he heads out to his family’s bach on the West Coast. That was where we were heading a couple of weeks ago to do some work on the bach. A pie is just the ticket when you are on a long road trip.