Food, Glorious Food!

These last few days have offered us food for thought, food for the eyes, and LOTS of food for digestion!! On Wednesday, we travelled back up to the UCOL (Universal College of Learning) campus in the town of Whanganui in order to work on the draft articulation agreement between our Fashion programs. We stayed the night at the home of Bruce Osborne, UCOL's International contact. Bruce and his wife Diana have a beautiful home and 90 acres outside of Whanganui, where they farm beef, lamb, and fallow deer. Before dinner, we had a tramp around the farm, and enjoyed the spacious views around this very deeply rolling countryside.

For dinner, we were offered a feast of flavours, all of which came from the property: venison steaks (delicious!); kumara (a kind of sweet potato) salad; fresh lettuce, avocado and tomato salad; sweet corn (the favourite variety here is 'honey & pearl' instead of 'peaches and cream'); and new potatoes with mint. The meal was incredible, eaten outdoors in the sunset, and we tumbled into bed more than satisfied. Next morning, we enjoyed this view of gorgeous delphiniums outside the kitchen window as we tucked into bacon and eggs as if we hadn't been fed only hours before.

Next stop was back in Palmerston North, back at the home of Sheila Grainger, UCOL's VPA, for more work on the memorandum of understanding between our colleges. On the way, however, we stopped for lunch in the village of Bulls. Not surprisingly, the locals capitalize on their unusual name, and the main street is full of plays on the word--the police station displays a huge "consta-bulls" sign; the litter bin implores passersby to be "responsa-bull" and deposit trash here, etc. A punsters' delight! We had lunch in--yes, you might have guessed--The Bull's-Eye Cafe. Scanning the blackboard menu, we opted for the Bull's-Eye Works hamburger, which the waitress assured us had "Oh, y'know, everything" on it.

Our lunch seemed to take a long time to arrive, but when it did, we were dumbstruck. On a bun the size of a frisbee sat the expected (but huge) hamburger patty, lettuce, tomato, cheese, onions, and mayonnaise--but ALSO a slice of roast beef, a dollop of HP sauce, a fried egg, a slice of ham and, the crowning touch, a ring of pineapple (presumably the above-named bull's-eye)!! The entire concoction sat about 8" high and definitely required a knife and fork to tackle. Some burger! We both immediately discarded the pineapple, but the remainder was amazingly good and we polished them off with relish--or, no, actually, they don't HAVE relish here--the only thing missing from the burger! With a side order (uh, well, actually a bowl the size I might have mixed a cake in) of potato wedges with sour cream (oh, we're gonna miss these when we go back to Canada)...well, let's just say we waddled outta there quite awhile later.

We were warmly welcomed back at the Graingers in late afternoon (there's Barry and Sheila with Airedale Charlie below) and offered yet another fabulous meal--BBQ'd surf & turf (steaks and prawns)! This morning, Barry requested a feed-up of banana pancakes, as we'd been discussing the finer points of Canadian maple syrup the night before. Oh my--we won't need to eat for a week!


Before heading back to Waikenae this morning, we stopped at a lovely estate garden just outside of Palmerston North, and feasted our eyes on these gorgeous blooms.


So much to enjoy! The four weeks in this area have flown by. We head for Napier to check out the Art Deco buildings on Sunday, then off to our next location in Cambridge (near Hamilton) for five weeks. It will be fun to be in a new locale, but we will have wonderful memories of our time in the Wellington area.