Eat. . . Cream tea

Many of you will know that I was born in Somerset, and some of you might even know that I absolutely LOVE clotted cream, which is a traditional ingredient of my beloved West Country "cream teas". But clotted cream is something I have never seen on sale in New Zealand, and I have been looking for almost 10 years now! Imagine my delight when I discovered that local dairying business Wangapeka Downs Ltd sells clotted cream, and this culinary delight has been on sale for the last two months just 20 mins drive from home, without me even knowing about it!

The reason I came by this knowledge is because one of my "New Year's plans" for this year is to learn to make at least one kind of cheese reasonably consistently well (not counting paneer which I have been making for years). In order to develop my fledgling cheese-making skills I need a source of raw cow's milk, and those in the know directed me to Wangapeka Downs. This dairy really ticks all the boxes - it has nothing to do with New Zealand's "dairy giant" Fonterra, their goal is to produce "quality products that are completely as nature intended them to be", they have a holistic approach to animal health and welfare, and they are very definitely local. For more details, try reading this article: "A life beyond dairying", from the Nelson Mail newspaper, July 2011.

I arranged to buy an initial 5 litres of Wangapeka raw milk for cheese-making purposes (more on that another time!) and to pick it up from the shop in Appleby, at "The Abbey" on the Appleby Highway. What an array of dairy goodness greeted us when we went to the little shop! Not only the creamiest milk I have ever seen (these cows are Jersey x Shorthorn) but a selection of cheeses, ghee, butter, kefir, quark, Greek yogurt, double cream, clotted cream, and ice-cream all made using their wonderful milk! Sonny Jim literally did a happy dance when he discovered that we could  buy some clotted cream there, as he is as much a fan of it as I am! In the end, we bought clotted cream, natural Greek yogurt and a scoop of blueberry and plum ice cream to share, and all of them are of extraordinary quality! The clotted cream is just the same as the stuff which I have loved since childhood in Somerset. . . deliciously thick, laden with fat and with a wonderful thick crust formed on top (the best bit in my opinion!) Obviously not an "everyday food" as far as health maintenance goes, but a wonderful and decadent treat :)

When we got home with our clotted cream, there was nothing for it - I had to whip up a batch of scones! Luckily a few days earlier I had made some red plum jam, so we were able to have a traditional West Country cream tea in our own little corner of Aotearoa NZ -
homemade scones + homemade jam + best quality clotted cream = Heaven on a Plate!!

Tiki Tour 2012 - Homeward bound

Sonny Jim and me at Lake Tekapo, dreaming of hot-air ballooning?

Well, as you can probably guess, we have still not managed to get airborne over Canterbury! The recorded message at 4 am today was the same as on the 9th Jan - ". . . not happening today, due to unsuitable flying conditions". On the positive side, of course we would rather be "safe than sorry" and I'd far rather stay on the ground if the conditions are anything less than perfect, especially after that tragic hot-air ballooning accident up north earlier this month. Another positive is that we have a few more weeks of anticipation, wondering what it feels like to be floating noiselessly along above the patchwork landscape laid out below like a giant quilt. We have booked for our third attempt at ballooning over Waitangi weekend in early February.

So after a couple of hours of Wifie and I trying to get back to sleep and failing dismally, we made the most of our early start, and bundled a very drowsy Sonny Jim into the car at 6.45 am, still in his pyjamas and sleeping bag! We made excellent time heading north, only needed one toilet/refreshment stop and were back home again by just gone mid-day.  We'll definitely try the early morning thing another time when we are heading up or down the country as once we had shaken off the last vestiges of sleep it was a great time to travel.

Tiki Tour to be continued eventually. . .

Tiki Tour 2012 - Moeraki and Oamaru

Moeraki Boulders

Yesterday we travelled from Queenstown to Oamaru via Arrowtown, Alexandra, Ranfurly and Moeraki.

Old Post and Telegraph building in Arrowtown

Moeraki boulders again. . . or are they dinosaur eggs?!

During our journey, we developed the strong urge to cycle the Otago Central Rail Trail (we kept coming across sections of it). More info here. . .

This morning we called in at the Whitestone cheese factory and cafe and enjoyed sampling some of the cheeses and buying several more! They do a range of cow's, sheep's and goat's milk cheeses and all are supremely delicious!

Here is a link to their website, and there is even an online shop, for those of you within New Zealand!

Today we are off to Christchurch again, hopefully hot-air ballooning in the morning…

Tiki Tour 2012 - Different lake for each meal!

The view of Lake Wakatipu from the top of the Skyline gondola in Queenstown this morning. Breathtaking!

Yesterday we had a long day of travelling. We bade farewell to Lake Tekapo and the Church of the Good Shepherd and headed for Queenstown via Wanaka. We had a different lake for each meal!

Lake Tekapo at breakfast time

Lake Wanaka at lunch time

Lake Wakatipu at dinner time

Today we decided to have a really touristy day and rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain above our campsite.

Sonny Jim and I rode the luge at the top of the mountain, while Wifie was our chief photographer.

Whilst up at the top of the mountain we also had fun watching some intrepid souls paragliding and bungee jumping! The latter doesn't appeal to me at all, but maybe one day I will be brave enough to have a go at para-gliding. . .

We had a picnic lunch back at the campsite, then cooled off in the Queenstown aquatic centre. The hydro-slides were fantastic fun for children of all ages (even 40 year old ones!)

Sonny Jim and I make a splash in Queenstown!

Finally this evening we went for a cruise on Lake Wakatipu in the 100 year old TSS (Twin Screw Steamship) Earnslaw.

It was a lovely way to end a great day. I am so glad we are doing this road trip at last, after years of contemplating it!

Heading across to Alexandra tomorrow, then north via the Moeraki boulders towards Christchurch again, probably staying overnight in Oamaru. We are all having a wonderful holiday :)

Tiki Tour 2012 - Lake Tekapo to Queenstown

The view over Lake Tekapo, as we ate breakfast this morning :)

So, what's all this about a Tiki Tour you might well ask?! Well, we left home on Sunday 8th Jan and headed down to Christchurch ready for a hot-air balloon flight over the Canterbury Plains. However, it was cancelled due to poor weather, so we have continued on with the rest of our "Tiki Tour" as planned. We will alter our route home so that we can try to go hot-air ballooning again on Saturday morning. Hot-air ballooning is something I have wanted to do since I was a small child, and finally, more than 30 years later my dream has come true thanks to the Wifie! She has bought tickets for all three of us to go up in a hot-air balloon as birthday presents for Sonny Jim and me. We had had our balloon trip booked for 9th Jan for almost a week, when on Saturday morning (7th) we woke to the dreadful news of a fatal hot-air balloon crash near Carterton in the North Island. Those poor people, it must have been unimaginably horrible. Hopefully we will have better luck when it is our turn though. . .

Our first stop at Lake Tekapo was the iconic Church of the Good Shepherd, which must surely be one of the most beautifully located churches in the world. Next, we found a fantastic campsite at Lake Tekapo, right by the water's edge and in a lovely wooded setting with plenty of space between tent sites. The perfect spot for us to take our new tent on its maiden voyage, so to speak! I am very happy to report that the tent went up without a problem, and we were able to take it down this morning even easier! A very good investment!

After breakfast (see photo of our view above) we set off to Queenstown via Aoraki, Wanaka and the Crown Range Pass, NZ's highest sealed road. . .

Aoraki/Mount Cook - NZ's tallest mountain

Lake Wanaka

Crown Range Pass - not sealed until the year 2000.

Tiki Tour 2012 - Ashburton

Look! I found a giant spinning wheel at Ashford's in Ashburton :) We even made a special detour for the purpose! The Wifie and I are on self-imposed yarn and fibre diets this year, so we were very good and managed to ignore the plaintive cries of beautiful spinning sliver and wool, but I managed to get the mini niddy-noddy I had been hankering after, and we also bought a weaving frame and had a delicious and economical lunch at the Ashford café. Next stop. . . Lake Tekapo.

Pohutukawa Christmas

Well, the "Eat, Knit, Love" blog has been on something of a holiday recently, so what better time than the holidays to pop back up again?! After all, it is traditionally a time of love, festive food and you can be sure I have squeezed in some knitting too!

It's the long summer holiday here and although this is my 10th Christmas in Aotearoa, I still haven't got used to the idea of the festive season being in the middle of a heat wave instead of a cold snap. However, I am doing my best to adapt, and we have developed several new traditions, such as having a homemade pavlova for Christmas breakfast, with the leftovers for pudding after Christmas dinner! Some years I do more Christmas baking than others, last year it was Stollen and this year it has been butter shortbread Christmas trees.

We are away from home for Christmas, house-sitting in Golden Bay, parts of which were ravaged by heavy flooding last week. However, the bit we are in is as beautiful as ever and it has been a gorgeous sunny day here in the Bay. While I was in Takaka on Christmas Eve I took a photo of a beautiful pohutukawa tree, resplendent in its red blooms. The pohutukawa is affectionately known as New Zealand's Christmas tree. After my little trip to Takaka, negotiating the Birds hill washout where the road disappeared down the hillside in the floods (now thankfully repaired with a single lane and traffic lights), I got back to our temporary home, and there was my bundle of Corriedale spinning fibre in the "pohukawa" colour way, from "Heavenly Wools". Photo above. . . Somehow I managed to find room to pack my Little Grace spinning wheel to bring to Golden Bay and I have been spinning every day so far.

Anyway, I wish you all a happy festive season, wherever you may be and whatever you are celebrating. . . May 2012 be a year full of happiness and good health for you and your loved ones. Special thoughts go out to all in Christchurch and Canterbury, as another swarm of earthquakes struck just before Christmas, with several between magnitude 5.0 and 6.0. Not sure how much more the people down there can be expected to endure :( Poor old CHCH. Here's hoping that 2012 sees the earthquakes starting to diminish in intensity. . .

PS I solemnly promise to get back to blogging regularly in the new year :)