Books and Auckland Botanical Gardens Feb - April, 2024

The latest books I've finished and flowers in the Auckland Botanical Garden.  We had just been to the museum, it was cool and gray outside.  The gardens were bursting with color, so inviting!

-by Janice Hallett
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels:  Love this author and unusual presentation of the mysteries.  

-by Val McDermid

The Distant Echo:  First in a series of mysteries with an actual police detective.  She has a miniscule role but BritBox turned it into a tv series, so that is a good sign.  I did figure out the murderer and there was more character development than usual.  Good writing so I'm willing to try another. 

A Darker Domain: Second, even better than the first.  I like that she has two plot lines and it is clear they are going to connect up.  I had an inkling of the solution here, but not all of it.  I also like that she doesn't drag out the end.

The Skeleton Road: Third, didn't love the background of the Balkans War.  I was not paying attention, so felt out of my depth.  I also did not like the ending for a few different reasons.  The writing is still good so I'll check out the next one.

-by Terry Pratchet
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents:  This one is more stand alone and shorter than the other.  What would happen if 1 cat and a bunch of rats ate magical rubbish and became smart.  They take on a town with corrupt rat catchers.  

-by Kelly Barnhill
The Crane Husband: Odd fantasy/mystic/future world.

When Women Were Dragons:  A more fleshed out story, just as the title says.

-by Malka Older

The Mimicking of Known Success: Feels like a mystery set in Oxford...but it is on Jupiter.  Lovely world building!  Novella-love the shorties!

-by Premee Mohamed

Murdered courtesan returns to almost life and takes revenge.  Writing style feels a bit of manic pixie daydream, but novella length, so if it bugs you, it is over quick.

-by Gulia Enders

Gut:  Lots of info on the stomach, intestines, and all the microbes that live there.  Too many cutesy stories and high level info.  But it was easy to pick up for short periods and it read fast.

-by Suzanne Wolfe

A Murder by Any Name:  Set in Queen Elizabeth's time and in the castle.

-by Gary Paulson

Hatchet:  A middle grade book about a boy who gets stranded in the woods with nothing but a hatchet.

DNF

-by Glen Cook

Sweet Silver Blues:  Looking for the next Terry Pratchet like world.  This seems similar but the writing is only ok.

-by Caimh McDonnell

A Man with One of Those Faces:  Still looking for a Pratchet world.  Didn't grab me enough to get more than a couple chapters.

-by Bob  Odenkirk:  Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama:  Autobiography.  We just finished Better Call Saul, so thought to check it out.  Just okay, I skipped most of it and just read the Drama.  Great actor, meh for writing.

Christchurch food, Aug 2023

 Fun food!

I was surprised at how many snacks New Zealand has that I'd never seen/eaten before.  The best are Pineapple Lumps-pineapple flavored taffy-ish, covered in chocolate.  We tried a couple brands and love this one.  With the whole family I think we ate 6 bags!

In Christchurch we found the vegetarian/vegan chain, Lord of the Fries.  We love trying plant based burgers! 

Pretty great for the fast food version.

Looking for brunch, I found the Barefoot Eatery in The Welder, a "health and well-being complex".  Mainly food, but a central garden, a kids play area and an arts and crafts space.  It was totally full at 11am on a weekday.  It is more impressive on the inside.

Turns out our cafe was vegan, but super fancy.  This is the pancake plate.  Stuffed with ancient grains and fruit.  Amazing-I would love to be a person who makes this at home!

The plating of all the items is top notch.

This trip I was into kombucha and found a ton of local versions.  All super tasty!

We really like to try cuisines that seem out of place.  So we had to try Mexican in Christchurch.

The atmosphere was warm, cozy, and felt a bit like I imagine 1950s high-end Mexico City.  

Have to try a classic, chips and queso.  Not exactly like others, but delicious.

Quesadilla with guacamole

Fancy dessert-all tropical, pineapple mousse on a shortbread with mango sorbet.

And sometimes it doesn't have to look amazing to be good.  This is at the airport, Ugly Bagels and their homemade hazelnut spread-nice!

Aucklands Mt Eden and Teal parks, Aug 2023

 There are some great parks in Auckland, here are 2 that caught my eye.

Mt Eden is right in the middle of Auckland, is historically important, and has great views from the top.

We saw this style of tree root in a couple places where there were walkways.  Reminds me of the Cambodian temple trees

but they seem to be just regular trees.

At the bottom of the hill

at the top of the hill!

Part of our group went one day and got wet, but my nephew and I went on a spectacular sunny day.

The caldera is impressive, no climbing into it as it is a sacred site, but cool to walk around.  Great hike, can recommend!

Teal Park  is a tiny park on the waterfront.  TEAL is from Tasman Empire Airways Ltd, the precursor to Air New Zealand.  The site is where the first commercial flight took off.

The basalt rocks are from one of the original docks.

What if Stonehenge is just a piece of public art?

The park is right next door to light harbor industry, like this heliport!

We stumbled across Teal Park on our morning run and were happy to take a little break.