New Year Party, Berries and Peas

Generally, we spend New Year fairly quietly, but we had a family birthday celebrate.  This year we spent a very wet New Year’s Eve with my nephew Shane who was turning 60.  Shane is the eldest grandchild on the maternal side, the first child of my late sister Kathleen and hubby Dennis.   It is a tradition in this family to prepare and cook a hangi for special occasions, and this Shane did with a little help.  Not a “hole in the ground” traditional hangi, but rather one cooked in a stainless steel container, heated with gas, but still using the wet sacks as usual.

THe hangi food is ready

The birthday dinner was served, chicken, pork, lamb, potatoes, pumpkin and kumara from the hangi, with salads and bread rolls.  Very nice indeed.  Shane really wanted a birthday cake with 60 candles, which would take a bit of lighting them all.  So out came the trusty blowtorch, which soon got the job done.  Perhaps not really recommended though, there was concern that all those 60 wax candles would be melting into the top of the cake.  In fact there were two birthday cakes, plus dessert!

Shane had 60 candles to light

During the evening while chatting to Shane’s family and friends, I realised that I was the only one in the room who knew Shane as a new baby and toddler, before his siblings came along.  His Mum, my sister Kathleen, had passed away and his Dad is not well so could not travel.

Robin, Jenny, Shane and Kirstie

While in the area we drove out the next day to find the Whatawhata Berry Farm we had read about.  Seems every man and his kids where here too, the car park was full to bursting.  Pick your own berries was  in full swing and seemed to be a family favourite thing to do in the Christmas break, we saw lots of family groups carrying their cardboard baskets into the strawberry fields.  That idea sounded like too much hard work for this pair of oldies, so we purchased some berries from the farm shop instead, blue berries, raspberries and blackberries, yummy.  And ordered a mixed berry ice-cream each too.  With such a crowd, it took a while, but certainly worth the wait, they were delicious.  We found a seat under a sun shade and got to work on those ice-creams.  The weather was so hot that the ice-cream was melting as we did our best to consume them before it all ran down our fingers!  Luckily we won the melting race, with just a few drips here and there.

Ice-creams at the Berry Farm

Back at camp Robin had a job to do.  We had purchased a kilo bag of fresh peas for Christmas, but they were not required for our Christmas meal at my daughter’s home.  So Robin set to and shelled them, we blanched the peas then put then in a container in the freezer.  That will do us for a few meals, we certainly didn't want to waste them.  Robin commented he used to shell a lot of peas grown in the family garden when he lived at home with his parents. 

He’s an expert at this

I think the heat was getting to Gemma as she lay stretched out on the bed for the rest of the day, too tired to do anything.

It’s been a very warm day

While towing the caravan here and there, I’ve been doing a little knitting, working on my blue socks.  And also working on my stitchery project when I’m sitting outside the caravan under the shady awning.  But nothing much to show just yet, progress has been slow.