The Weta Cave

Wellington, or Wellywood, is the moooovie captial of New Zealand. Home to Weta Factory - special effects...specialists?

So one sunny afternoon I decided to go for a visit. I caught the number 2 bus to Miramar... scenic trip in itself.

The bus goes through a slightly scary stop/go tunnel. That is a bus in that dot of light at the end of the tunnel screaming towards us...

A bit concerned about how someone managed to get this graffiti on the tunnel wall - if a bus comes along... hope they can run fast!

These are the types of houses and dairies (that is corner shop, not milk producing factories) that are found in this area.

And this is how I find my way around town. It is quite difficult to remember and track when you need to get off the bus without a map so...

Very pretty route past some bays... 

... and the airport... Yes, that green mound is the start of the runway and then a road and then water! It is a rather scary landing coming into Wellington. If you can avoid the gale force winds, then you still need to deal with a sudden landing - as you are coming into land all you see is water, water, water, water........"okay, where's the runway(!!)"... water, water... "omg, we are going to have a water landing(!!)", water, water... ... ...earth&touch ground...

Anywaaay, then just a short walk from the bus stop... things like this indicate that the creativity capital is close by.

The Weta Cave...

Very Lord of the Rings, but I was surprised by how many other things they have going on.

Everything is done with so much detail...

Greeted at the door by a LOR beastie.

 They have also worked on District 9...

...Jane and the Dragon...

...and hundreds of other things...

But I guess they will always be famous for LOR. Strange that there was no Avatar stuff there. I even know someone who won awards for her work on the Avatar movie backdrops...see it's all happening at the bottom of the world!

Love the way they have used the walls and ceiling in this place. A goblin above the cashier counter about to take out the blond!
 

And gollum. Incredibly lifelike!

Creepy! This so looks like a real hand - an old one, yes, but I'm very impressed!

Then of course, the is the merchandise on sale. There was plenty from Tin Tin compilations to, that's right, Hobbit ears!

 They show a short behind-the-scenes of Weta every half hour or so. Was very interesting, but no cameras...

And that was my day at the Weta cave...

Just another example of random Wellington fixtures... on Courtenay Place...

Before I ran for the next bus back to town, I grabbed a couple of postcards. These were my favourites...

New Zealanders have a very strong taste for foreign food...postcard taking this a bit too literally Weta-style...

And the NZ national bug...no, made that up, but there are a lot of these things that come out in summer. They are kind of slow moving, very loud and some can get pretty big!

Land of Capes, Springboks, Butternut, Trim Mayo and Sahara's?

My flatmate drew this picture in my honour. It depicts all that is known about South Africans :)

We have the ever important Springbok, helpfully  labelled, on the top right.
Then we have me, "W", and a couple of other South Africans in our capes...because we are from Cape Town - land where everyone runs around in capes (weird that I, probably along with millions of other Capetonians, have never made THAT connection).

I am holding aloft - in triumph - a giant jar of Trim mayo. There was a shortage, but thanks to an early morning phone call and a fleet-footed sister-in-law, I managed to obtain one of only six in NZ. I obviously talk about it alot, which is how it made the pic. As I must also talk a fair amount about how much I love butternuts... I buy giant ones and make soup - yum!

Of course we South African's talk in our own language that foreigners find difficult to understand. In this world our language consists of only two words, "Soouf Afwicaa" (that's our supposed accent) repeated in a variety of tones.
The cape wearers are also drinking my favourite South African drink...um, Sahara's?? close, but wrong desert :)

Someone's got a lot of time on their hands. Very funny : D

Soup Glorious Soup

Following the delicious bread and cheese, I had to find the winter equivalent bread accompaniment. Soup!

The fresh food market just across the road has every vegetable or fruit I could ever need at incredibly cheap prices. 

This is a picture of only one row of the many...taken during summer - it is not sunny or warm here anymore... (I sometimes pray for rain, because that means it will be warmer out... just glad I invested in a hot water bottle!)

One good thing came out of all that rain, frost and excessive layering though; glorious soup! in hundreds of varieties.

I was very lucky, then, to get an awesome stick mix blender for my Birthday! Just in time for winter...

So that this stunning fresh butternut can easily be turned into this...

...Soup! Note the freshly baked bread in the background...

Only problem is recipes and me generally don't get along. I tend to see them more as tentative suggestions rather than any kind of tried and trusted guide to a delicious meal. I also tend to just add random ingredients from the pantry and fridge all willy nilly. Usually works out.... ?

Next on the menu was a potato and spring onion soup garnished with cayenne pepper and spring onion...just because they were sitting in the kitchen looking at me...waiting to be used... 

...accompanied by rushed home baked tomato puff pastry. Yum! 

I seem to have a serious spicy food addiction too. I also made a kumara and carrot soup (didn't photo) and I was a bit heavy handed with the cayenne pepper...lets just say I was grateful to still have milk in the fridge. Was really a great winter warmer though!

I managed to polish off a second batch of butternut soup last night and tonight decided to try a spiced kumara soup. No bread or time to bake tonight so for extra sustenance I cooked up some thinly sliced chicken in garlic and Ina Paarmans Braai & Grill Spice. Perfect meal!

I got this recipe from Alison Holst's Soup Book (also a gift for my Birthday) and I actually followed the recipe! ... mostly... well, I only put in 1 and 1/2 t curry powder instead of going crazy (the recipe only says 1/2 t). It's progress... 

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Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic (I just used bottled to taste)

1/2 to 1 t curry powder

75g butter

600g kumara

1 1/2 C water

2 t instant chicken stock powder or 1 t salt (I used the stock)

3 C milk (this was waaaaay too much, would have completely eradicated the spiciness  and I like my soup thick. Just add to                  right consistency)

1/4 C cream optional (if the milk was too much, this would be extravagant - didn't even consider making a shop run for this)

Add finely chopped garlic and curry powder to the butter in a large pot (Oh, forgot I also added onion and spring onion, just for kicks).

Peel the kumara thinly and cut them in half lengthways. Slice 1cm thick, crossways.

Cook the vegetables gently in the butter without browning, for 1-2 minutes, then add the water. Cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the kumara is tender.

Stir in the instant chicken stock or salt, then puree the vegetables and cooking liquid, thinning the puree with milk until the soup is the thickness you like.

Add cream for a richer soup, and reheat without boiling.

This recipe can also be made with parsnip instead of kumara.

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Also, just for the record, I didn't suddenly go on a soup diet. I made these soups (and more) over the space of 3 months, froze some and gobbled the rest. I'll need to make another trip to the market on Sunday!!

Bread Lovely Bread!

So months ago I decided I needed bread. Fresh bread, still warm delicious fresh bread so I sucked up my inexplicable fear of baking large savoury loaves and found a no-knead recipe.

It all worked out rather marvellously! Mixed it up on a Saturday evening, let it rest overnight and in the morning finished up the prep and baked a delicious round.

I only have a small ceramic bowl so it just had to do. Lovely rested dough, doubled in size overnight.

Fold it a couple times, quick rest and then into the floured tea towel to sit for another 2 hours. 

It was an ice cold day - well below room temperature - so put it by the window to thaw out a little, just a bit... 

While it was having this second rest, I ventured out to the fresh food market that graces Wellington every Sunday for some much needed blue cheese and french chicken liver pate. Can't beat buying cheese and pate from someone with a french accent...

Got back just in time to pop the round into the oven and then one hour later lunch was served. There is just something about bread that I can't resist. Deliciously browned thick crust with surprisingly light soft bready bits. It is heavier than your run of the mill white bread, but warm homemade bread trumps bought every time!

The bread recipe came from http://www.notquitenigella.com/2010/03/22/no-kneading-bread/

Other spoils from the market...

These lovely (and incredibly cheap) ingredients became a divine butternut soup, a kumara carrot soup and a potato onion soup. All fantastic, although I was a little (and when I say a little, I really mean a lot!) heavy handed with the cayenne pepper... ... it ended up a tad spicy, but nothing that I couldn't handle on a cold autumn evening.