It rained heavily all night and was still going strong in the morning. So we just took it slow, having a breakfast of the assortment of fruit we got.
Pawpaw (center), then from left to right: feijoa, green kiwifruit, golden kiwifruit, passionfruit, dragonfruit and blood orange
In the afternoon, we drove down to the Te Papa museum. Our main quest was to see the giant squid again... in honor of the pie we were going to make.... Sharktopi 2. We parked on the street near the farmer's market. In spite of the heavy rain, people were still shopping.
There was exhibit before entering the museum on the earthquake-proof techniques they've been implementing. Cylindrical devices, called 'lead extrusion dampers," are placed between the foundation and the base of the building. It then acts like a shock absorber in a car. Combined with lead-rubber bearings (which provide isolation), the buildings could now better survive a major earthquake.
A glimpse underneath the building
A lead extrusion damper
We entered the museum. It was absolutely swarming with kids. Well, I suppose that's what to expect for a free museum on a Sunday afternoon when it's raining out.
We headed over the giant squid. The animal was caught live by a fishing boat in the Antarctic in February 2007 (summer, remember). After hauling in on board, they froze it. It is brought to New Zealand and over a year later has finally found its way to the museum. It is thawed, dissected and then put on display.
In a small side room, we watched 3D video of the presumed life of our giant squid, right up to the moment when it got caught by the boat. We saw it catch food, escape being eaten by a whale, and produce thousands of eggs that turned into tiny giant squid. It was very well done!
The giant squid
The tenticles were inspiration for our upcoming dessert...
... when combined with a shark, of course.
Given the way the blue light undulated through the room, it almost appeared as if the skeletons were actually swimming.
A large piece of amber and some VERY unhappy insects
This is one of the 10 cast iron cannons that was on Captain cook's ship, the Endeavor. In 1770, the ship got stuck on a sunken reef out in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. The idea was to keep throwing over heavy things until the ship floated higher in the water and could escape. Six cannons and lots of iron, stone, casks and oil jars later... it worked. It was found nearly 200 years later by an American team using an iron detector. It was only under 25 feet of water, but it was covered in coral up to three feet thick.
Sheep cam! Someone strapped a camera to a sheep and let it run among the flock. Very cute!
We got outside on the roof for a brief view of the city. It was still raining but not quite so hard. Giant glass plates prevented us from getting too close to the edge. It made me wonder if something had happened before. It might also just be the fact that few parents actually keep an eye on their kids any more.
Overlooking downtown Wellington
Safety
We walked quickly around some of the other displays but eventually decided to escape the crowds. Next to the museum was a 'bush walk.' We could see the walkway that connected to it, but no matter how hard we tried, we just couldn't seem to get there! Eventually we found a map of the museum and figured out which floor we had to be on.
While it looks like we should be able to get on the bridge, we are actually a half-floor too high!
Bush City, as it was called, was a small area created to explore a wide range of features found on New Zealand, such as waterfalls, caves, fossils, volcanic rocks, swinging bridges, forests, etc. In short, it was Disneyland New Zealand.
The giant rock wall to the left is fake, but the rocks in the courtyard are real.
Touching one of the oldest rocks in New Zealand!
They mean the rocks, not me!
A swinging bridge through the bush
We came up to a 'cave', completely made from fake rocks. I tried to convey to Regan how this was the epitome of Disneyland. I joked how we would find fake glowworms inside... I even took it one step further and stated that perhaps glowworms didn't really exist, that they were all just tiny holiday lights stuck in the ceilings of tourist attractions to fool people into believing in something wonderful... after all, they looked exactly like the fireflies in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
The cave entrance
Regan admires the fake cave walls. In the background are fake stalactites and stalagmites.
And then it happened... we rounded the corner and there they were... glowworms! Or rather small holiday lights pretending to be glowworms. Ok, admittedly my ensuing hysterical laughter was a bit much.
Yup, that's them!
This is a recreation of a famous real scene. At the bottom of a 'tomo' (a sinkhole or cenote), archeologists found the intermingled bones of a moa and a giant eagle. Either they both fell in together during a fight, or the moa fell in and the eagle, thinking it had found an easy meal, jumped down in but couldn't fly back out.
A view of the tomo from above
We left the cave and finished our trip around the park.
In a sand pit was the 'skeleton' of a mosasaur that kids could dig up.
This is a recreation of a cut down though volcanic ash layers. The Taupo volcano has erupted 28 times in the last 26,000 years. If all the debris from these eruptions was spread out evenly, it would bury the North Island almost 40 feet deep.
Real volcanic rocks from the Auckland area
We were quite wet by the time we got to the car, so we drove home, warmed up a bit, then started baking..
The base layer was two different types of kiwis. The filling was a frangipanni (eggs, ground almonds, butter and sugar). While Regan made the pie crust, I cut the fruit, mixed the filling and made the sauce (strawberry and rhubarb jam with wine). We then topped our creation with feijoas, passion fruit, sauce and banana tenticles.
Passionfruit, feijoas, green kiwifruit and gold kiwifruit
The frangipanni filling
The sauce
Assembly
It was so wet from all the fruit that it didn't cook all the way through the first time. So we put it in the oven for a bit longer. While we waited for it to be ready, we feasted on a wide assortment of 'traditional' kiwi things.
These are Tim Tams....
... and this is a Tim Tam Slam. You nibble off both ends, then use the cookie as a straw to suck up a warm liquid (in this case, apple cinnamon tea). You then quickly eat the cookie which has become all gooey and melty inside. Oh my gosh... words can not describe!!
Regan had put these in the freezer to make them crunchy. They were very sweet but did indeed taste pineapple-ish.
We tried to make up for our sugary gluttony by having some more fruit (pawpaw and feijoas). The pawpaw was from the grocery store and was actually a bit moldy. But we could save a few parts of it. It was completely flavorless though. Regan says it can be very very sweet, and sometimes smells quite potent (like durian).
As soon as the pie came out of the oven, we had to try some. We didn't realize it at the time, but this was a mistake since the filling needed to set for a while. Either way, while the liquid texture left a lot to be desired, the taste was amazing!
How is that for disgusting looking!?
Unfortunately the banana tenticles fell over during baking.
We had put Pineapple Lumps in some of the extra pastry dough.
While I took a shower, Regan whipped up an amazing dinner of mushrooms in a cream sauce and homemade mashed potatoes with cheese and chives. Wonderful!
The last of our mushroom 'seconds'
The pie after it had set for a couple hours
