Hockey one, hockey two....

There's a grandstand in Whangarei, where you can sit and watch...

or turn the corner and order your snack food...what do they sell at Goal Mouth Cafe??? I didn't go and look, but maybe I should have....did I miss anything good?

The Saturday morning hockey players are ready to play...

after all the action....the team lines up

"Player of the day" is cheered - congratulations Aidan. (my nephew's son)

A bag of chocolate lollies is passed around.....

The proud walk back to the car...next stop, McDonald's for a hot chocolate.

followed closely by Adam, his little brother. (the little hand in his pocket is safely holding his chocolate for later)

The Queens Play Trivia

The friends (plus this sister) planned for days. They shopped for days too. They needed certain things!! a cake stand, gloves and crowns, a china tea set and woolly tea cosy of course.  

They also needed the prim and proper clothes... you know, the tweed skirts and cardigans, oh and grandmother's pearls. All so very British!!

 They ate their scones and drank their gins (there was no tea at this evening tea)

They shared the Roses chocolates

 and very dainty they were - the savoury delights were dainty too.

The lamingtons were served with extra cream.....funds were raised, a good time was had by all, but all this finery did not help the girls win the trivia game....though it did help them have the most fun.

One Kiwiburger please.

Have you been to McCafe yet?

Drive on up

or go inside, but leave your four legged friend outside

looking thru the window...is that layers of bacon she is putting on cheese toasts??

a nice selection, wouldn't you agree!

                                      my lovely niece, Katrina making some very pretty coffees

order a coffee

or try the L&P

sample the savoury sausage roll - I highly recommend it!

Followed by the caramel slice.

I was tempted to sip hot chocolate with marshmallows

While you are there, enjoy the decor too

if you would rather just have water, it even looks and tastes better here too!

It was a good thing that I couldn't order a  Kiwiburger - I would have missed the caramel slice and sausage roll!!..sadly they don't sell it anymore. I aways try to have at least one on my nz visits. Do you miss them too?

http://www.guitarsolos.com/videos-mcdonalds-kiwiburger-advert-original-[Z5CX_NCf8Ow].cfm

Sunday afternoon at the food show

What fun....lots of food samples.....

                                                  endless food samples....all New Zealand food

We were hungry, it took us a couple of hours, but by the time we had walked around the food show and sampled everything, we had had a good lunch!!

It started with dessert! these people were promoting pretty sugars, very well done with cream and a mini pikelet (pancake)

 a rainbow of licorice flavours and colours,

every New Zealand cheese was there

and yogurts

apples in tubes

relishes and pickles

amazing mouthfuls of fruit flavours - iceblocks (Popsicles)

green lip mussels

nuts,chocolates and  fruit somethings

lots of demonstrations

dehydrated everything...that little red mouthful was the best tamarillo I have ever had.

this lemoncello got my attention

so did this chocolate covered caramel

little stir fry samples

and tasty flakes of tuna

honey...pohutakawa, yum

we tracked down the best pesto....was this it?? feta, cashew and arugula was my pick...I was sad when I went pesto shopping over here

macadamia nuts three ways,

your rubbish (toothpick trash) here please.

had to try each kind of olive oil

and some more lemoncello...and sorbet too

these guys were resting their feet, or was it too much wine?

one could get seriously plastered if one sampled each wine on offer!!

sadly this sample was not free....nice little expensive whitebait fritters (tiny tiny fish)

Mandy waited her turn.....she really wanted him to serve her, not the sous chef, but the man in white. I waited with my camera too.....I was being bumped around a bit in the crowds...the photos were blurry...

there they are together...but she was still waiting. Eventually he served her, that famous man, the man from Master Chef Australia....but I didn't get the photo!

An Eiffel Tower of course.... not too sure what the display had to do with food or wine ~ picnic baskets below maybe? I was in too much of a hurry to sample some more food.

Two bags of goodies were going home with Mandy.

Food was the main event that week, the BBC TV chef Rick Stein was in NZ for his first ever tour. Dad and I had headed into Auckland on the Thursday for the show.We all love his shows so we enjoyed seeing him...he's really as nice as he comes across on TV.