So in case you haven't heard, New Zealand has had its share of storms lately. Last week, a storm the size of Australia(!) was over the island, leading to rain rain rain and more rain. I thought it'd be a good week to lay off the outdoor activities and spend sometime indoors, so I headed to Palmerston North.
Palmerston North is named after Viscount Palmerston, a former Prime Minister of Great Britain. With a population of 80,000--- over half of its habitants under 33 years old--- it is often called "Student City." Three universities are located here, including the International Pacific College, which happened to be hosting their annual Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Festival!
Despite the soggy conditions, the trees were gorgeous!
There were cute international pacific dancers, and refreshing pink Bubble Tea to match the color of the blossoms.
My main reason for the trip to a "metro" area was to purchase a decent waterproof jacket that wouldn't fail me on my future tramps. Palmerston North has some great shopping, so that mission was easy. The jacket got its first test on my visit to the Te Apiti Wind Farm, just 10km outside the city.
This $100 million dollar project consists of 55 wind turbines, with each tower being 70 meters tall. In total, the farm generates enough electricity to meet the annual needs of 45,000 homes! Awesome, huh?
So just how windy is it up here? It depends on the minute.
WINDY:
WINDIER:
"holy @#* I'm gonna blow away" WINDIEST!
So yay for wind farms.
In other exciting news, I bought a bike!
Thank you, free ads at the grocery store! I had read that P.North was a bike friendly city, so I stashed it in the back seat, with hopes of a few breaks in the clouds to catch a short ride.
It was not a pretty site to see me biking against wind gales of up to 100km an hour, but I was able to take a short ride along the Manawatu River. Above are some of the cliffs on the river banks.
I also stopped at a park. These New Zealand kids have *the* *coolest* *playgrounds* ever!
Powered by kids, not electricity:
Boys jumping on trampolines! And a cool echo toy in the background:
And I'm not quite sure, but this looks like some David Copperfield inspired magic trick/chain toy:
Palmerston North has a central square with some neat looking art:
But one of my favorite parts of the weekend was the Palmerston North farmer's market! Tons of fruits and veggies for CHEAP!
Everyone (especially my patients on wafarin) kept on talking about "silverbeet"
----"Doc, can I still have my silverbeet when I'm on warfarin?"
Silverbeet is just NZ terms for swiss chard.
Did you know just one cup of these leafy greens has over 200% of your daily needs of Vitamin A and 700% of your daily Vitamin K?
---"Sure, Mrs. Jones, you can eat your SilverBeet while on warfarin, just make sure to have the same amount every day, ok?-----
So I tried to cook both the leaves and the stalks. Leaves tasty, stalks not so much. Bought some beetroot too (aka red beets)--- always a winner.
I also bought a bag of the cutest, brightest yams you've ever seen in your life!
So vibrant, but they sadly lose their color when roasted. Boo.
From red to pink--- maybe it's to match those Cherry Blossoms! :)
I heard that the highway I drove to P.North on Saturday morning was closed for the second half of the day. On my return trip Sunday, I saw why:
No rainbows this weekend, just landslides :)
That's all for now, from wet and windy Palmerston North!
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