Second Adolescence

We haven’t posted for a while because we’ve been visiting with friends, first in Auckland (Takepuna actually) then in the Hamilton area, out in the countryside. Duncan is having fun reconnecting with old mates and reliving memories of youth. We first stayed with an Oxford classmate David Walter and his wife Penny. We hadn’t seen them for 34 years when David was posted by his accounting firm to NYC and we visited them there. Duncan and I had met at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and this was our first trip together outside Quebec. I remember it was January and freezing cold. I don’t remember much about what we did then except that I was duly impressed by NYC and enjoyed meeting Penny and “Walt”. This trip we celebrated another first with them – our long anticipated arrival in New Zealand.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. They took us sight-seeing outside Auckland to a nature reserve and to Paihia Beach. This is high on my list of places to return to one day. The surf thundered onto the volcanic beach, and sheltered from relentless sun and waves, we watched surfers in their wetsuits, skimming the waves looking like undernourished seals. We watched for rogue waves (never turn your back on the ocean) and splashed in our bare feet in the warm foamy water.
Our second night, we enjoyed a dinner party with another New College mate, Richard Frost, and his wife Barbara, originally from Belfast. Penny prepared a superb meal, and we enjoyed too much NZ bubbly, followed by prize winning red wines. I’m posting some of Penny’s recipes for any gourmets out there. I listened as they swapped memories and laughs about absent friends. It’s interesting to see Duncan’s personality revert to one that is slightly less reserved and more adolescent when he sees his university friends. I imagine this is the Duncan they knew all those years ago.
After spending 3 nights in Russell, Bay of Islands, we returned to Auckland for more delicious food and wine before heading to see Duncan’s old roommate from Montreal days, Chris Luoni a native of Hamilton, NZ. It’s not hard to understand why New Zealanders always return home after their OE (overseas experience), the country is so beautiful. This inland region, is in some parts reminiscent of Yorkshire, England (though much drier) with cattle and sheep dotting steep and rolling hillsides.
Chris and Canadian wife, Rosanna, live on a horse farm ten minutes drive outside the city in Matangi. Chris, one of Duncan’s former colleagues at Coopers Lybrand (now Pricewaterhousecoopers) is passionate about horses, particularly thoroughbred racehorses. He breeds, buys and sells them and currently owns or partly owns about 25. Our first night we went with him to feed several foals who had just been weaned. We read a framed article explaining that he had paid $4000 to save the life of the 1993 Cox Plate winner, The Phantom Chance, who now lives the life of Riley in a lush green pasture in his back garden. The horse contracted cancer and lost his left eye. Chris proudly boasts that there aren’t many who can regularly ride a former Cox Plate winner.
As I write this entry, I am sitting in the Luoni “bach” or more accurately, holiday home, on the edge of Raglan on the west coast of New Zealand. It is an idyllic colourful, one- story cottage with a Maori family living next door. The beaches are volcanic here as at Paihia and border the Tasman Sea. They are stunningly beautiful and surfers come from all over the world to challenge themselves at world championship surfing competitions at Manu Bay and Whale Bay. One sees these bronzed athletes hanging around the backpacker hostels and surf shops that dot this pleasant town. We jumped at the chance to retreat from the tourist trail for a day to “veg” out in these agreeable surroundings. I must say I love this retirement which is like a second adolescence – even better. No worries about gearing up to earn a living, just enjoying the beautiful weather in Aotearoa (Maori for “Land of the Long White Cloud”). As Duncan keeps saying, “This is the life!”

Persian Rice
2 T. Oil
1 onion diced
80 grams blanched almonds
100 grams pine nuts
Pinch of saffron threads
3 cardamom pods
400 grams (2 cups) basmati rice
750 ml. (3 cups) stock
110 grams sultanas, salt
1 pomegranate, skin and discard pith
1 cup coriander leaves
Heat oil. Add onions, almonds, pine nuts, saffron and cardamom pods. Cook 7-8 min. until nuts turn golden. Add rice and cook 2 min. Stirring to coat with oil. Add stock, sultanas and pinch of salt. Cover with lid and bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook for 15-20 min. until rice is tender (more water if necessary). Stand for 5 min. Stir through pomegranate seeds and coriander leaves.

Mango Pavlova Roll
3 egg whites
Pinch of salt
9 oz. Caster sugar
1 Tbsp. Corn flour (corn starch)
1 ½ tsp. Vinegar
½ tsp. Vanilla
15 oz. Can mango slices, drained (or fresh – but be sure to drain off the lime juice)
Juice of lime
½ pint whipping cream
Icing sugar to decorate
Heat oven to 150 C. Line a swiss roll tin (jelly roll pan) with a piece of non-stick baking paper (parchment). Beat egg whites until stiff. Add 6 oz. sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, whisking until stiff and glossy. Add in corn starch, vinegar and vanilla after mixing them together. Spread over lined tin and bake for 30 min. Remove from oven, turn out onto a clean sheet of greaseproof paper, lay a second sheet on top and roll it up. Roughly chop mango, stir in lime juice and rest of sugar, leave for 2 hrs. Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon. Whip cream, fold in the fruit, store in freezer until firm so that it is easier to spread. Carefully unroll, roulade, spread cream and fruit, roll up into cling film. Freeze until firm. Sprinkle with icing sugar just before serving. Can be taken from freezer 1 hr. before serving.

Tropical Fruitcake
4 1/2 oz. Dried mango
4 oz. papaya
4 oz. pineapple
2 oz. crystallised ginger
6 oz. butter
2 large eggs
6 oz. light brown muscovado sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice (or apple juice)
Zest of 1 lemon
8 oz. plain flour
1 tsp. bicarb of soda
1 tsp. 5 spice- powder
marzipan for middle (enough to cover cake – about 250 grams)
Preheat oven to 180 C. Slice fruits into 1 cm. pieces. Melt butter and sugar with ½ pint water in large saucepan. Add fruit and ginger, fruit juice and lemon zest and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 10-15 min. Leave to cool. Sift flour, soda and 5 spice powder in bowl. Add contents of saucepan and stir. Add beaten eggs. Pour ½ cake mix into buttered 7 in. deep cake tin. Add marzipan and then rest of cake mixture. Bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hrs. and then remove. Cool and turn out.