Harbourside Market - pretty cool



Amy and I have finally discovered the Farmer's Market in Wellington

There's no reason it should have taken us this long to discover the Harbourside Market in Wellington. We've seen it plenty of times, but just never got around to checking it out. There have been fruit and vegetable markets in Wellington for more than 100 years.  In years gone by the market was nearer to Courtenay Place, at Blair and Allen Streets. A huge fire in 1928 forced the closure of some of the warehouse buildings that used to house the market.


Our new friends, the Feijoas

The current location, down by the harbor near Te Papa, has been in use for a decade now. Every Sunday about 7,000 to 9,000 folks show up to buy their produce. It's a festival atmosphere, with fast-food caravans and music everywhere.

Our new favorites - the Feijoas - are quite the tastiest things I've ever had, well of a fruit and vegetable sort of things. A Brazilian relative of the myrtle family, the feijoa, or pineapple guava, is pretty popular around New Zealand. Having only just discovered it last week, we are converts.



I could really get into this kind of shopping


The colors around the acres of stalls were fantastic.



The colors were voluptious

Then it was down to the docks to Nino's seafood boat. He's quite the characer and his fish is fresh. He puts on a little show for the customers who line up boatside.

Our trip to the market and the boat are about as close to a good deal as we've come across in New Zealand. We bought six filets of terakihi, Amy's favorite local fish, for $25 and about 20 pounds of vegetables for less than that.

Nino himself



Having our fish cleaned

Having spent another couple of hours this morning looking out to sea in the eternl hope of spotting some Orca, it was a nice surprise to come across this fellow. Measuring in at at least four or five feet, the Stingray was flying around the waters beneath Nino's boat, no doubt hoping for a few scraps.

This massive Stingray (about four feet) was swimming around under Nino's boat