Easter!

We had a gorgeous Easter day here in NZ. The temperature was chilly in the morning, especially in the big stone Cathedral for those who’d forgotten their sweaters. But as Ben commented as we walked out the door, “What a great day!” The Easter bunny had brought each of the kids a chocolate egg (and a new toothbrush/toothpaste -- a throwback from my childhood). We enjoyed a lovely breakfast of hard-boiled eggs, scones, fresh pineapple and papaya, and ham. We took a nice tramp around the neighbourhood to help break in my new tramping boots and HAD to stop by the Supernova for some good King-of-the-Supernova fun. We’re about to have dinner with one of Mark’s former grad students, her husband, and his brother. It’s a fantastic evening for entertaining!

I didn’t have a chance to mention in the blog yesterday (Good Friday at Halswell Quarry) about our egg colouring adventure last night. It started with having to search high and low for food colouring. I don’t know where they hide it at most stores, but after looking in every store I’d been in for the last three weeks, I finally found it in the 11th hour. Even the cashier at the checkout gave it a second look and said she’d never seen such a thing before.

The next hurdle was that fact that 99.9% of all of the eggs sold here are brown. I’ve seen an occasional white one at the market, but they are extremely rare. I figured that meant we’d need to make the colours especially dark. In this series of pictures you can see the progress and results. The yellow didn’t change the colour of the eggs very much, and purple turned the eggs a remarkable dark chocolate colour. Green, blue, and teal turned out almost the same. Best of all were the reds and oranges. A few of the more creative dyers made some multi-coloured ones and if you look carefully you can even see the “kia ora” greeting on one. As the kids have gotten older, they’ve gotten better and better about keeping the mess to a minimum. In fact, in the final hurdle, it was me this year who knocked over the blue dye. Yikes! Thanks to “Napi-san”, the stain on the carpet is largely gone. Napi-san is a laundry additive that is simply amazing – but that’s a subject for another blog....