Life + Style 16 March 2018

Photo: Bruce Barnard

16 March, 2018

THE WEEKEND

The Fat Cow

Perfect pulled pork

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Guinness Down Under

Jo Morgan

Paengaroa

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life+style The Weekend Sun 21 16August, March, 2015 2018

Southern fare to share Meat eaters and vegans dining together The premises at 70 Maunganui Road has seen many a diner come and go since its construction over 40 years ago, but it’s safe to say it hasn’t housed anything quite like The Fat Cow. Run by Jorge Arizaga, a Mexican native who moved to New Zealand six years ago, he’s been working in hospitality since the age of 15.

Jorge explains that his aim for The Fat Cow is making food as much of a social experience as it is culinary. Meals in Mexico, he says, are all about sharing and socialising with friends and family.

Described as a restaurant where “carnivores and vegans can dine in harmony”, The Fat Cow offers a unique and ever-changing menu of Southern smokehouse-style meats, sides and prime cuts.

The menu also offers vegan fare, including pulled pork (jackfruit) tacos and vegan mac and cheese.

A range of local craft beer and cider complement the menu, including a pilsner aptly named ‘The Beast’, which is described as a smooth brew that balances out any serving of meat and is only

available at The Fat Cow. Their meat is sourced from freedom farms nationwide, and smoked for up to 12 hours in a custom-built smoker onsite. This means that Jorge’s day starts at 8am, and over 12 hours later he is still at work in the kitchen.

Hard work breeds success, as they say, and judging by the amount of people raving about The Fat Cow, they are right.

The constantly revolving menu is transported to your table on a wheeled chalkboard. This particular night, the options range from smoked salmon to a full side of Carolina style pork ribs.

“Choose your favourite meat and sides, and build your own meal,” our waitress explains. After a moment or two of indecision, we decide on the ribs and the pulled pork, accompanied by potato fries, kumara fries and mac and cheese.

The pulled pork is light and juicy, and goes perfectly with the rich, creamy mac and cheese.

Both the potato and kumara fries are chunky and perfectly crispy. The star of the evening, however, is the ribs, which are smoky, sweet and quite literally fall off the bone.

Ribs can often be a messy affair, but not here – no cloth napkins, finger bowls or extra plates required.

The short-but-sweet dessert menu featured churros and pumpkin cake. If only there was room! In the past I’ve also spied appearances from lemon and blueberry crumble and caramel flan.

Yes, I admit it - this isn’t my first foray with The Fat Cow, nor will it be my last. In fact, I’m already looking for an excuse to go again.

Caitlin Burns

16 March, 2018

Mexican Pulled Pork Ingredients: 3 kg pork shoulder roast 6 guajillo dried chillis 3 chipotle en adobo chillis 4 garlic cloves 1 whole brown onion 1/4 cup vinegar

1/4 cup orange juice 1 cup of pineapple 3 cloves 2 tbsp oregano 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 tbsp black pepper

Method: Roast the chillis with the garlic, onion, pineapple, cumin seeds and cloves. Once they are nicely roasted and aromatic, put everything into a blender and use a bit more orange juice and vinegar if it’s too thick.

Then use this paste/sauce to marinade the meat and leave it in the fridge for at least four hours.

Once it has marinated, cover the meat and cook it on a smoker or in your oven for six hours at 120°C. Once cooked, take out and cover with aluminum foil for one hour. The thickest part of the meat must be around 82°C internally.

After leaving the meat to rest for one hour, start pulling the meat apart.

Enjoy with some corn tortillas, lime, pickled onions and, of course, a hot sauce of your preference.

life+style The Weekend Sun 3

16August, March, 2015 2018 life+style The Weekend Sun 21

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Author Rod Smith

Guinness Down Under The oil of Ireland here in NZ It has taken the writing of a book about a famous brew to bring together two local members of the Guinness family.

A former Evening Post reporter, Rod, who has researched and written family stories, first heard about his wife’s family history from his motherin-law Pauline.

“She told me about it in 1992,” says Rod. “That’s what began it all, but the real serious digging started about 2005.”

He decided to tell the story of how the world famous Guinness brew and various branches of the family arrived in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-1800s.

The book is an absorbing and fascinating read, spanning decades, and covering the very beginnings of Guinness stout and how the family established their trade. The well-researched and multi-stranded journey follows the paths of each of four Guinness cousins and the development of the brew.

Four grandsons of Arthur Guinness came to make new lives for themselves in Australia and New Zealand with an entrepreneur/political activist and Canterbury pastoralist settling in NZ, and a clergyman and brewer settling in Australia.

There’s a chapter on each branch of the family.

Pauline and Glennis’s family is chapter seven and Paul’s is chapter six.

The research involved travelling to Ireland.

“Glennis and I have been to Ireland three times,” says Rod. “I’ve also been on my own a couple of times. We lived in Wellington and I worked for the ACC. At lunchtime I went and did some research in the National Library which was just along the road. Then I’d come home at night and do a bit of writing.”

Tauranga resident Glennis Smith is a sixthgeneration descendant of Ireland’s Arthur Guinness who, legend has it, created the famous Guinness stout flavour when he was meant to be helping his stepmother brew the ale for her inn and burnt the barley after roasting it for too long.

The truth is a London brewer took the Porter recipe to Dublin.

Meanwhile, here in NZ, Captain Cook was sailing by.

Omokoroa resident Paul Guinness, also a descendent of Arthur Guinness, comes from a different branch of the same family.

“The family came up from the South Island to Tauranga in 1908,” says Paul. “They bought a business selling petrol and farm appliances at No.1 The Strand and my great-grandfather called it Guinness Brothers.”

He remembers playing there as a boy and how barrels of whisky were poured into bottles.

Nearly 100 years on from this business being established, Paul met Glennis and her husband Rod Smith, who at the time were living in Wellington.

“Rod rang me about five years ago and said he was doing research on a book,” says Paul. “I was going to Wellington for a wedding so I took down what I thought he’d be interested in.”

They exchanged phone calls and emails and, after the Smiths moved to Tauranga, they met up again.

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16 March, 20182015 21 August, Paul Guinness and Rod Smith looking through

“He has written ‘Guinness Down Under’ over the course of eight years and estimates there has been more than 3600 hours of researching and writing”

geneology book

Glennis Smith, Pauline Williamson,Rod Smith and Paul Guinness at No1 The Strand where Guinness Brothers was once based.

Photo: Nikki South

Rod knew of Paul from the start of his writing, as Paul’s line of the family tree had been well-documented.

Unbeknown to each other though, they both travelled to and met up with historian Patrick Guinness in Ireland, visiting Arthur Guinness’s birthplace at the Mucky Duck Pub, and his final resting place under a mound near a derelict church.

Paul went to the site with his son in 2012, aware that it was more than 250 years since the Guinness brew had been created by Arthur.

“We sat on the sacred mound and drank the sacred drop,” says Paul. “A round for Arthur.

They say that Guinness is the oil of Ireland, because it keeps Ireland going.”

As Rod says in his book, Guinness is a name instantly recognised around the world.

The famous stout has been brewed at St James’s Gate in Dublin for over 250 years, and is now brewed under contract in 50 countries with over nine million glasses of Guinness drunk each day worldwide.

Since that first conversation with Pauline in 1992, Rod has gathered information and pictures from over 300 people and sourced material from over 40 libraries, archives and historical societies.

He has written ‘Guinness Down Under’ over the course of eight years and estimates there has been more than 3600 hours of researching and writing.

Paul’s Guinness family

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One of Rod’s favourite images in the book shows the science behind growing the best barley.

“The brewers researched who grew the best barley in Ireland,” says Rod. “They found the best barley grower so they went to see him.

“He said the secret was to grow it when the soil temperature is just right. ‘How do you know that?’ they asked, so he demonstrated how every day he did a soil test by sitting on his bare bum on the soil.”

His favourite story is about a fundraising concert held in Ashburton in the 1880s where Frank Guinness passed his top hat to a visiting wizard to perform a trick.

The wizard cut the hat into pieces, then confessed he didn’t know what to do next and handed the

destroyed hat back.

The book is completely fascinating in so many ways - the local perspective, the challenges that various family members overcame and the link to one of the most famous and iconic drinks in the world.

Guinness Down Under is available at selected book retailers and also online at www.guinnessdu.co.nz Rosalie Liddle Crawford

Sarah Guinness, Pauline’s grandmother

Patrick Guinness with The final resting place

Glennis Smith outside

of Arthur Guinness

the Mucky Duck Pub.

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March,2015 2018 life+style The Weekend Sun 2116August,

Tarantulas, guns and bobcats Jo Morgan – adventurer, mountaineer and motorcyclist “I’m off to Russia, going mountain climbing,” said Jo Morgan when I caught up with her last year.

I mulled on this afterwards. She seemed to be away for a good chunk of the time Gareth was campaigning for the General Election.

Coincidence? Mountain climbing? Bemused, I assumed she meant something relatively safe, like Helen Clark striding up Kilimanjaro. I forgot about it until Christmas when we caught up again. This time she was getting ready to go motorcycling.

“I was wanting to do West Africa,” says Jo. “We looked it up but there’s so many places that are politically unstable, so we thought no, not at the moment. We’ll start in Morocco. The motorbikes are on their way to Casablanca as we speak and we’ll

get three weeks around Morocco exploring there.

Good motor biking. Zigzags, tight corners, loose metal, and remote places that you can only get to by motorbike.

“Then we’ll go through to Portugal and Spain and zigzag through Europe. We’ll do Greece and Turkey and then get across to the Caucasus and hopefully leave our bikes parked up there until next summer.

So that’s really a three month ride.”

I found the logistics of this fascinating.

What about safety, breakdowns, borders, visas?

Is it an organised tour? Jo explained it further.

“We started off in India about 2002, then South America. Initially with someone who organises these treks. Then we decided to do the Silk Road, which was far bigger.”

Now she and Gareth plan their own trips. Gareth with his spreadsheets and research.

“I’m more airy-fairy,” proclaims Jo. I doubt that.

Pragmatic and practical, intuitive and savvy. What dangers would one expect I wonder?

“The best word to learn in any language is ‘beautiful’,” says Jo. “Because when someone’s got a gun pointed at you, you try to find a child, reach down and put your arms around them - it totally defuses everything.

“The guy with the gun is standing there wondering why he has a gun pointed at you.

“I’ve had a snake on the road that I thought was a rope. I was going along really close to it and it came up like snakes do and lunged at me.”

Exciting. I’m guessing the road kill in some of

Leaders in Care

16 21 March, 2018 August, 2015

life+style The Weekend Sun 7 Jo and her guide, Wolfgang, after climbing Mt Tasman.

“You’ve constantly got rock fall and ice fall around you.

It’s not for the faint-hearted”

these countries is a little different from what one would find in New Zealand. What was the largest she’d encountered?

“A bobcat. About dog size,” says Jo. “One place where we were going there were these crabs running down the road. I stopped to look at them and discovered they were tarantulas.

“They were everywhere.

“One of the car drivers said in certain seasons it’s like crunching popcorn as you drive,” Jo recalls. “And the woman in the information centre - I said ‘do you know there are a lot of tarantulas around here?’ and she said ‘that’s why I’ve got the broom, some days I spend all day sweeping them out’.”

Some countries require a bond before they can be crossed. This can be up to 10 times the value of the motorcycle, such as Iran.

“That’s ridiculous,” says Jo. “But you get it back.” Being UNICEF ambassadors provides Gareth and Jo with opportunities to go into places that tourists often don’t normally get to.

“Remote villages,” says Jo. “You see how they live, you may be planning to do some funding or assessing a place for UNICEF funding.”

“I was 15 when I had my first motorbike.

“After I married Gareth and was expecting Sam, I’d turn up for antenatal classes on my motorbike. One of the nurses took me aside and said ‘excuse me miss, how are you going to get here when the baby’s coming?’ and I just looked at the bike and she said ‘do you know

how the baby gets out?’”

She laughs out loud. On their motorcycle treks she’s clear about her role.

“I’m the linguist, medic and mechanic. Gareth is the captain and publicist. It’s interesting when you’ve got a good partnership.”

We get back to the mountain climbing. She started climbing when she was 58.

After Christmas she headed off to climb Mount Magellan. Did Gareth go too?

“You’ve got to be joking. He couldn’t do it.

“It’s very edgy. This is not trekking or tramping. This is crampons in, ice axe and sheer walls.”

It was a 14-hour climb starting at 1am from the main hut on Aoraki Mount Cook.

“You’ve constantly got rock fall and ice fall around you. It’s not for the faint-hearted.

“The last bit is really cool. You’re going along this little icy ridge of snow with one foot on each side. And thousands of metres down on each side. Wolfgang the guide and I have an arrangement. If he falls off to the right, then I need to fall off to the left. The rope holds us in the middle and you save each other.

“There are 24 peaks in New Zealand over 3000m and I’ve done 22. Two to go. Then I can retire. The intention was to have them all done before I got my Gold Card but it’s not going to happen. Gold Card in August but climbing season won’t be until October now.”

Rosalie Liddle Crawford

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March,2015 2018 life+style The Weekend Sun 2116August,

Wagon to the past Paengaroa – a hive of activity The drive to Paengaroa took all of 10 minutes. It can take me longer to get to Greerton Village or Bethlehem Town Centre. I was actually planning to go to Maketu with our photographer Bruce Barnard, but decided to call in to the antique shop at Paengaroa first.

While our photographer Bruce was engrossed with photographing the wagon over the road, I went for a wander around the village. Some of the buildings have a hint of yesteryear about them, and signs with ‘Old Coach Road’ and ‘Junction’ also suggest this.

The area has a rich cultural history for both Maori and European descendants dating back to the 14th Century. Much of the beginnings of Paengaroa start at Maketu, where around 1350, the Te Arawa canoe made landfall, just five minutes’ drive from where we stood.

Maori ventured inland following rivers, such as the Kaituna that flows past the village, settling in the wider region, planting crops and harvesting the natural environment.

For the local Maori iwi, the Kaituna River is the umbilical cord connecting with the inland “womb” of Rotorua. The river is a lifeline which enabled Maori family groups to travel back and forth from Rotorua to the sea.

Before the introduction of motorised transport,

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all horse-drawn traffic travelled through Paengaroa - from Maketu to Rotorua and Papamoa to Whakatane along the Old Coach Road - hence the name of the ‘Junction’.

From the records I read of stables being built, closely followed by a blacksmith, wheelwright, bookmaker and saddler, plus a boarding house, post office, butcher and a general store.

This progress was supported by the development of flax mills and railway camps. In 1903 the community gained a Bank of New Zealand and Bank of Australasia. Mr Gilmore opened his workshop as a hall for social functions. As I look around me, and glance at the Google search on my phone, I find my mind picturing the scene of 100 years ago - the hustle and bustle.

I turn around to check out where Bruce is. He’s still across the road with the wagon. A community project, four volunteers turned up at John Fowler’s storage shed in 2014 and started stripping down the old Coachman Tavern Wagon. They bought the wheels from TradeMe for $2500 with funding from First Sovereign Trust, and built the shelter with the support of Barrett Homes.

The wagon made a brief one-day appearance when the new cycleway was opened, but is now finally installed in its present location. It certainly captures the heritage of the village and the region, as it is believed the wagon dates back to the 1800s.

Used to bring milk, cream, flax and logs along Old Coach Road, Comvita originally obtained the wagon in 1996, on purchasing the Coachman

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A unique venue

16 March, 2018

life+style The Weekend Sun 9

“The Paengaroa of today is in the heart of the greenbelt kiwifruit and farming industry”

Tavern property. A wonderful gift, restored by community volunteers.

The Comvita Visitor Centre and café features natural health and bee products, and is on the same side of the road as the wagon, but instead of heading there, I went to explore the older shop buildings that make up the rest of the village.

I enter Golliwog’s Bakery and Lunch Bar first, and yes, there are golliwogs sitting across the wall looking at me. Nearby is Fush and Chups.

Fascinated, I move on.

The Funky Lizard Café is a quirky delight, packed with local art and sculpture. And lo and behold, a painted piano! I feel quite a home within these warm walls, and there’s a lot of seating area outside too, quiet and under shade. Most weekends, the place appears to be pumping with local bands.

I still haven’t found the antique shop, so I wander off and ask a local.

“It hasn’t been here for about seven years,” I’m told. Bemused, I realise that it’s been that long since I last stopped in Paengaroa. I now don’t want to leave for Maketu until I’ve completely finished looking around. Bruce has started following my trail, taking photos as he goes.

Further along, the Bridal House by Corina Snow is breathless elegance, with vintage gowns that reminisce the classic style of the past. Why go to another city or township for a wedding gown?

I realise what a strategic location Paengaroa is, for any type of business. Once again, 100 years later, thanks to the Tauranga Eastern Link, it is

Photos: Bruce Barnard

an increasingly viable site, at the junction of Tauranga, Whakatane and Rotorua.

The Cycleway was opened in March 2016 and links Paengaroa to Papamoa. A penny farthing cycle rack near the wagon was completed by the Maketu Rotary in November 2017. There’s also a picnic table and an information board nearby.

Once upon a time the lowland in the area was covered in water in which flax and cabbage trees grew. The highland was covered in ti tree, tutu bushes and stunted fern.

It’s said that Paengaroa was once named Siberia due to the pumice soil, derived from the Kaharoa ash shower. The Paengaroa of today is in the heart of the greenbelt kiwifruit and farming industry, and one of the communities that will ultimately feel the effect of the growing local economy. “Weren’t you looking for an antique shop?” asks Bruce.

Rosalie Liddle Crawford

LYNLEY PARK, OMOKOROA

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March,2015 2018 life+style The Weekend Sun 2116August,

Chalium Poppy Running, singing, and living well

Photo: Bruce Barnard

I didn’t think I’d find such a world-class, classical musician living here in Mount Maunganui. Born in England, Chalium S P Poppy is an exceptional choral conductor and bass-baritone who has chosen New Zealand as his home.

Musicians of this calibre are rare in any age, and would be expected to live close to concert halls in London, Vienna or northern America.

And yet here he is, conducting the Chancel Choir at St Peter’s, and also conducting Scholars Pro Musica – a chamber choir, which is the only auditioned early music choral ensemble in the Bay of Plenty.

He started both choirs.

On arriving in New Zealand Chalium had intended to retire from music.

“I’d done music full-time in Canada and I was seriously burnt out,” he says.

“I came here and was exhausted, and said ‘I just don’t want to hear another note’.

“I was looking for a change in direction and was thinking of going to university to study literature or law.

“When I first arrived here, there was this beautiful stone church around the corner from where we were housesitting. I thought ‘that’s where I’ll go on Sunday morning’.”

He joined the small congregation at St Peter’s at the Mount.

“They had no organ and no choir and the services were quiet, serene and solemn.

“Being an Anglican cathedral choir boy growing up, I thought ‘this can’t be’.”

“Something just tugged at everything that was Anglican inside of me.

“I think the jewel in the crown of the Anglican Church is its very rich musical heritage.

“So I raised my hand and said let me raise funds for an organ. Let me design an organ. I will play it. So the organ went in.

“Then I thought I could probably piece together a choir from people within the community.”

Beginning nearly nine years ago, his first choir, the Chancel Choir at St Peters, had six voices.

“And it just grew. Now we have beautiful choral services and the choir sings regularly. We do choral evensong which attracts Presbyterians and Catholics.

Everyone loves to come to choral evensong at St Peter’s. And we’ve attracted some brilliant organists like Judy MacDougall, and Hilda Bester who came from Nelson Cathedral.”

He decided he also wanted to start a chamber choir dedicated to informed performances of early music with an emphasis on stylistic excellence.

“The chamber choir Scholars Pro Musica sort of grew out of the Chancel Choir. I was starting to work with and familiarise myself with singers who wanted to create music like Handel’s Messiah and big choral works which use a different kind of choir.

“So I started Scholars Pro Musica seven years ago.”

16 21March, August,2018 2015

“Something just tugged at everything that was Anglican inside of me. I think the jewel in the crown of the Anglican Church is its very rich musical heritage”

Chalium runs twice a day from his home down the beach to the Mount, up, around, then home again.

“I had to go to hospital. They said ‘you’ve got to change your lifestyle, you’re a ticking time bomb and you won’t see the better part of 40’. I hadn’t had a heart attack, but it was bad.

“I decided to make some changes. I began running and now I’m fighting fit.

“Going up the Mount is the best; it’s the best workout. You can work yourself into a sweat. When I first started obviously all I could do was walk it. And huff and puff.

“And then I worked up to a run.”

How does he find time for this?

“I wake up in the morning and that’s my priority. It’s become my lifestyle. I never want to go back to being like I was as this just feels so much better.

“I used to have poor eating habits. I’d skip breakfast and lunch, and survive on coffee.

“And then have a normal dinner at night, and go to bed. Quite often eating dinner would put me to sleep. I was told by my doctor that if you’re tired after eating then you’re getting diabetes, so fortunately I managed to reverse that.”

Setting goals both personally and musically, and striving for and achieving them, is at the heart of Chalium’s love of excellence.

Scholars Pro Musica, known for stunning concerts throughout the year, has a repertoire that spans the history of choral music from early sixteenth century to contemporary. The choir has received international accolades for the New Zealand premieres of choral works by Henry Purcell, Jean-Phillipe Rameau and Michael Haydn.

This year, the choir will be collaborating with orchestras for concerts in April, August and November performing works by Handel, Holst, Parry, and Elgar.

And, of course, the highly popular community sing-along Messiah event in September, followed by carols events later Rosalie Liddle Crawford in the year.

life+style The Weekend Sun 11

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life+style The Weekend Sun 21 August, 2015

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Beds R Us. The Real Bed Specialists.

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Queen Size Medium to Firm Feel

50 STORES

PROUD TO BE LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED

PROUD TO BE LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED