Thursday, January 25, 2024: Day 353 – Hokey Pokey Palmerston North

Cheryl and I were graduate students in the Food Science Department at the University of Washington. My course of study was Food Microbiology while I was pursuing a Master degree. Hers was a doctorate in Food Chemistry.

Our department was located in the School of Fisheries so our diplomas indicate an advance degrees in Fisheries. I never did put that on my resume (neither does Cheryl) because being from Kansas, I don’t know much about fish!!

Currently, Cheryl is a taste tester for Fonterra, the leading dairy in New Zealand, and she had to go to work for a few hours to give her opinions on pizza cheese so we went in search of lunch.

Choices for walking to our lunch of dahl at Indian Summer is either viewing beautiful homes or lush green spaces.

And homes on the way back. Cheryl lives in a spacious home in a lovely community. She has seen the home value grow considerably as her home used to be on the edge of town.

Entering this grocery store seems to be an ordeal. What is the purpose for all these bars?

Rugby is the king of sport in New Zealand so we toured the National Museum.

When you think of rugby, you think of the intimidating Haka that they do prior to the match. Here is what it means and when it first started.

This lifesize rugby player was made by the Wētā Workshop. His skin had sweat pores and skin color irregularities. I got up close and personal.

We had just enough time to visit Te Manawa where they had an informative exhibit about mass extinctions.

Fossil records document five mass extinctions. Scientists are wondering if we are in the midst of a sixth.

Anthropocene is unofficially the present-day epoch. It is denoted by significant biological and geochemical changes including global warming, rising sea-levels, changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans and soil, habitat loss, a high rate of extinction and microplastics in terrestrial and marine ecosystems.

Extinction of the Tasmanian tiger occurred in the last century which is part of this current epoch. There is some work with its DNA to reproduce the Tasmanian tiger. However, even if it was reintroduced to the wild, there is not enough genetic diversity for it to reproduce. No matter what science can do, it is gone forever.

After a full day of exploring, we ate at the swanky restaurant called Nero in the heart of downtown. It is rumored to be the best restaurant in Palmerston North. It was delicious. Rob and I were amused by the dessert called Hockey Pokey. Gotta get it!!