The market on Saturdays in Matakana is quite well known in New Zealand. After having no less than five people tell my husband and I that we needed to attend said market, we decided to get up early Saturday morning and go. There are actually two separate markets; one with crafts and one for food and produce.
Buffalo Cheese
Craft Apple Cider
We started in the craft market because it happened to be the closest to where we had parked. So many interesting items to explore! We picked up a nice gift for the 'Sneaky Santa' for Christmas morning and admired all of the unique artifacts. We found good tea! This may not seem exciting, but I have been searching for good loose leaf tea since we got to New Zealand and finally found some. She even had every tea made hot so that I was able to sample the ones I thought I'd like. I had thought to get one tea, but then Andrew found one he liked, and we both found a third that we really wanted...so we ended up getting three new bags of tea. We both really enjoy having tea a fair bit since neither of us drinks coffee though. Especially in the campervan some mornings can still be a bit chilly so a hot cup of tea is nice.
Meat Pie Lunch
We wandered into an antiques stall since they usually have interesting artifacts to admire. It is definitely a small world! Years ago Andrew and I visited the Medalta Potteries in Medicine Hat, which is quite famous in the area. We found jars from Medicine Hat here at the antiques store. It might be a good thing that we don't have a house or it would have been very tempting to pick them up.
From the crafts market we wandered down the road to the food market. No dogs are allowed, so there were a couple of ladies on a park bench near the entrance just minding dogs. I thought it was a very neat idea and quite convenient for people with pets.
Andrew enjoying lunch
Fresh Strawberries and Cream
The food market was incredible. Since there is so much fresh produce available, each stall had its own little niche market. We tried buffalo cheese and buffalo yogurt. There was an assortment of wonderful hot sauces (of which we picked up the berry hot, which is VERY hot). The hot sauces start off sweet and finish with a nice chili hot.
We tried an assortment of craft beers and ciders too. Craft ciders aren't nearly as sweet as the apple cider that most stores sell, which is quite nice. We picked up meat pies (they had gluten free dairy free meat pies!) and sat by the river listening to the live music and enjoying our lunch. On the way out, Andrew and I picked up some fresh produce to have with dinner. Well, I guess it was more dessert. Hard to resist vine ripened strawberries and fresh cream!
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