A few months ago the Times published a blog post about a flea market down in Otara, a suburb of Auckland with a big Polynesian population. Can't compete with a real tropical island, but it's as close as I'm getting this time around. (One day!) It's a 45-minute bus ride from downtown to Otara, so I got a nice scenic tour of outer Auckland. The market itself is huge, set in a parking lot behind the local community center. First order of business was breakfast. I snagged a spring roll to tide me over while I looked for some Polynesian food, but most of the stalls were selling lo mien, burgers, prawn kebabs, and hot dogs, so I ended up with a Moroccan sausage made from New Zealand lamb from a German-themed weiner stall. Call it cosmopolitan. Every market around here seems to have a stall making fresh juice, so I got a cup of carrot/orange/ginger to go with.
The rest of the market is a mix of cheap clothes, housewares, crafts, and produce. Since for once I didn't walk home, uphill, with my groceries slung over my shoulder, I loaded up on fruit and the veggies called for in a Vietnamese noodle salad I wanted to make. (Which was phenomenal, by the way, and I just finished the leftovers for dinner.) And I found a stall selling mangosteens, so success. And I went by Pukeko Bakery, which has makes basically the best bread ever, for a loaf and a apricot pastry. I got their sourdough last time and it was fantastic; this time I went for a multigrain. This is the third market I've seen them at, so clearly I'm not the only one buying their stuff.
The best part of this market are the crafts. A few stalls were selling gorgeous woven-grass bags, like the one Ibu Amelia gave me in Papua last summer, alongside carved coconut-shell jewelry and one table with bark cloth. I very nearly bought a woven fan with 'Tonga' written across it just for the hell of it. I did get some NZ souvenirs, though - paua shell and carved bone earrings and hair combs with Maori patterns. There was some stunning carved greenstone (local jade), but that's a bit above my budget.
On the way out I finally nabbed some Island food: Samoan pork buns and poké, a dessert made from bananas and tapioca flour with coconut milk. Those made for dinner - the pork bun was pretty awful, but the poké's not bad.
Sunday was back to the French market, and thank god this time I found a route that went around one or two of the hills rather than straight over them. Lemongrass, mint, and cilantro for my noodle salad, a tart for breakfast, and local lamb chops because I'm in New Zealand and it's basically required. Those'll be seared for dinner tomorrow, just in time to make my roommate jealous.
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