What is that little delight that brightens up cold days like this? This of course, my little winter comfort food. Yes, it’s kiwi season again! No, not that bird! The fruit! The green sourly fruit that makes our mouth water. Winter is the best time to savour this sour sweet fruit. The season normally starts in late May, early June. (I know, I know, I was meaning to write about this in June, terrible procrastinator that I am!)

Golden fruits of heaven! click photo to enlarge.

The kiwifruit is originally named Chinese Gooseberry that is native to Shaanxi, China. New Zealand popularised and renamed it the kiwifruit after its national icon, the kiwi bird, for export marketing purposes. The green kiwi fruit is the more common one, but the gold variation is widely available too. The gold kiwifruits are sweeter and hairless, it is also my favourite, so delectable! During kiwi season, prices can go as low as 99 cents per kilo. That’s about 6-8 fruits, nice huh?!

This is how the glutton devour her kiwis. click photo to enlarge.

This is how I enjoy my kiwifruits. I use a teaspoon to scope half at a time and have a mouth full. Very satisfying and refreshing to have that sourly sweet taste in one big bite (ok, now you know I’m a glutton with a big mouth who likes to procrastinate, heh!). It’s heavenly! Now, tell me, how do you have your kiwifruits?

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Here are some photos taken with my good old Sony Cybershot T30 point-and-shoot when we went down to Kiwi360 way back in 2005 (See what I meant? Incurable procrastinator strikes again!). It is a kiwifruit orchard that opens for public. They operate tours that bring you around the orchard in cute karts to explain the whole production. It’s great fun and a very educational experience!

click photo to enlarge.

Kiwi360 is located at Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty. It is about 3 hours drive from Auckland. A great detour from Rotorua if you’re in the area, it’s about 35 minutes drive from there. The place is extremely easy to spot, just look for the giant 4-storey high, giant Kiwifruit slice by the roadside! We certainly had lots of fun taking silly shots with it. Other tourists around must have thought we were a bunch of crazy people who had escaped from the psycho ward. LOL. This is certainly a nice place to visit if you’re planning a trip to North Island, New Zealand. It comes with cc’s seal of approval! (but please don’t come chasing me down with a stick if it didn’t turn out to be as nice as I described. )

Post from: Quaint Melody

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