Goose Chase!

Brunch has quickly become my favourite meal of the day! There are so many local independent cafes to choose from and the food is always so fresh and tasty, with silky eggs, crispy bacon and a side of toast my firm favourite. We started our Saturday with friends at Olaf's in Mount Eden village, who sell artisan bread and we sat at a table where we could watch them mould the dough in to loaves.

Western Springs is the same park we went to for Pasifika Festival but it looks completely different without all the stages and stalls. Our friends drove us there and we spent an afternoon wandering around the lake with a loaf of bread and a fan club of geese! As soon as we dropped a few crumbs we had a big group of birds honking and flapping and running towards us, following us along the path. One got so excited he bit my finger in an effort to get at the slice more quickly. The sun was shining and we had a lovely relaxing day It was nice to be in the city yet feel so far out of it.

We worked up quite an appetite and Mi and Chenmu took us to a cool Chinese restaurant on Dominion Road. If we were on our own me and Will would have walked straight past as you have to walk up a flight of stairs to reach the dining room but it was great to find somewhere new. We tried dumplings and spicy skewers and shared a large bowl of chicken, potatoes and veg with noodles - the bowl was huge and it didn't take long for me to get full but it was all delicious! 

The spiciness seemed to get the better of Will! Strangely I coped remarkably well!

Wine on Waiheke

Now I have started getting more regular income from work Will and I decided we could afford to treat ourselves to a day on Waiheke Island. We caught the ferry over and walked up the scenic path towards Cable Bay winery. We passed the vineyards and as it was so warm it almost felt like we were in Italy rather than New Zealand!

The website mentions a $10 wine tasting session so we headed down to the cellar and paid up for a sip of 5 wines in total. The guy was friendly and chatty and seemed to know his stuff. I preferred the more subtle and light whites and Will the fruity reds but we decided to stay a while and buy a bottle of white to share...

The wines we tasted from left to right were:
Sauvignon Blanc Awatere Valley 2014
Chardonnay Waiheke Island 2014
Rose Waiheke Island 2015
Pinoit Noir Central Otago 2014
Syrah Waiheke Island 2014 

When we ventured outside it looked busy but we tried to get the attention of one of the waiters floating around. I think if we were a few years younger and Will was willing to change into a female then we may have been more successful getting some service! We'd asked for a menu and didn't get one for over half an hour and when we finally asked again, the guy told us that they didn't do pizza outside and that his boss was telling him to ask people to place their own orders in at the bar. 20 minutes later we saw him and his co rushing around serving platters and buckets to groups of young attractive girls! We agreed that next time we'd bother to get the bus and make the journey across the island to another winery that  perhaps isn't swamped by tourists... We've heard good things about Mudbrick so maybe there!

A lovely glass of Sauv!

Feeling peckish and needing to soak up all the alcohol we searched around for some food and settled on a little fish and chip takeaway place, sat on the beach and enjoyed the view before getting the (incredibly windy! Seriously, I could barely see my hair was flying all around!) ferry back.

That night my tummy felt a little crampy and I soon realised I had food poisoning, with all that entails! Needless to say walking up and down the 2 corridors to get to the shared bathroom about 8 times that night, carrier bag in tow, was not a highlight of our time so far! Will looked after me for the rest of the weekend and when I got back to work I found out that lots of children had been off with a stomach bug so on reflection I think maybe I caught some bacteria off the children's podgy sticky fingers, lovely!

Goodbyes back in Auckland

Back in Auckland Mum and John met us for dinner at North Park Bistro in the Wynyard Quarter and the food was delicious. I had the meatballs, which were still juicy and pink on the inside and Will had the gigantic burger! After a few selfies it was time for us to say an emotional fairwell. 

This trip has been the best journey I've ever taken and I'm so glad I got to share it all with such special people. I still can't quite believe Mum made it on to the plane let alone all the other crazy stuff she's done whilst here! We've had some unforgettable experiences and amazing memories were made and I'm so grateful for both Mum and John for making it this far and for helping us to have such an enjoyable time - once in a lifetime I think!

Heading South, Part 2 - Hooker Valley Track

We had a quick stop over at Lake Tekapo

then Lake Pukaki – who would be able to pass by waters with such an alluring brilliant blue colour? There were so many tourists here but we still managed to get some fairly good photos. Glaciers were once here and when they receded they ground the rock causing fine particles which makes the beautiful blue colour.

The holiday park cabin in Omarama was cute and spacious and we could see the mountains in the not so far distance. That night we had a few drinks at the local pub but I was dismayed to see a cow’s head staring down at me from the wall. I looked elsewhere and was greeted by a stag, a goat and a sheep. We were definitely in farmers’ territory.

The next morning we set off for the village at Mount Cook and passed some brilliant scenery, which really could have been the set for several movies, through what is known as the Mackenzie Basin after a Scottish immigrant James Mckenzie who purportedly stole a large amount of sheep and escaped from prison after he was arrested. I've hear differing accounts of whether a judge pardoned because he was wrongly accused or just because they couldn't contain him in prison!

There were some cool looking cloud shapes – a hand, can you see it? 

And a meteorite hurtling down to Earth.

Will had researched the Hooker Valley Glacier track and thought it looked relatively easy with no steep climbs. The book had said 3 hour return journey but that you could stop at any point and just turn back. We didn’t speak to each other about it but seemed to mutually agree that we just couldn’t turn back. Every step brought us more breathtaking views and the weather was bright and sunny. It sounds silly but I couldn't believe we were in the scenery - it looked like something I'd only seen out of a travel book or on the tv. Words can’t really describe how amazing the feeling was to be somewhere so beautiful but hopefully the photos do it some justice.

I was taking in the flora and fauna when Will turned to me and said ‘who’s this?’ before running up to a stone and looking out over the valley. It immediately clicked as Legolas and Aragon shouting out to him ‘what do your elf eyes see?’ Every part of this walk would have made a fantastic backdrop for a movie.

We reached the glacier and the lake, which was so cold it had a couple of ice-bergs still floating in it. Although there were a lot of people it didn’t feel crowded and everyone was appreciating and marvelling at the nature all around us.

The walk had made our journey to Queenstown a lot longer but we didn’t mind in the least - how could we complain?!