Vitamin Jam

Hello! Is anyone out there? I know I know, it has been over a month since I last posted! Time flies by so fast sometimes, it's just ridiculous.

Castle Cliff beach on a cloudy day

For the last month, the BF and I have been sitting back and enjoying a lesser known town called Wanganui. Wanganui (or Whanganui as the government calls it), is considered a poor town with large slum areas, but honestly, I thought it was a beautiful place! The slums really more resembled a lower class neighborhood in an average Canadian city. The town is filled with beautiful parks, walks, beaches, and a lovely riverfront that plays as backdrop for a weekly farmer's market.

By far my favourite place was Lake Virginia. A gorgeous garden like park with three different levels of walking tracks surrounding it. It's like being in a rural forest right in the middle of a town. There is also a water fountain that will put on a show with colored lights for $1 per 10 minutes - great at night. Unfortunately, all the pictures I took of Virginia park didn't work and I didn't know! You'll just have to see if for yourself. :D

I did get a few pictures of the bird sanctuary there. It shouldn't be a surprise, but BF and I laughed when the parrot spoke in a Kiwi accent.

A few blocks away is a Fallow Deer Sanctuary.

"Heeeey"

Across the river is Kowai Park, a huge, creative, and colorful children's park. It has a big zipline, called a flying fox, that the BF and I came back to a few times. :) Not far from it is a little "amusement park" that has mini golf, paddle boats, and race karts! BF and I jumped into the race karts and the attendant asked us if we wanted to learn how to drift. YES! I won, but only by the smallest margin. :P

At the base of one of the many hills around Wanganui is a tunnel.

And that tunnel leads to an elevator. It still requires an operator and is the only underground elevator open to the public in New Zealand.

Ride the elevator all the way up to the top of Durie Hill.

And from there you can climb the spiral staircase to the top of Durie Memorial Tower!

Near Wanganu is the Bason Botonic Gardens. A huge park with several different sections.

A little farther away is a a beach called Waverly beach. Go during low tide and you'll get to explore the caves the ocean creates in the clay cliffs. Also, we saw seals both times we went. Just make sure to use the stairs down instead of trying to walk down the boat ramp. It is mad slippery with all that gravel. I would know. :P

"Run away!"

Those two used to be connected

And while we're talking about beaches, I would also recommend checking out Otoka Beach. There are beaches everywhere since New Zealand is an skinny island country, but Otoka is stunning and being out of the way, is less visited. There are also many birds that nest in the cracks of the cliffs.

Now for all you foodies out there, Wanganui is lucky and awesome enough to have an all-vegan cafe! Su-weet! The place is called Petre Dish and is part of a yoga studio. Everyweek, BF and I would walk along the riverfront, putter about the farmer's market, and then pop into Petre for lunch. Their pumpkin cashew curry is so amazingly good we ended up ordering that several times even though there were other dishes to try.

Left to right: Cottage pie, pumpkin cashew curry, and three
different salads

Left to right: wild rice salad, moroccan chickpea,
and barley and veg

The BF and I have crossed to the south side and are planning to stay in Picton for the next 3-4 months (the Christmas season). I just got a job as a baker at one of the best bakeries in New Zealand! Needless to say, I am majorly excited to get back into the kitchen and the staff and owners seem ridiculously nice and awesome already. Til next time!

Wow its been some time since my last post. Not having a consistent internet connection makes it difficult to be a good blogger. *coughexcusescough*

After leaving beautiful blue Cape Regina, we spent a week in Omaha. We were tired from all the nauseating driving so BF and I ended up being pretty lazy that week! We spent a lot of time at the air rifle range in Warkworth. :)

Air rifle range

Mini putt!

Our wonderful hostess took us along to quiz night at a local pub. It was a lot of fun and we learned the phrase "shout a drink" which means to buy someone a drink.

We won!

From there we drove to Devonport where we left our car behind and took the ferry to Waiheke Island. If you ever go, I highly recommend taking your vehicle if you can swing it. (It's 200$!!) There is a lot to explore on Waiheke island and you just can't get to them without your own transportation. That being said, BF and I didn't get to see a lot on the island, but we were content to just wander around. It is intensely hilly, so it was a great workout for the glutes.

We had a funny incident when we first arrived on the island. Our hosts sent us instructions, so we hopped onto a bus. But we must've still looked a little lost as a man sitting near us took it upon himself to try to guide us. He turned to me and asked what directions we'd been given. Being a bit shy and very unsure, he must have had a hard time understanding me because he turned to BF and said "How's your English?"! And earlier that day I was reading an article about an English speaking Asian (her first language) in Japan being told that her "English is pretty good...for an Asian". It made us both laugh.

Sunny dinning table

Our lovely outdoor kitchen

Macadamia bounty! Only $5!!

There are a lot of strange mailboxes in NZ

I do have a bit of advice concerning the ferries in the Auckland area - make sure you know where your stop is! On our way back to Devonport from Waiheke, we completely missed our stop. There was no announcement or signalling whatsoever that the wharf we docked at was Devonport. And our ferry stopped for only a few short minutes before disembarking. We ended up riding the ferry to Auckland CBD and then buying another ticket to go back to Devonport.

Great vegan food at Zest in Devonport

I've noticed more and more that while the Kiwi people, for the most part, are wonderfully kind and helpful, some things are very much in the "fend for yourselves" category. One such example being no announcements at ferry stops. Another example is driving. Two lanes of traffic will suddenly merge into one lane and the drivers have to drag race for who goes first. Oh, and traffic circles everywhere. Because traffic circles are cooler than traffic lights, right? But I digress.

We spent a night in Auckland so we could hit up a few places I had been really wanting to visit - high tea at Hectors Restaurant and dessert at Milse.

The high tea at Hector's isn't just any high afternoon tea. They can make it vegan! And of course, for such a nice place, we had to dress up at least a little. I bought my whole ensemble at a hospice store for 30$, shoes included. :D

The coolest part of high tea was learning that Hector's makes their own vegan coconut yogurt as well as their own vegan cheese! And absolutely order the cinnamon tea, it gets better and better with each cup.

Cucumber avocado sandwich and a
tomato with vegan cheese sandwich

Blueberry muffin and cream cheese icing,
coconut macaron, brownie bite, mini fruit tart
with coconut cream

Delicious currant scones

Best tea ever!

Definitely a splurge, but for the love of tea, finger sandwiches, and teeny tiny scones, it was totally worth it. It didn't hurt that the service was top notch and hey, dressing up is nice when any other time there is probably a stain on my clothes.

Later (and by later I mean an hour later :P), we hit up Milse, a dessert-only restaurant! It is a very tiny place but it is full of gorgeous desserts in a mix of interesting flavours. I really wanted to go during their a la carte menu, but we already had dinner plans so we could only order from their showcase. BF had a tamarillo and pistachio gelato stick while I had the matcha, honey, lemon, sesame and tamarillo entremet. BF wasn't a huge fan of the tamarillo flavour (similar to a sweet tomato), and I wasn't sure the tamarillo worked with the matcha but the desserts were beautiful and fun!

Matcha and tamarillo

Tamarillo and pistachio gelato stick

The next day we drove three and a half more hours to Purangi Winery located on the east side of the Coromandel Penninsula. A great winery with very tasty liquers. A must visit if you're in the area. Plus, you'll get to meet Danny. I guarantee you he'll make you laugh.

Fluffy!

It was great working there and an entirely different experience. Instead of the usual do-four-hours-in-the-morning-and-get-the-rest-of-the-day-off, it was wake up, lazily make breakfast, do the morning tasks, chill a little, clean some wine bottles/bottle some wine, chill some more, play hackie sack or ping pong, make pizza for customers, chill, make pizzas, chill, make pizzas, dinner at some point, evening tasks, ice cream and chocolate and more chilling. It was like working all day but at the same time not. Mostly because the company was so much fun, it was no effort at all.

Pizza for lunch

Of course, the two original reasons for coming to this region was to visit Hot Water beach and Cathedral Cove. Hot water beach is named thusly because hot spring water bubbles up to the surface allowing you to dig a hole and essentially, build your own hot pool. It's hot! The water is 60C when it reaches the surface. Also, if you do go, you can't just dig anywhere, dig near the bubbling sand. But not directly on it! BF and I had to give visitors advice because many were diggings holes randomly and then would walk away disappointed or very confused. It can get very busy there so Danny highly recommends going late at night. Oh, and bring a colander, it makes a great shower!