New Zealand in late Autumn on the brink of Winter is a wondrous sight to behold. The leaves are still a rustic combination of yellow, orange and brown. The air has a crispness during the day and a chill during the night. It was a great time to visit the North island (well, mostly).
In 5 short days, we ate, drank, shopped and trekked around Auckland and Wellington. Here is a list of what we did for my own records as much as yours since I've included tips for other visitors:
Auckland
Mezze - East Durham Street, Auckland City - Strong coffee and good, creative breakfasts. The toasted muesli seemed home made and was crisp with a nice mix of coconut, nuts and seeds. It was served with a good quantity of yogurt, poached berries and fresh banana. The parsley scrambled eggs I'm told were buttery but moist and seasoned.
ParisTexas - Willis Street, Auckland City - This NZ chain stocks streetwear including G-star, Lee and Insight. I managed to score a seriously discounted, funky G-star jacket that masquerades as a warm piece of clothing by appearance but is in fact very thin and will not keep me warm at all but it does look cool.
Kate Sylvester - Willis Street, Auckland City - Great NZ designer. Great store. Smallish selection of her items but go upstairs and check out the men's range to see how they have transformed a small space into a very hip one. Quirky jewellery and accessories too.
Sun World - 2 York Street, Newmarket - My uncle and aunt took us here. Mostly Cantonese style food with a few Westernised items thrown in, including the deep-fried crab claws (admittedly tasty!). Fresh seafood was a highlight but otherwise pretty unexceptional.
Mission Bay - a 10 minute bus ride from Auckland City takes you to one of the most picturesque and most touristy bays. There are a plethora of touristy-looking restaurants on this strip yet it remains quaint and attractive since it is on a small-scale and quite deserted. We opted for fish and chips and had our first taste of tarakihi fish here. I ordered the Pacific oysters which were $1.50 each and then realised that they too were battered and fried. Tasty though.
Mecca Cafe - Chancery centre, Auckland City - Set in an English-looking shopping village, this cafe is one of the few that boast al fresco dining which we did not partake. The coffee was not great but the poached eggs on wholegrain toast with tomato relish made up for that. Thick, crusty bread toasted perfectly.
MyBar - East Durham Street, Auckland City - A smallish bar in this quiet street that has a good but small selection of NZ regional wines as well as beers and cocktails including a whole page of sake cocktails interestingly. Generous pours of wine.
Karen Walker - Ponsonby - Quirky and cute store where the glass doors are painted with big birds' wings. A large selection of this NZ designers' range is displayed as well as lots of her jewellery and sunglasses. I fell in love with lots of things here but held back, for now...
Sky Tower - Auckland City - The tallest tower free-standing tower in the Southern Hemisphere and the tallest man-made tower in New Zealand. They love to advertise that it is the 'tallest' but that needs to be qualified. Nevertheless there is a stunning view from the top after enduring the 18-second lift ride. They also love their stats! The glass floor in parts is an added freaky bonus as is the view of people 'jumping' from the tower to a point on the ground.
Rydges Harbourview - Federal Street, Auckland City - Excellent location 2 streets back from the main drag of Queen St. It has been renovated recently and we got one of the new rooms on our first few nights and then an older room on our remaining night. Both of which were excellent. Very clean, modern, large flat screen TV and toiletries that we actually used. The newer room had a nicer but smaller bathroom and shower. However the older room was larger since it had a couch and bigger windows as well as a bath. I'd request a renovated room in the older section if possible. Highly recommended for value and atmosphere. The downstairs bar is nice too.
Rebel - Broadway, Newmarket - I didn't make it here but J did and I heard all about it. He picked up a pair of his beloved Adidas Gazelle trainers that retail for over A$150 for NZ$50. Don't you love those 'Last Pair' stickers?
Zambesi - Tweed Lane, Newmarket - I stumbled upon this store and to my delight, I found that it appeared to be a factory outlet since everything was on sale. I tried on loads but could not take that next step and make a purchase. Worth a visit for the possibility of getting something functional, modern and fashion-forward at a significantly discounted price. Another Kate Sylvester store is located just opposite so I got another fix of it.
Wellington
Logan Brown - Cuba Street, Wellington - This award-winning restaurant had a special 3 course meal deal for $40 p.p. if you dine early. Ruth booked this for us a few weeks in advance and we got to catch up over some fine Porters Estate pinot noir whilst tucking into some diligently prepared fish cake (singular!) with shaved fennel and baby capers, the pan-fried tarakihi (local fish that was common here) and a baked custard tart with tamarillo (also served in lots of places) with cinnamon ice cream. Excellent value for this quality but it did leave the boys hungry.
Good Luck Bar - Cuba Street, Wellington - I would not have found this place if it wasn't for Ruth. We walked down some stairs and opened an unmarked black door to find this underground, dark and cute bar. Little tables, lit by kerosene lanterns made out of Chinese teapots and a bar backlit in orange. Good wine list and cocktail list which again included sake ones, although I still didn't try one of these.
Kate Sylvester - Cuba Street, Wellington - This store was bigger than its Auckland counterpart and included a larger range of items. Miraculously, it was having a 3 day, 25% off everything sale so I finally picked up the skirt I had been pining after since trying it on in Auckland. In the adjoining shop, with a separate entrance but shared space is the men's collection as well as a few items from Marc by Marc Jacobs and others.
Karen Walker - at the start of Cuba Street, Wellington - Another interesting and quirky store from the unstoppable KW. A huge selection from her range and her 'Hi There' range. I picked up a top here that I'm hoping will not be available at Myer in Aus so I can boast about it later!
Rebel - Cuba Street, Wellington - Located inside a dodgy, old looking shopping complex (not even a mall since it was so small). Here J found a Casio G-shock watch for a bargain NZ$169 but it was scanned for only NZ$99 (We'll take 2 please!). Second biggest bargain of the trip!
Ernesto's - Cuba Street, Wellington - This street is littered with cafes oozing character and charm each with their own personality. This one was decked out as you can imagine with poster of the young Castro and other gear in a tasteful way. We had good coffee here and home made banana bread (that looked better than it tasted) and chocolate brownie (that tasted better than it looked).
Espressoholic - Cuba Street, Wellington - The name of this place says it all. In fact, we stopped here for refreshments only so I can only tell you that the soy latte had lots of flavour although a bigger cup would have been good and the Heineken was well, juicy! They brew the stuff in NZ under licence so it did taste slightly different to the stuff we get in Aus.
Wasabi Sushi - Cuba Street, Wellington - Can you tell that we spent a lot of time on Cuba Street yet? This was the only sushi train we found but there were an abundance of sushi restaurants. We ate here around 3pm so there was little variety. The salmon sushi was amazingly lush but the tuna and other selections below average.
Travelodge - Gilmer Terrace, Wellington - Great location just perched above Lambton Street, the mainstream shopping drag where all the chain stores were found. Short walk to everything.
Rock Shop - Manners Mall, Wellington - We found a Rock Shop in Auckland which was a lot bigger than this one, which is just off Cuba Street. We met a guy called Pete who reveled in the fact that he has worked in all or most of Wellington's live music venues in his time and we heard ALL about it. If you're heading to Welly and you want to find work in the industry this is the guy to meet. He was so enthusiastic that he printed out a map that he had drawn up of venues and cool bars and clubs. He then proceeded to tell us stories about where you go when you wanna pick up (not sure why as he was talking to a couple!), where you go after you've picked up but want to avoid someone that you had picked up before, etc etc. All rather funny. He actually had some good music gear in there including a very rare custom amp for some muso who I've forgotten but there were only 400 made and his was numbered 7.
Gotham Cafe - Chews Lane, Wellington - Modern cafe who serve great coffee and food in generous proportions. Friendly and professional service. The poached plums were succulent and plentiful with muesli and the world's smallest serving of yogurt. The French toast looked perfect with a thin and even coating of slightly-browned egg, maple syrup, poached rhubarb and apple and the world's second smallest serving of yogurt. Highly recommended.
Te Papa - The National Museum , Wellington - This place is very hands-on for kids, so watch as they go crazy here. The exhibits bring to life experiences like volcanos and earthquakes. You can even go into a fake house where they simulate an earthquake but possibly not after you've just had breakfast. Stunning, purpose-built structure with views. Free entry and worth a visit.
City Art Gallery - Civic Centre, Wellington - A large building with spacious rooms for the display of selected works from local and overseas artists. Free and recommended.
All up, it was a great trip. The weather was pretty chilly especially in Wellington where nose transformed into a tap and my fingers into ice cubes. The South Island will definitely be explored in Spring or Summer next trip to NZ. Lots of highlights including catching up with Ruth, my relatives, some unforgettable salmon sushi, delicious wine and awesome shopping as you could probably tell.
2 comments:
wow you did heaps! that glass floor is super scary! :-)
Yummy Fashionable Fun!
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