2 posts tagged “nz”
We spent most of the days of our NZ trip (last December to early Jan) in and around Hawke's Bay. Staying in Ahuriri, shopping and admiring the architecture of Napier, visiting Hastings, Taradale, Te Awanga, Te Mata Peak and whatever else was close by!
Discovered I'll miss some NZ snack/refreshements, crumbed mushy meatballs, coconut 'fairy mushrooms', 'margarita mix' and feijoa smoothies...
Sweet Hills' chocolate shop, chocolate spacemen, elephants, etc. was also a cute visit. Only if you want a cup of coffee ask for a cup, or they give you a bowl of coffee!
We went to Wellington for a couple of days, Mr X (the other half) used to live there for a few years. I wasn't too keen on visiting a city, prefer to holiday away from the crowds, in the mountains or by the sea, but was curious. People have said it is like San Francisco with the bay and the steep surrounding streets with double storey weatherboard houses, the cafes and galleries.
We stayed by the Botanical Gardens, the cable car down to the city leaves from there, so was a novel trip down. We drove around mostly though, around to Oriental Bay and beyond, it seemed like a row of beach homes right by the ocean was just 15 mins from the city, ending in a large uninhabited hill, was nice to see, but maybe it won't be for long, as there was a Developer's sign asking for 'interest in the hill'...
Te Papa is an interesting museum, a lot of interactive exibits good for the young or young at heart, but I was most interested in the pacific artifacts collection (the Maori Marae from Te Papa is pictured above), They have a great website too Te Papa website with a picture collection, and of course an online shop!
The exterior of the building is quite interesting as well as the collection within.
I have included a few pictures from the collection below, some favourites, from the Te Papa website of course, as one wouldn't take pictures inside a museum...
We had dinner at the Fisherman's Table (picture of Oriental Bay below, the Fisherman's Table is the place with the red bit around it, bottom right hand side of the first photo, sticking out onto the water), and another night sampled the local pizzeria "One Red Dog", yummy (options such as "Have you fed the dog deer" pizza (with venison salami, portobello mushrooms, baby spinach and redcurrants) and "One reptile" (crocodile marinated in coconut and sweet chilli with mango and green capsicum), I settled for a "Three little pigs" (bacon, salami and ham). And I had to throw in a picture of a sign out in plain sight during the day Cuba Street...just don't see that kind of thing on the street in Melbourne.
