Two At Sea

February 3, 2014

All things must come to an end, especially in the cruising lifestyle. Silly season (the New Zealand holiday season) was coming to an end, and it was time for us to head out cruising before making our way to Tauranga. Our plan was to spend time visiting more islands of the south Hauraki Gulf plus the Coromandel Peninsula. Below, a map.

Note that while Kawau and some scattered islands to the north are also considered part of the Hauraki Gulf, they’re so different in look and character that they’re not on my map. I like to think of the North Hauraki Gulf and South Hauraki Gulf as two separate areas, separated by the natural barrier of the Whangaparaoa Peninsula.

In the South Hauraki Gulf so far, we’d visited the charming islands of Rakino and Motuihe, plus visits to Waiheke Island. This time we planned to see the cojoined islands of Rangitoto and Motutapu, plus Ponui (aka Chamberlains) and Rotoroa Islands, revisit Waiheke island, and cruise the west side of the Coromandel Peninsula.

(Note: Two of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf, Pakihi and Pakatoa, are privately owned so were not on our list.)

This transition from city life to cruising life is a good spot to put a hodgepodge of photos from the past month that didn’t quite make it into my previous posts. (As always, click on any photo to enlarge and scroll.) –Cyndi

January 2014

(Note: Since this post has been written well after January 2014, you’ll notice I’ve mentioned that some places have since closed. I’ve chosen to include them in this list because they were very much a part of our memory of this time.)

AUCKLAND EATERIES

21 Viaduct Cafe

This terrific little cafe is located in the Viaduct at the Sofitel Hotel. We loved the food, and it was a treat to be able to see our boat (and anyone who stopped to look at it) while we ate.

Al’s Deli

Pretty good bagels and coffee.

De Fontein Belgian Beer Cafe

The Belgian Beer Cafe is actually a chain of restaurants, and De Fontein has a terrific location in Mission Bay. The upstairs restaurant can be busy, but the downstairs bar is a fine place to eat and is quieter. The Flemish stew and Beef pie were amazing and reason enough to make the trip to Mission Beach, but the Belgian Book of Beer with its enormous selection of Belgian beers was really something to see. So many varieties of Belgian beer, so little time! (Note: As I write this years later, it looks like the Mission Bay restaurant no longer has the Belgian stew and beef, but the restaurant downtown still does; so that’s where we’ll go when we go back).

KK Malaysian Cuisine

Malaysian/Indonesian food is wonderful and increasingly popular in New Zealand. This was one of the first of many Malaysian meals we’ve had over the years and was delicious. Beef rendang is slow cooked and braised in coconut milk and a curry spice until the liquids evaporate and caramelize around the beef. It becomes fork tender and is wonderful with rice. We also had nasi lemak, a coconut rice dish served with little dishes of sambal (a chili condiment), dried anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and hard boiled egg along with a small portion of a main dish (we chose a chicken curry). This was a great place for an introduction to Malaysian/Indonesian food.

Kang Nam Station

Another increasingly popular ethnic food in New Zealand is Korean food. This was one of our first experiences with it and very nice. We liked it at the time, but since going here it has been far surpassed by other Korean places we’ve been to. Still, it was a nice introduction to the food.

Melba

This is a chain eatery in the Auckland area, a cafe with very good, upscale food. The first location we tried was in this alley street in downtown Auckland. Everything we’ve had here has been really good, but the winner was their Eggs Benedict.

Mexicali

This is a popular chain eatery in New Zealand with decent fast food Mexican, much like Chipotle in America, where you can tell them what you want on your burrito (or salad) as they make it.

Mexico

Mexico is a rather upscale eatery with very nice food. As most Mexican restaurants in New Zealand, it features colorful “Day of the Dead” decor. The food is probably more typical of Mexico City than, say, the Baja-style food we’re used to in California. This is the sort of place that gets expensive if you order several small plates, but we learned we could have a reasonably-priced lunch of two tacos each. Our favorites included the grilled beef taco, fish taco, and an incredible taco made with broccoli, garlic, queso, orange and smoked crema. Good stuff!

Miss Clawdy

While it’s rare, it is possible to find Southern American Food in New Zealand. This New Orleans-style place had terrific specialties such as jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp and grits, etc. The food is authentic and very good.

Monsoon Poon

A nice, somewhat upscale Asian-food eatery much like PF Changs in America. Because it’s only open for dinner (we tend to only go out for lunch) and can get a bit expensive, we only ate here once, but we really enjoyed the food and loved the atmosphere.

St Pierre’s

This New Zealand chain eatery is a fast food-style (pre-made and packaged) sushi place that’s quite good. We typically bought sushi from a stall near a mall food court, but discovered a nice, cozy 2-story St Pierre’s on Elliot Street (second photo).

Sal’s Pizza

Sal’s is a real New York pizzeria that’s managed to open in New Zealand. We don’t even have authentic New York pizza in Los Angeles; so what’s it doing here? It seems New Zealand’s water is similar enough to New York’s water that it can make a proper thin crust. Having enjoyed many slices of pizza in New York, we can attest that this is authentic New York pizza, available by the slice (or a whole pizza). Like New York it’s counter-displayed and you pick out the flavors you want, then they reheat it. They also have wonderful garlic knots. Not surprisingly, this place has become popular and there are now Sal’s located all over new Zealand.

Sky Tower Restaurant

Truly one of our peak experiences in New Zealand and a great bargain considering that by booking for dinner, we got to experience the Sky Tower for free. We did this twice, using our sky tower time to enjoy the sunset, then having dinner as the city lights came on. The views are amazing, but what a bonus that the food is spectacular. A must-do in New Zealand.

Tanuki’s Cave

This really cool downtown restaurant, known as “The Cave,” is a Japanese eatery and Yakitori bar, which means you sit at a bar and order small plates of grilled skewers of various meats, seafood or vegetables (much like a sushi bar). The food is amazing, but it’s the experience of entering “the cave” that leads to the downstairs, lantern-lit eatery that’s the most fun. It’s only open for dinner but well worth the effort to go, one of our favorite meals in New Zealand.

Tony’s Lord Nelson

This is a terrific, old-fashioned steakhouse with wonderful food. Highly recommended!

The Urban Turban

Here we enjoyed good Indian food in the heart of the festive Viaduct, but all good things must come to an end and this restaurant has since closed.

The Waterfront Restaurant

This restaurant, with tables over the water and very nice food, was a nice place to sit and really experience the seaside feeling of the Viaduct. Sadly it’s gone now, but we enjoyed a few meals here.

Yong’s Hand Pulled Noodles

Located in an Asian-themed mall food court, this place has amazing food! Of course the noodles are made on premises and are terrific. One of our favorite eateries in Auckland.

Ice Cream

Our favorite ice cream came from the Swiss chain called Movenpick. We first got to know it in Northland, then enjoyed it in Auckland. Our favorite thing to get was an affogato, a scoop of ice cream with a shot of coffee poured over it. This was particularly good with the chocolate mint ice cream which had huge chunks of chocolate (see the first photo). We also discovered a nice place for gelato, Casa del Gelato, not far from the Viaduct. (Unfortunately it’s since moved to a less convenient location.)

Coffee Drinks

Of course there’s always Starbuck’s, but sometimes we went to a coffee house from a different chain, Gloria Jean’s. We didn’t actually didn’t go to either place for coffee, though, but instead frozen coffee drinks (blended mochas, etc.)

NORTH SHORE EATERIES

Most often we’d eat at local franchises of some of our favorite Auckland Eateries, including Melba, Mexico, and Sal’s. Sal’s and Mexico still have eateries in Takapuna, but it looks like Melba has left the area. For coffee and breakfast we enjoyed the local Robert Harris Cafe (a popular coffeehouse chain), which has also since gone from Takapuna.

We also enjoyed:

Sumo Salad

This was our favorite cafe in Takapuna with absolutely terrific food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sadly it seems this Australian chain didn’t make it in New Zealand as there no longer seem to be any around.

Blunderbuss

Blunderbuss was a pizzeria in Takapuna that was good, but not as good as Sal’s. I guess it’s not a surprise it’s no longer in business.

La Tropezienne

This was a nice little French bakery in Takapuna. Unfortunately we didn’t discover this until were about to leave the area, but the one time we went, we enjoyed it.

Devonport Eateries

We did enjoy a few eateries in Devonport that I covered in a previous post: Lovely Devonport

Note: You can click to enlarge any photos in this post.

–Cyndi

January 6 – February 3, 2014

Between periods of actively moving around, we have what I call “mini lifetimes” in places. Generally these times range from three weeks to four months, but they share the feeling of having lived there, being an insider as opposed to a visitor passing through.

It happens when we’ve been in a place long enough that we’ve seen the “must sees,” and the lesser sights that interest us, which enables us to relax and live there as a native. We’ve answered the questions of, “Where’s the best place to do laundry? Have breakfast? Get prescriptions filled? Go grocery shopping or buy seafood? Find boat parts?” “Who makes the best cheeseburger? Pizza? Specialty dish of the area?” When those questions have been answered, we make them part of our routine. I suppose that’s what distinguishes a “visit” from a “mini lifetime.” Visits are full of “see and dos” while lifetimes have routines.

Our time at Bayswater would definitely fit in the “lifetime” category, especially since we’d spent an additional two weeks nearby in Auckland. This era was marked by watching the summer deepen, the days getting warmer yet shorter. Towards the end of our Bayswater stay we could walk around after dark on a warm night and enjoy the lights and sounds of Auckland across channel. (Click to enlarge any photos that follow.)

And below is a little gallery…

During this period we had a second visit from our friends Bob and Linda, who opted to stay in Devonport instead of Auckland. The first evening we went to meet them, we soaked up the atmosphere as we walked to their hotel. It was breezy but lovely, with boats sailing past and people spilling out of every cafe. Devonport is charming, but it really becomes something special on summer evenings like this, the atmosphere fun and festive. What a treat to enjoy two evenings in Devonport, something we wouldn’t have thought to do on our own.

Their final night here, we decided go to dinner in Auckland. On a previous visit I’d noticed this cozy English pub-looking place and discovered it’s a good, old-fashioned steakhouse, the kind with low lighting, comfy booth seating, and steaks with sauces. The reviews looked good; so I suggested we try it. As it turned out, I hit a home run with this one—the steaks and side dishes were fantastic.

After dinner, we noticed the Sky Screamer Reverse Bungy across the street was open. It seats up to four people in an open-air car strung between two bungies, the cart pulled down to street level. When it’s let go, the car goes high, high into the air before coming back down for a big second bounce. If that sounds horrifying, it looks even worse! We watched a couple get in, looking appropriately very nervous. The guy with the controls was talking to them and shot them off mid-sentence, kind of like a doctor performing the painful thing on the count of two instead three.

We watched in horrified amazement, listening to the screams, until the bouncing stopped and they were lowered back to the sidewalk. While the girl looked like she had fun, the guy looked like he’d suffered through electroshock therapy. No way were we going to do the reverse bungy. Instead, we continued our walk, enjoying the city lights and the beautiful warm night. Below, photos of the restaurant and Reverse Bungy.

This visit with our friends pretty much marked the end of our Bayswater time. Silly Season (the New Zealand holiday season) was coming to an end and the multitudes of Kiwi boaters would be heading home; so it was now our turn to go out and do some cruising. Our plan was to visit some of the islands in the Hauraki Gulf we didn’t get to last year, then head down to Tauranga for the rest of the season.

Aside from being summer, another happening lingered in the background of this era. Takapuna and Devonport are where the singer Lorde grew up. She’d shot to fame the previous year, and her star continued to shine as she won two grammys in January. All of New Zealand was supporting her, but the North Shore area was particularly proud, with banners on the fence of her former school rooting for her to win, and articles about her frequently appearing in the paper. She’d definitely become one of New Zealand’s heroes.

Below, summing up this era with Lorde on the cover of a local paper accompanied by a packet of chocolates from a local favorite of ours: Devonport Chocolates.

Coming Next: Our Favorite Auckland and North Shore Eateries. –Cyndi

February 1, 2014

Gannets are large seabirds that fly over the southern oceans, diving from impressive heights before crashing through the ocean’s surface in their hunt for fish. They’re closely related (as in pretty much the same) to what we in the northern hemisphere call boobies. They can eat an impressive amount of food and like to demonstrate this ability by pooping it all out onto yachts making ocean passages.

They spend much of their time at sea, but when it comes time to breed they return to the coastal colony of their birth. There are several such colonies in New Zealand, three of which are on the mainland (two on the north island, one on the south). One of the colonies is only a 30-minute drive from Auckland, and at this time of year the chicks had hatched. So off we went to see the Muriwai Gannet Colony.

(You may notice the ocean here looks wilder than our usual photos. This is because the Muriwai colony is on the west side of New Zealand with harsher weather conditions and a more exposed coastline than New Zealand’s east coast where we do all our cruising.)

When we got close to the area, the road split off with no obvious sign as to where the colony was. So of course we took the wrong road and ended up at Muriwai Beach. This turned out to be a happy accident in that we got to see this black sand beach up close. I usually think of black sand as being coarse, but this sand was soft, brownish when dry with lovely sparkles. When wet, it’s dark black and looks like mud, but the color didn’t seem to deter the multitude of beach-goers there. (Click to enlarge/scroll through photo galleries that follow.)

While the waves near shore were small, they were pretty impressive out near the headland as the water slammed into the rocks, creating dramatic plumes, splashes and runoff waterfalls over the flat tops of the lava rock. Not surprisingly, the area seemed to attract a lot of surfers. Below, some photos of the coastline from a higher viewpoint.

After the beach we got back in the car and managed to locate the gannet area. Two lookout decks were perched over the gannet colonies, the birds spread out on the clifftops and some large rock pillars just offshore. These areas were thick with gannets and their chicks, seeming to be only one chick per pair. One of the parent birds would stay with the chick while the mate would hunt for food, performing a song and dance greeting with its partner on return, then feeding the chick before flying off again. The noise was impressive!

The chicks were all ages, from small white floofs to sleek grayish teenage birds. At one stage, the chicks are still covered with white fuzzy fluff but their wing bones are long, making them look like they have monkey arms. Oh well, many preteen earth critters don’t look their best during those awkward in-between years.

We visited both platforms and were rewarded with great views of the birds and surrounding coastline. We were actually pretty close to many of the birds, but they didn’t seem bothered by all the people watching them. In all, this had been a tremendously worthwhile thing to do; something we’d definitely recommend to visitors.

Our route back to Auckland took us through wine country, and while combining a day of wine tasting with the gannet excursion would be too much, we did opt to visit one winery, the Kumeu River winery, famous for its top-end chardonnays. If you can only get to one winery, this seemed to be the one to do.

The winery was nice, and we enjoyed a free tasting which included nine wines. I was surprised not to care much for any of the chardonnays, but I did love the pinot gris and the gewurztraminer. In all, this was a great day. –Cyndi

January 2014

Matakana was yet another area where I had to weed through lots of photos. Some of them weren’t a good fit for the blog’s photo galleries—it turns out there can be too many pukekos–yet I didn’t want to discard them.

So, I collect these photos as I go, whittle them down again, and turn what’s left into a “last chance” (at being posted) gallery. So here they are. As always, click to enlarge any photo.–Cyndi