From Auckland to Tauranga and back again...

Hey, thought I’d hog Leiha’s blog to share my big adventure of last week. I went up north on a work trip for a whole week! No boys and no dirty socks it was all terribly exciting!

We flew north to Auckland, from where I live in Wellington, very early on Monday morning which meant I had to get up at 4 in the morning. What a mare. I cannot get my butt out of bed early at the best of times!Had a great 1st day in Auckland and was sharing a room with a colleague who is very cool so had a good night. 2nd day was busy seeing lots of really amazing things for work and heaps of very cool IT ideas to go and try for myself including pod casting and video conferencing between classes, too groovy!

In the late afternoon we went through to Tauranga which is on north east coast of NZ. Had the most gorgeous meal that night, beautiful fresh breads and spreads/dips and then roast pork pizza, and blue cheese and pine nuts. Yum. The rooms where we were staying were straight out of the 70’s and dead sexy! The 3rd night was even better for food. We went to a vineyard called Mills Reef and for my main I had Lamb fillet, watercress salad with caramelised pears, walnuts and the BEST kikorangi (blue) cheese and walderberry syryp.My giddy aunt, if that was not enough for dessert we had what they called an “Ode to the mighty lemon…. burnt lemon cream, lemon and chocolate tart and lemon confit ice cream. I had a Viognier to drink, which was divine. Felt somewhat corpulent on the way back to the hotel and rolled into my bed!

On our last night we spent it at the most gorgeous spa just north of Auckland and the meal was just as amazing. Did not get photos but trust me it was stunning. For starters it was char grilled vegetable terrine, crostini, herb whipped goats cheese and basil pesto. Yum, especially the goat cheese whip. Tart and creamy. For my main I had Roast chicken breast WITH SKIN (I feel terribly bad for eating it!), filled with apple fennel farce (like stuffing) on herb polenta, watercress and parmesan salad. The main was stunning. I LOVE fennel and it tasted so goooood! Making me a bit drooly thinking about it! For dessert it was lemon again…they’re in season here at the moment. Glazed lemon tart, citrus sorbet, candied lemon and berry coulis. Between each course we had sorbet, mine was a plum one. Was again feeling somewhat corpulent after tea. Was pretty tired too, so did not stay up to play porn scrabble where you were allowed to spell words phonetically. I am sure I would have been up to the challenge if I had not needed some beauty sleep!

Stayed another 2 nights at my aunts before coming home. Not up for much partying in and one night had to share a motel room with my dear brother who snores and kept me awake ALL night. I also assed over in the car park not looking where I was going in front of what seemed like the entire north shore and to give him credit my brother did ask if I was ok in between laughing his ass off at me. Cheeky. Crawled off the plane on Sunday and went straight to bed after giving the dh a kiss. Now its Friday, a week later, and I am finally feeling like I am catching up on my sleep. When the hell did I turn into such a nana!


Hope your weeks been a good one and have a groovy weekend.


Leiha, happy birthday chick and love the hair, it looks good! And if its any consolation I cannot see the grey from down here in NZ! Love and smooches, Sarah.

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About Sarah

I love to eat and sleep. One thing is more fun to blog about than the other. In between eating and sleeping I love to travel, spend time with my family and talk about myself. :)