After all that paddling (and rain) of our canoe trip, we decide to skip any further adventures and just take it easy in Auckland instead. Having gorged ourselves on essentially crackers and dips for the past 4 days we are craving some decent food, and our memories of Auckland are sweet so back we go. This turns out to be an especially good choice because, following how much we had loved the landscape of the Coromandel Peninsula, our original plan had been to go to the Bay of Plenty. White Island is in the Bay of Plenty, the volcano that erupted so violently on December 9th, the day we were planning on going…..
This time, we book us not into downtown Auckland but in an AirBnB in Ponsonby, the allegedly cool neighbourhood. This is confirmed when we see the giant Santa in surf shorts on top of the local gallery. Let’s just say, we pretty much do not leave Ponsonby for the following 4 days. Too many super cool cafés (including one where they serve not just fabulous coffee, but where the communal tables have origami books and papers for endless hours of folding. This does not just make our Japan-crazed Vyas happy, but gives me the opportunity for the most peaceful coffee in weeks….. 😝 ), veggie and vegan options galore, beautiful parks where the kids get to meet new friends and interesting food shop concepts on every corner. That night, pretty exhausted, we dive into the local “Gyoza Bar” and go crazy on some delicious veggie tempura which serves as a warm up for our 5 month anniversary celebration the following evening at Azubi, a lovely Japanese restaurant, with delicious food and fun Bento boxes for the kids (what a great idea to get them to try lots of new foods! We already noted that here in New Zealand they already got the message that we are still not getting in most of Europe, namely that a kids menu should be filled with tasty nutrient packed choices and not with empty calories and sugar). We have artichoke dumplings with mushroom purée, Hokusai cabbage with sesame mustard dressing (sooooo good), seared Hokkaido scalp roll and Grilled octopus with yuzu pepper soy. Mmmmmh…….
That evening I take the kids out for a night stroll on Franklin street. The city pays for the month’s electricity if the house’s inhabitants decorate their home. Finally some xmas spirit! We love it – this is kitsch to the max.
As I write this, I realise this post really is mostly about food but then, that is what Auckland was mostly about for us! I skip the details of the breakfasts even though those, too, deserve a special mention (they definitely know their sourdough recipes here….), to get to our last spectacular meal here, namely MASU by Nic Watts. An über-design restaurant in a 5 star hotel I read it was good but expect it to be over-hyped, but let me tell, it is not. The meal is absolutely fantastic. Manuka smoked fish & pickled carrot maki, BBQ green beans with black bean and fermented chilli, broccoli with moromi miso and much much more….We could have probably spent the whole afternoon here, just snacking on, but the kids and Thierry have to go: Captain Maori had promised them a rugby match when they found the treasure on the Motu Atger off Taha’a, but as we got to New Zealand just after the rugby world cup, the rugby season had just closed down. Instead, he organised a tour of the legendary Eden Park stadium for them, home of the All Blacks, and that is due to happen this afternoon while I am booked in for a much needed mani-pedi. Disappointingly, the Eden Park tour turns out to be just a commercial pitching session. The upkeep is apparently so costly that they now mostly try to book the place for private events, weddings and co, so despite a few fun photo ops, these few hours are not up to expectation.
There is only one way to say a proper goodbye to our beloved Ponsonby, and that is with a generous helping of the Duck Island ice cream – their roasted white chocolate white miso is maybe a tad sweet, but nonetheless delicious. The best one remains the salted chocolate brownie 😋 On this sugar high, it is time for us to bid farewell, taking home many warm and delicious calorie-filled memories.