Friends

 

Friends and former tenants, Mihaela and Alex invited us around to their place in Blackheath today. It was lovely to see them and little Alexander. We had a lovely time catching up, and enjoyed the food, cheese and wine. It was nice to visit their new place and neighbourhood. Ruben enjoyed hanging out with Alexander. Thanks Alex and Mihaela for having us over, and for all the lovely food and drinks, we had a lovely time! 

Eating Out - Auckland, New Zealand

 

 Here are photos of some of the food we got to sample back home and some of the cafes and restaurants we went to. Picture above (far left clockwise): 1. Sushi at The Don, High Street 2. Chicken Katsu Donburi at The Don 3. Plum Margarita at Queens Rooftop Bar 4. Fish in a Bowl at Chocolate Boutique, Parnell 5. Chocolate Fondue at Chocolate Boutique

 

 Picture above (far left clockwise): 1. Big Top Breakfast at Circus Circus Cafe, Mt Eden 2. Pumpkin Soup at Circus Circus 3. Plum Margarita at Queens Rooftop Bar 4. Nasi Lemak at Uncle Man's, K'Road 5. Satay at Uncle Man's

 

Picture above (far left clockwise): 1. Chicken wings and Chicken with spring onions at Tanuki's Cave, Queen Street  2. Garlic cloves, Tiger prawns and Scotch fillet steak at Tanuki's Cave  3. Teppanyaki at Daikoku, Quay Street 4. Salmon Namaharu at Nishiki, Freeman's Bay

 

Picture above (far left clockwise): 1. New Zealand butter chicken 2. Spaghetti Aglio e olio at Vivace Restaurant, O'Connell Street

Friends and Family

This trip to Auckland was for us to catch up with family and friends and for Caitlin to do her work experience with some of our friends in Auckland prior to applying for university this year. Huge thank you to our friends Cindy, Francis, Mohale and Gee Hing for having her, it's greatly appreciated! We had a fantastic time as always catching up with all our friends and family back in Auckland. Here are some photos. 

 

Picture above (from left): 1. With Janet, Barry and Sally at Tuakua; 2. At Janet's place in Tuakau (thanks for lunch Janet, Sally and Barry); 3. With friends Murray, Francis and Maurice at The Occidental, Vulcan Lane; 4. Phil with his mum at Crop Cafe, Milford 

Picture above (from left): 1. With friends (Alexis, Shane, Sue, Mike. Suky. Greg and Sharon) at Vivace Restaurant, O'Connell Street; 2. With friends (Lisa, Nick, Mohale, Nico, Matome, Cindy and Ari) at Cindy and Mohale's place (thanks for dinner Cindy and Mohale); 3. Sharon, Greg, Suky and I at Vivace; 4. With friends Christina, Elaine and Boon at Takapuna Surf Club

Picture above (from top left): 1. With friends Mandy, Bruce and Rowan; 2. With friends Daniel and Christina at Queens Rooftop Bar; 3. With Francis, Val, Bradley and Miriam on Vulcan Lane; 4. With friends Mike and Rosella at The Forge, Vulcan Lane; 5. Alexis and Caitlin; 6. Phil with Murray and Jeffery; 7. With Francis, Val and family at their place (thanks for dinner Francis and Val)

Above: A very special reunion with my friends from my high school at Lynfield College, some of whom I haven't seen for more than 30 years (lovely to see some of their children too). Thanks Gee Hing for such a lovely lunch at Sun Made Restaurant at Albany. It was great to meet up again!

Family - Snells Beach and Mangonui

We visited Phil's sister Sheryl and her family at Snells Beach, a small coastal town in the north of Auckland region and stayed with them for 2 nights. We arrived in Auckland on Saturday, and spent part of Saturday watching Dale's friendly football match at Murrays Bay and had pizzas at home after that. Caitlin and Ruben had a great time catching up with cousins Jack and Emily. Thanks Sheryl and Dale for the lovely hospitality, and the fine wines by Dale. We took them out for dinner at Matakana Market Kitchen restaurant, and had a great time there. We enjoyed our stay very much and look forward to seeing them again next time.

 

After Snells Beach, we drove up north to see Phil's dad and wife Karen in Mangonui and stayed with them for a couple of days. This was our third time visiting them at their place. It took us 3.5 hours to drive there from Snells Beach. We enjoyed catching up with them, and Karen's daughter Tara as well. Phil's dad showed us around his garden, it was lovely to see all the work he had done. 

Phil's dad and Karen made us a lovely roast lamb dinner at home on the first night, and they took us to do some local wine tasting on the second day which we enjoyed very much. We took them out for lunch at the Mangonui Fish shop which we all enjoyed. If you get a chance to visit the Mangonui Fish shop, do try their Snapper fish and chips, so fresh and delicious! We would like to thank Brian, Karen and Tara (and Peanut the cat) for their wonderful hospitality.  We enjoyed our stay with them and look forward to seeing them next time we visit.