A weekend away

And what a weekend! We had such a great time. I'm so happy to be able to do this...

...but the weekend was about so much more than just the caves, as cool and amazing as they were.

When looking into booking the caves I came across what is called the 'Middle Earth Trilogy Tour'. Considering the price for the caves we wanted to see alone was going to cost half of the whole trilogy tour, we decided to go for all three. We were SO glad we did. Before I go into my photos and how much I loved each place, let me just say, NZ does tourism RIGHT. It was so slick, so well done and all of the people we dealt with were amazing. I can't recommend it enough.

First stop...Waitomo Caves. The reason for the trip! In the eyes of the 30 before 30 anyway. We saw two caves - the Ruakuri and the Glow worm cave. Both limestone caves with stunning scenes in all directions.

The Ruakuri cave starts off with this sweet spiral entrance and then you're hit with some serious stalactite and stalagmite action. I found the caves really magical. It's like you've stepped into a completely different world. I'm a big fan of 'The clan of the cavebear' series and I often found myself thinking of it during the tour.

I'm in the middle of compiling my 40 before 40 list and will definitely be putting the Black Water Rafting experiences that are offered at the caves on that list. I was so enchanted by the place that I have to take everything they have to offer!

We also went into the glow worm caves, but you're not able to take photos in there. FYI you also see a few glow worms in the Rua Kuri cave with their icky little strands of fishing line spit. Amazing little creatures they are with their glowing poo.

Our second stop was Te Puia. Which has both a gigantic geothermal park as well as some cranking night life in the way of Maori performers. We attended 'Te Po' which is their 4 and a half hour night experience. Amaze balls. We spent an hour and a half looking at the geothermal doo dads and went into see their pepe kiwis in the kiwi house.

The cool part of Te Puia is that it's also a working Maori arts school so at the end of the tour we were able to go and have a look at their carving and weaving. For people like us who come from New Zealand it's really nothing new, but I'm sure for people over from other parts of the world, this sort of thing is really exciting to see. As is the Maori performance. Our group of 60 or so was 'welcomed' onto the marae by a group of performers and they were awesome. I wish I was more forward when taking photos because these aren't great, but to tell the truth. I was captivated by it and didn't want to watch the whole thing through my lens - which I have a tendency to do!

My husband will tell you that the best part of the trip was the dinner that Te Puia put on for us as part of the tour... and he's basically right. It's incredible. I was just expecting to get some hangi in a tin foil package, but oh no. Hangi cooked root veges and meat (lamb, chicken and pork), seafood, soups, yummy steamed pudding and pavlova desert. It was great! Just what we needed on a cold night. Nom!

Our last stop was Hobbiton.

 Was a cute wee place this was. I'm sure it would be even more spectacular if you were a huge fan (turns out neither of us are). Nevertheless is was a great tour.

New Restaurant Update

Ain't that the truth! Goal #22 in my 30 before 30 is to try a new restaurant every month. I've tried a tonne already and instead of going for one a month I'm just trying to knock out as many as I can. Every time I'm planning on eating out. I try to go to a new place, if it's feasible (read: it's always feasible to eat).

There are still some definite places that I'm dying to try and I want to make a plan to make sure I get there - fancy schmancy places!

For now, here's where I've been to in the last little while.

Paasha Turkish Cafe ticked a lot of boxes for me, heaps of people from around the area love it, it was a cuisine I don't normally have (or have ever possibly...?) and it was an excuse to get out with my book club, talk about books, and just have a general chin wag.
Everyone at the table was super impressed by the size of their meals and thought it was good value for money - definitely a place I can take my husband where he won't moan about big plates and small meals. The atmosphere and environment was lovely (those pretty lamps!) and allowed the book club to have their much needed chat, when we weren't scoffing food in our mouth that is.
I had a seafood casserole and it was YUM. Big flavours, lots of seafood and very hearty - warmed me up on a cold night. Dessert was a lovely chocolate hit. It was a great place to pop my Turkish cherry.

Keeping along the local (to me that is) theme, the next place is the Karaka General Store & Cafe. We stopped here for Mother's day lunch last month and I was certainly happy with my meal.

It's not fine dining, but it's nice enough, and (must be the theme of this post) the meals are HUGE and well priced. Since going on Mother's day I've stopped in to get a hot chocolate and hubby has stopped in for breakfast and loved both. Here is my seafood platter from our first stop. Too many hot chips for even me to eat!

Last but not least was China Yum Cha in Auckland City. A great place to go if you are heading to Vector Arena for a concert (FYI - Backstreet Boys was AMAZING, thanks for asking...I may need to do a blog post on this...). I like the tapa style of yum cha dining and all of our meals delivered on flavour. I was super stuffed by the end of it, opting out of something sweet. Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that's a feat. The best dish of the night was the pork belly, picture below. NOM! Apologies for the bad photos - yucky lighting.

My school holidays are coming up shortly and I'm planning on dining out at a few fun and funky places during that time. Mr Man and I are having a childless weekend in Rotorua so there might even be a gem there for my next restaurant update. SUPER excited to be going to The Auckland Fish Market for a tasting platter and wanting to plan some trips to fancy restaurants too.

God I do love food.

Playgrounds, Playgrounds, Playgrounds!

I just love the 'Auckland for Kids' website. I'm a mum who really loves to do things with my little ones. We like to be out and about exploring and our Big Backyard of Auckland is absolutely perfect for that exploring.

Late last year they put out this list about the best playgrounds in Auckland and in good Kate fashion I took it as a personal challenge. Tough challenge it is too. Poor Leah had to play her socks off!

So far we have visited 7 out of the top 10 (recently) and two we have visited in the past so we're taking that as 9 out of 10 from the initial list, although we would like to visit Barry Curtis Park and One tree hill again. The only one we haven't visited is Gladstone park as, in comparison with the rest, looked a little lacklustre. I'd like to visit the rose gardens again, as well as the Parnell Baths, so who knows, we may go there in the near future.

We also visited a few of the recently opened or refurbished parks that are outlined at the bottom of the list. There are still a few more here that we'd like to play at, but maybe when we're in the vicinity. Keith Hay Park looks primo! 

Here's our little write up on each of the parks.

Our first trip saw us knocking out a tonne of West Auckland parks in one day. Luckily we took our lunch AND happened to see Mr Whippy on the way or it may have been melt down central. Tough day. We took our friend Maddie on this trip.

Olympic Park:
Our first stop. What I like about Olympic park is there's a mix of an old style playground as well as the newer stuff - climbing frames, the giant swing and twisty turny numbers. The sand underfoot on the one side if pretty cool too, if you're little on is into that. This day Leah was all about the swings, and mummy has about 1001 photos of Leah on swings so I didn't get many shots at this one. 

 
Parrs Park:
Parrs park didn't make it to the top 10 but is recently refurbished so you can find it at the bottom of the link I shared earlier. How cool are these water play bits and bobs that they're popping in at new parks? Leah's favourite thing at the moment is climbing so the tower got most of her attention this day, but the water play was definitely mummy's favourite part! The tower was a weeny bit scary for mummy as I couldn't see Leah the whole time, and that thing is taaaall. But she managed herself. I'm by no means a helicopter parent but when she's a good few meters upwards I'd like to be able to see if she's OK and hasn't frozen on one of the ladders! I do have to giggle at how different older kids react to her pace on the ladders in these things - some barge straight past her and hear, "hey! that's not berry nice" from bossy Leah while others wait patiently, getting a glazed look over their faces when they realise what they're in for.

Tui Glen Park:
Tui Glen made it to spot number one on the Top Ten list, and it's quite clear why. It's just plain cool. Different to any of the others and in the coolest of ways. It has pyramid towers with giant swings, a cool flying fox and a tree house! Little Miss Climber particularly loved the towers and bridges. She also really likes the space net style climbing frames but isn't quite confident enough for them yet (and neither is mummy).

Coyle Park:
What an awesome setting for a park, absolutely beautiful. Especially in the time of year we went (December) when the pohutakawa were out in full bloom, stunning.What I noticed about all these choice parks that got a place in the top ten was they had things that stood out. Coyle park has one of those sweet push and ride trains (that they also have at one tree hill) and the main part of the playground had some musical instrument boards that Leah really liked. She also loved the dragon sculptures at one of the entrances. Variety is the spice of life they say - enough of those kit set plastic playgrounds and more of these original ones please Auckland Council!

Rocket Park:
This was the last of our parks on our big journey that first day. It doesn't really seem like anything special on the surface, but again, it's different. The cool space theme with the space ships and castle in the middle with binoculars for spying allow children to use their imagination in addition to using swings and rocking toys the way they're intended. Again, Miss Climby Pants needed to get to the top of the rocket a couple of times.

Our second trip saw us venturing over the shore with our friend Eli, our first stop was...

Onepoto Domain:
This is the kind of place I'd want within walking distance of my house. The playground isn't really the drawing attraction at this place - it's the wicked cool bike trail! Lovely setting too. Leah had a great time on the giant slide and running along the board walk.

Swell Park:
Swell park is a new park in a newly developed area of Long Bay. It's got some cool, quirky little bits and pieces. Eli loved the boat and the way the stairs and tunnel slides are organised are pretty clever. The little houses and bridge are super cute too.

Our third trip was in central Auckland, we took Daddy on this trip. Yay for the holidays!

Myers Park:
Loooooved the look of this playground. Great for photos. Again, Leah liked all the new things that she doesn't see at every old playground. Everything is a great climbing frame in her mind too, so winning! The giant swing is pretty damn cool.

Daldy Street Playground and Wynyard Quarter Playspace:
You could almost say these are pretty much the same park. Leah loved the giant slide and didn't want to leave the water play area. Great climbing parts at the Wynyard Quarter space and it's close to a little water feature that all the kids like to play in too!

Potter's Park:
 You can't get cooler than a water park, except if Mr Whippy turns up. I swear that guy follows us around. Great time had by all. So.Much.Fun!

And then one day in between somewhere we made it to the Snakes and Ladders Playground...

Snakes and ladders playground:
Such a cool concept and great use of otherwise dead space. Leah didn't play the snakes and ladders game as such (she's not quite old enough to understand that she was the counter. Well, either she didn't understand or she just wanted to play!), but she had a great time playing on the slides and climbing the steps nevertheless.

Most recently Leah and I had a Mummy/Daughter day and one of our stops was....

Roberta Reserve:
First and foremost - what a stunning little spot. So beautiful, especially on the lovely day we went. This is a brand new playground and has some great little features. Leah especially liked the spinning top and the balancing stumps.

And one last one which is worth a mention. This one is worth a mention not because Leah loved it so much but because I think Willow will in a few month's time.

Little Town Green Playground:
This playground is most suited for younger toddlers and even friendly for crawlers. Leah found it a wee bit boring because there were no high things to climb on, the daredevil.  It certainly is a cute little spot. The in ground trampolines are clever and I thought the sandpit (with toys!) was a cool addition to bring in the older kids (as well as the littlies).