After an amazingly restful sleep in one of the most comfortable beds we've ever slept in we had a huge breakfast. Gary and Kaye showed up at our door with two trays of food that included what we would soon learn to be standard New Zealand breakfast fare--a selection of muesli, corn flakes (Kiwis call them "flakeys"), a variety of canned fruit, yogurt, toast (a light whole grain), butter, and jams. We were also offered a warm breakfast, which we accepted...we were on vacation, after all. :) The warm breakfast was a beautifully presented light scramble with smoked salmon. And if all that wasn't enough we had a fruit plate.
We took one more wander around the gardens, left a thank you note for Gary and Kaye and said goodbye to Mike-the-horse and the weird goat in his little house on the side of the road.
On the way out of town we decided to stop off at one more winery, the Village Cellar door. They specialize in hand-crafted boutique wines. We spent a little bit too much time drinking and chatting with the guy who was pouring and ended up leaving in a hurry in order to make our 11:30 water taxi departure to the Awaroa Lodge in Abel Tasman National Park. We made it there with seconds to spare.
We had a fun 2 hour boat ride to our Lodge--besides hiking in, it's the only way to get to the lodge. The taxi is run more a like a bus service with set stops along the way. We stopped in several coves and visited a seal colony. We picked up and dropped off passengers in various places along the way and finally arrived at our cove to find a guy in an ATV and a trailer waiting to take our luggage to the lodge. We took a short walk away from the beach to find the coolest place we will probably ever stay.
We did a little exploring and settled down on the patio for lunch and beer. Afterwards we walked along the beach, saw penguins in the distance and watched the sunset.
Dinner was amazing!! We started with a New Zealand staple--green lip mussels. They were braised with a kaffir lime and coconut broth and served with green tea noodles and cardamon spiked carrots. Delicious! I had baby Anatoki salmon fillets served on creamed Awaroa baby leeks, crispy beet julienne and finished with a tangy sorrel butter sauce. Jeremy had roast duck breast marinated in bourbon and honey on kumara (sweet potato) mash with tender young asparagus and shaved parsnip crisps. For dessert we had a rhubarb and hazelnut puff pastry with chocolate ice cream and creme anglaise.
We took one more wander around the gardens, left a thank you note for Gary and Kaye and said goodbye to Mike-the-horse and the weird goat in his little house on the side of the road.
On the way out of town we decided to stop off at one more winery, the Village Cellar door. They specialize in hand-crafted boutique wines. We spent a little bit too much time drinking and chatting with the guy who was pouring and ended up leaving in a hurry in order to make our 11:30 water taxi departure to the Awaroa Lodge in Abel Tasman National Park. We made it there with seconds to spare.
We had a fun 2 hour boat ride to our Lodge--besides hiking in, it's the only way to get to the lodge. The taxi is run more a like a bus service with set stops along the way. We stopped in several coves and visited a seal colony. We picked up and dropped off passengers in various places along the way and finally arrived at our cove to find a guy in an ATV and a trailer waiting to take our luggage to the lodge. We took a short walk away from the beach to find the coolest place we will probably ever stay.
We did a little exploring and settled down on the patio for lunch and beer. Afterwards we walked along the beach, saw penguins in the distance and watched the sunset.
Dinner was amazing!! We started with a New Zealand staple--green lip mussels. They were braised with a kaffir lime and coconut broth and served with green tea noodles and cardamon spiked carrots. Delicious! I had baby Anatoki salmon fillets served on creamed Awaroa baby leeks, crispy beet julienne and finished with a tangy sorrel butter sauce. Jeremy had roast duck breast marinated in bourbon and honey on kumara (sweet potato) mash with tender young asparagus and shaved parsnip crisps. For dessert we had a rhubarb and hazelnut puff pastry with chocolate ice cream and creme anglaise.
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