Monday, January 05, 2009

Kawakawa Bay, North Island, NZ

This lovely vista is Kawakawa Bay, the first ocean sighting for MB & MDR since they arrived.
After some web surfing MB found an oyster farm outside the pretty village of Clevedon, about 40 minutes from Pukekohe, so the pair headed over there today. Pity MB didn't call first as the oyster farm was closed until Tue 6 Jan 09. Foolishly MB relied on the oyster farm's advertised opening hours on their website.
Not to be deterred the pair did some touring around the coastline and stopped at Orewa Point for a mini picnic (minus the oysters which were going to be starring attraction). The sea around these parts is a beautiful turquoise blue and according to MDR quite warm.
On the way back the duo spotted the Italian Country Market (between Clevedon & Papakura). This deli was a real find with some seriously good produce. It's run by Bart from New York who comes from a long line of Italian stone masons, but it wasn't a calling he aspired to. This shop is a real food lovers' haven with the duo stocking up on some local Olive oil plus the most delicious, huge South Island cherries.
Driving to Clevedon wasn't without incident, MB & MDR are sans Le Tomtom relying on foldout maps and road signs to get around. The pair got lost in Papakura both times, however the signage to Clevedon, after Papakura, was fantastic. MB is wishing they'd gone to the trouble of buying and downloading an NZ map and bought the tomtom with them, maybe one can be hired? Otherwise the "cordial relations" are going to be stretched to the limit....

2 comments:

Paul said...

Ummmm.. "Huge south island cherries" - sounds delicious. Your posts are making me green with envy - wish we were there.

Annie and Steve said...

It must be hard reverting to paper maps again and the odd "domestic"