The Grove

This afternoon we went into the city for our wedding anniversary. First stop was Brothers Beer, a new craft beer bar/shop in an up and coming new City Works development in the city.




In the evening we went to The Grove restaurant, regularly voted best in the country. We decided to splash out and have the 8 course degustation with matching wines. This was the second course a ballotine of crayfish in a tomato consomme.


The next course was a wagyu tartare and braised cheek, this was probably the favourite dish of the night.





This was one of the two main dishes, venison dish with earl grey ash, and a venison sausage roll. The other being john dory in saffron emulsion.




After the beautiful desserts, we were presented with a special plate by the waitress, which was a very nice touch.






After our 3 hour meal it was a short walk back to the Sky City Grand hotel. The Sky Tower was nicely illuminated on our return.

Brick Bay Sculpture Trail

This morning we travelled north to Snells Beach, to visit the Brick Bay Sculpture Trail.






The trail takes approximately an hour to complete, with various scultpures around the trail, as well as some unusual audio only pieces. Some sculptures like this one had an element of movement.



This brick sculpture of a corkscrew seemed very appropriate for a winery, in its position overlooking the vines.










There were a number of modern pieces around, including this neon sign, which was very strange to find in the middle of the bush.





We ended our trip at the cafe, having a beautiful platter and glass of Brick Bay wine overlooking the man made lake.

Orewa Estuary Walk

Today we finally found time to do the 7.5km circular estuary walk from our house to Orewa. It was a lovely day, warm and sunny, but with a cooling breeze.





Fortunately for us this coincided with the Hibiscus Coast Arts Fiesta, which was a very small event at the Estuary arts centre in Orewa. There were some really nice stalls, selling a variety of arts and crafts, and we managed to find several things that we liked.

 
After visiting the festival we completed the second half of the walk back home. It's a very popular walking/cycling track and we won't be leaving it as long before doing it again.

During the walk there were great views back over to the Millwater estate, and from this distance you can see all the new development taking place.