Category Travel

Pig Day Out 2015

It’s early, it’s the middle of winter, the boys’ are off through the darkness on a coffee fueled run to Oamaru. On our way to the Pig Day Out, an annual event held at Riverstone kitchen, a great little restaurant…

Bare Knuckle BBQ

A few Sundays back I battled freakishly horrendous traffic (even for Auckland) to get to Quarry Bar on the North Shore, temporary home of Bareknuckle BBQ’s pop up restaurant. The stressful congestion of the northern motorway gave way to an…

Otara market

  Picture this – waking up at 6 in the morning, you pull back the curtains, outside it’s pour down with rain, wind gusting and oh by the way it’s the day you organised to go to the Otara market…

Tsukiji fish market

The alarm rings at 4:30 in the morning, feels like I only went to bed about 4 hours ago and that’s probably because I did. Bursting out of the hotel doors we are hit by the thick hot humid air…

First stop Japan

I’m writing this post on a train as I leave the light-studded apartment blocks of Tokyo behind me, on my way north to Narita airport. I am also leaving with fond memories of food, family, pottery and footbal. 

Mushroom picking in Stockholm

I love how a collection of words strung together in a certain order can paint such a vivid picture and stir such strong emotions.  Mushroom picking in the Swedish countryside…..to me those six words are full of romanticism; trees twisted…

South and Central America

Although my sister and I did eat a heck load of beans and rice on our two month journey around South and Central America, it was a culinary journey with a few stand out experiences.

Chao Long

Chao Long marked the end of my travels around China. In contrast to the bustling metropolis that is Beijing, Chao Long’s dusty roads lead to rice paddies and rivers, to thatched pergolas on the edge of orchards where we ate meals served straight from surrounding vegetable gardens and nearby rivers.

Beijing

After having spent 2 weeks in rural China I was hesitant about travelling to Beijing, favouring instead the slow life to which I had (surprisingly quickly) grown accustomed.  A light summer rain fell as we first emerged from the underground…

Pu’er tea.

Given that I have a love for tea which boarders on obsession, it is almost redundant to point out that the mere thought of travelling to a place which boasts tea as its main export was almost too much for…

Lijiang, Yunnan Provence.

For years I had felt a compulsion to visit China, for what reason exactly I am unsure.  Certainly it is a country rich in history, in art and in culture, all things for which I have a fascination.  And of…

Hong Kong

The other day I opened my bright red diary and sifted through its sketch-filled pages searching for a recipe I knew I had scribbled down in haste, somewhere back when the days were longer and certainly warmer than they are…