Quite Flash

We hosted our first visitor this past weekend!! Our friend Courtney came through on a layover and we were so excited to have such a worthy cause to explore more outside the city. Like we needed one! The sun didn’t make much of an appearance but the puffy gray and white clouds moving rapidly across the blue sky created such a beautiful contrast to the almost neon green of the grass covered hills. After a hearty lunch in Devonport we headed north towards Leigh to check out the Sawmill Café. Along the way, we stopped at Heron’s Flight winery to sample some fine Sangiovese . The café was just up the road and turned out to be a brewery, restaurant, music venue and B&B all wrapped up in one. It had such an organic, relaxed aura and we all felt right at home instantly. We rented the cottage on site and enjoyed watching the All Blacks beat the Wallabies on the big screen while eating a fabulous dinner. There was even a reggae rock band later that evening that were quite flash. Sunday morning after strolling along the beautiful white sands of Pakiri Beach we continued north through the countryside in search of the Waipu Caves. After the required lamb for lunch at the Pizza Barn in Waipu we found the caves hidden in the middle of a farm and did some exploring under the hundreds of tiny green sparkling lights of the glow worms which live on the ceiling of the cave.

It was a quick but awesome weekend soaking up the never-ending scenery with Courtney the Carnivore! Paul and I vowed to cover every inch of this country while we’re here.