As you may have noticed, this week’s small pleasures is in two parts. There was just so much to report from our mini weekend break over in Martinborough that I needed an extra post. It was such a wonderful little trip, with fantastic weather and, of course, food. You can read part 1 here.
Despite living here for over 10 years, we had never got down to Cape Palliser, the southern most part of the North Island. It is about an hour’s drive from Martinborough, and not all the road is exactly easy driving. When we got there we decided not to climb the 252 steps to the top of the lighthouse. It just wasn’t that sort of day….we just looked at it from below.
Cape Palliser is also home to the biggest semi-permanent seal colony on the North Island, and we saw loads of seals (no decent photos), including a few pups. It was, as you can see, a glorious day. The third picture below was taken on the drive back, when we stopped just to look at the view.
We stopped for lunch at The Land Girl Pirinoa Coffee House, sitting outside enjoying pies – a mince and cheese for Karl and an egg and bacon for me – yum! It is a lovely place with indoor and outdoor seating and a wee shop selling locally made goods.
We stopped off at Moy Hall, vineyard and restaurant just to take a look as we hadn’t visited before. It looks like a good place to go and eat lunch judging by the very busy restaurant.
On arriving back in Martinborough, we went for a walk, stopping to look at this amazing wisteria outside the book shop, visiting the deli and some of the other shops in the town, before a quick beer at Martinborough Brewery. And yes we had a glass of local rose on the balcony before heading out for dinner,
For dinner, we headed over to the Union Square Bistro and Bar in the Martinborough Hotel. I had a very delicious prawn and salmon linguine, which was gorgeous and citrusy and also came with caper berries – a lovely touch. Karl had the sausages and mash, and declared the sausages some of the best he had ever had, so we picked some up from Scotty’s Meats to take home for Monday’s dinner (and I can say that they were indeed very good).
Sunday morning saw us head back over the road to the Martinborough Hotel for breakfast, with Karl enjoying orange juice, coffee and a full cooked breakfast and me tomato juice, tea and excellent eggs Benedict. A great end to the trip and no lunch was needed!
Simple things
- Seeing sunshine and blue skies.
- Reading some fun fiction (more on that later this week).
- Enjoying asparagus and fresh peas – ’tis the season!
- Eating so much good food.
- Having a trouble free trip to Auckland last week (seems like ages ago…)
- Looking forward to summer holidays.
So those were my highlights of the week. What were your small pleasures this week? Here are some other blog posts from a few fellow bloggers looking at the good things in life. Also entered in the weekend coffee share hosted by Natalie.
- Tootlepedal’s Blog sings and watches the birds.
- There are some wonderful pictures from Kyoto by Ju Lyn over at Touring My Backyard.
- It’s jacaranda time over at Something Over Tea.
- Deb no longer wears brown….
- Jo goes to a cooking class in Hanoi – looks wonderful!
- And there are some wonderful cheddar and rosemary scones over at Brookford Farm Diaries.
- Lisa over at Southern Patches shares some wonderful pictures of autumn.
- Sue reminds us that we don’t have to be everything to everyone.
- Natalie also shares pictures of autumn.
- .…and all the other lovely bloggers out there. Sorry if I have missed anyone…..
Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.
You can find Thistles and Kiwis on Facebook, and also on Instagram @thistlesandkiwis. If you want to get in touch, email me on thistlesandkiwis@gmail.com or lofgren@thistlesandkiwis.com
Thistles and Kiwis 
A small pleasure today was getting the week’s grocery shopping done by 07:15 so that I can make the most of a beautifully clear, mild and sunny day 🙂
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Nice! Hope you had a lovely day.
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Lovely photos of the area, and lovely food!
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The prawn and salmon linguini looks absolutely mouth-watering!
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It was so good!
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Blue skies are always a pleasure! Good food ranks up there as well. Looks like a great weekend away.
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It was a great weekend!
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With good food and drink and splendid views, the trip looked very pleasurable indeed.
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It was lovely – felt like a proper break.
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That was truly a fabulous trip and you packed soooo much in!
I can totally relate to living in one place for several years yet still not seeing all the parts of the area that you want to. We have several small islands around our main island that I keep meaning to go to but haven’t quite made it to yet! Thank you for the inspiration!
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It was such a nice trip and felt like a proper break. It is hard to always appreciate or make a point in seeing things on our doorstep.
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Oh my!!! Such beautiful blue skies and the water a totally different shade of blue, so beautiful. I love wisteria. What a fun outing. Thank you for sharing my post!!!
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What a beautiful getaway and the food looks so good. Thank you for your weekend coffee share.
P.S. My comments on your blog posts hav not shown up in the last 2-3 weeks. I wonder if they go to the spam folder. I sent you an email. I hope this comment goes through.
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Thanks Natalie – I will go and check my spam filter. Sometimes these things are too efficient for their own good!
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I found your comments and also some from another blogger in my spam folder. Goodness knows why!
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I’m glad you found my comments and others.
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Those steps up to the lighthouse look like fun Barbara! Lovely photos of a beautiful getaway, so glad you enjoyed it all. I’ve not been to that area of NZ either, thanks for the mention 🙂
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It was a lovely weekend and we were so lucky with good weather. Always happy to give you a mention.
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Great pictures. Thanks for sharing.
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I never can decide which is more enticing in your posts: the scenery or the food. Looks like you had a wonderful trip!
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Thanks Janet we did have a great trip!
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Barbara – your posts are always dangerous for me to open and dig into. You almost always have me looking something up because I know so little about New Zealand. Today – you had me with the name of the place you visited. I had to get it’s location into my mind and thus had to loop at a map – and there I was for 20 minutes snooping around both the north and south islands.
Looks like it was a lovely trip. You really should hand your camera to Karl and let him capture and share a photo with you in it.
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What a great trip you had. I love all the photos and food looks so good. Isn’t it funny how we can live somewhere, but yet not really “seen” so much of the area. We stay put or stick to “favorite” spots instead of venturing out.
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Thank you! Yes we often don’t think to ‘visit local’ as much as we should. m
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