Cruising in KeriKeri
Trip Start
Oct 18, 2010
1
24
60
Trip End
Jan 18, 2011
Where I stayed
Taylor & Ruby's House
Paihia, Northland, New Zealand
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
We made a more leisurely start to the day today then accompanied Ruby to Kerikeri in order to get the windscreen on her car replaced. We dropped the car off and sauntered into the centre of town. Kerikeri has a really nice ambience. Very chilled. Very cruisy. Its full of small boutique shops selling surf clothes, records, second hand books and the like alongside numerous cafes, delicatessens and restaurants. Ruby took us to her favourite cafe called 'Fishbone' and we ordered Americanos with hot milk. Each of us selected magazines from the rack...Tom got Cuisine, Ruby got Madison and I flicked through Marie Claire. It was lovely sitting out in the sun watching the local people go about their daily routines. Afterwards we popped into a few of the surf shops looking for replacement sunglasses and flip flops (jandals) but none to our specification were to be found. Boo and hiss!
We received a phone call to say the car was ready for collection so we went back, picked it up then drove out to a historical site called the Stone Store. This was the oldest stone building in New Zealand and next door was the oldest wooden house in New Zealand. This was all well and good and the gardens were very pretty indeed but Tom and I didn't find them overly remarkable as we could quite easily have found something similar in the countryside back at home. Especially near Marlborough (darling!) We also called into another arts and crafts gallery which was exhibiting sculptures made from household items in the grounds and knitted stuff inside which I thought was quite fun.
Ruby then took us to a fantastic place for lunch, a jewish cafe called 'Jerusalem.' We ordered a meze of dishes to share which included humous and pitta bread, chicken shaslick salad, soft white cheese with herbs and oil and garlic bread. It was all delicious and nice to pick at different things. It reminded us of being in Crete a little.
After lunch we retraced our steps back to Paihia so that Ruby could have a rest before work that evening. Tom and I were feeling energetic so we sought out Paihia Tennis Club and paid $15 for an hour of hitting time. The courts were ace, astroturf and flat unlike those at Queenstown so we had a great time until my string broke. Hitting too hard obviously! Luckily Taylor knows somewhere I can get it restrung. We got home and I decided to walk down to the supermarket to get a couple of bottles of wine for Richard and Jo to thank them for their kind hospitality. Ruby went to work and Taylor finished his second boat trip for the day. Richard and Jo ordered pizza for us all for dinner then we went into Paihia to pick up Ruby and have a couple of drinks. We opted for Franks Bar, right on the sea front as there was a live band playing. They rolled out all the crowd pleasers pretty well although the lead singer seemed to sing through his nose rather then his mouth, which was a bit odd. After a couple of wines we headed home and climbed straight into bed.
