and while I'm blogging about NZ restaurants...

... it seems a good time to at last re-mention our favourite restaurant in the country. Yes, the last post established that Pacifica in Napier was our best meal (and again, we ate very well and in quantity throughout the two weeks, so that is praise indeed and not a mark against any of the other excellent meals). But you know, once I knew a year or so ago that we were heading for a second vacation, I had a short list of things to return to or do again:

1. shop at Rixon Groove (note the new shirt AND tie for dinner at Logan Brown our last night in Wellington)
   


2. find the Seresin Marama Sauvignon Blanc and drink it


3. dine at Floriditas in Wellington

Happily, #s 2 and 3 were combinable in this case.

When we were in Wellington (a city we adore) in 2007, we ate at Floriditas every day. We stumbled upon it our first day at lunchtime and loved it. Back for dinner the next night, we were remembered and greeted warmly AND shown to the same window table as the day before. Back a third day, they apologized for not being able to give us "our" table. Add in very good food and a great wine list, and I think our affection for the place is pretty understandable.

So it was that we arrived in Wellington on a quiet Good Friday afternoon. Much of the city was empty or shut down for the holiday, but we decided to wander to Cuba Street in search of a late late light lunch. And there it was, open.

Happiness.

We made it simple: a little wine for me (I think Conrad had coffee), some serrano ham with fresh figs and purple basil, and pan-fried haloumi with salted Gaeta olives, lemon, and flat bread. And you know what, as we left, we were remembered by the manager (The owner? A friendly man with a good business). We were the bloggers. I knew they'd seen the blog - they'd commented on it - but this was two years later. Really flattering.

Conrad and I showed up there later that night for dinner. It was a little odd to be back so few hours later, but we needed a real meal, and I had another goal: that Seresin wine.
Oh yes, they had it, but only by the bottle. Conrad prefers his Pinots, but I prevailed on him and he very much enjoyed it, too. I wish I could find it here in Chicago, but I guess that's what made the visit so much more special.

The waitress read our minds, suggesting a bowl of olives to start. Yep, exactly the way we wanted to begin dinner. We each then had the pan-fried snapper, salsa verde, and cucumber and black olive salad. I kick myself that we didn't photograph it well. Delicious. As was the dish of rainbow chard with garlic and olive oil we had on the side. But I think we most liked dessert as we compiled it:

Windsor blue cheese and oat cakes
"Pecaaso" Ductch Manchago style white cheese with fresh fig and olive oil crackers
Slice of dark chocolate fruit cake

This is much in the style of our desserts at home: a bit of sweet, a bit of cheese, a bit of fruit. It was deeply satisfying.

We ended up going back the next day for brunch, of course. No photos that time, just a break from shopping in a bustling room of diners. Alas, we didn't come up that way on Easter, sticking close to our hotel and the area around Parliament. Still, I'd fulfilled a big goal on the trip, and that capped the vacation very well indeed.

Twelfth NZ post; Martinborough (yes, more wine tasting)

Our most summery day of the trip before our time in Auckland had to be the Sunday when we went by car up to Martinborough. Murray, a guide with Flat Earth, drove us up and took us around to 6 wineries, including lunch at one. It was sunny and rather warm out, and the countryside we passed through was super - we climbed up the Hutt Valley out of Wellington, over some mountains, then into the Martinborough area.

Marlborough, where we did our first wineries tour, is known (justifiably) for its Sauvignon Blancs, though we did enjoy some of the other wines (not the Rieslings, though, nope). Martinborough is known for its Pinots Noirs, so this was to be Conrad's wine day. It's not nearly so important a wine-producing region as Marlborough. Alas (and perhaps it was a result of the roster of wineries we visited) the wines weren't as good either.

So:

1. Winslow. Quiet little place. The winemaker's son spoke with us at length. His Pinot Noir was not so terrific, but we liked his Riesling, of all things. Then he poured us some sparkling wine, and we were surprised to find that it, too, was pretty good. Not our usual purchase, but we bought one of each.

2. Tirohana. Another small one, but we got some direct, personal care there. Again, we were surprised not to care for the Pinot Noir much. Instead, we bought a bottle of a rose and a bottle of a light dessert wine. Curious.

3. Alana. We had lunch here, and it was a tasty, meaty lunch for us both. I might not have chosen it, but we were able to try their reserve Pinot Noir and opt for a glass at lunch. Good stuff. We sat out on the patio, enjoying the warm day in the shade. We ended up purchasing a bottle of the Pinot Noir as well.






4. Te Kairanga. The Framingham of the Martinborough tour. Slight attitude. Decent but not super wines. We sipped and thanked them and made a discreet exit.


After lunch Murray drove us around a bit, past some vineyards and some parcels of land still dedicated to other farming. We went round to the 5th winery by way of a scenic back road.


5. Murdoch James was a terrific little place. We were wary of buying too much by this point because we were unsure of getting it all home. Consequently, we bought only a bottle of the Cabernet Franc. It will need a few years, and we later left it as a gift with Dion and Minna in Auckland - we hope we might share it with them in the future.


6. The Cabbage Tree. A very tiny operation. The owner looks delightfully mad scientist crossed with Crocodile Dundee or something. He showed us the operation, and we happily tried his four wines. A rose was tour purchase there as well.

So, the Pinot Noirs let us down, and we don't know if we had the best or not. Murray was a great guide in general, but not a wine person, in fact. We think that next trip we'll have to get down to Otago and do tastings there.

Back in Wellington, we changed and strolled along the water a bit, stopping for photos in the evening light,






before heading to Floriditas again. Lunch the day before, dinner that Sunday night. We shared grilled shrimp, I had lamb and Conrad had chicken, and of course I had more of that heavenly Seresin Marama Sauvignon Blanc. Ahhhhhh. And in a funny end to the evening, Conrad and I got our wires crossed when we were paying and using the restroom before leaving, resulting in the waiter getting some $22 tip (in NZ, tipping is rare, and certainly much more modest if it does happen).

Eleventh NZ post: Wellington

So it would seem that my sleep cycles are off. I went to bed at about midnight last night, and at 2:00 I woke with a start, disoriented and utterly awake. I spent a couple of hours reading various things online, then tried going back to bed. A half hour later I gave up.

On the good side, I've caught up on some episodes of Bones and Ugly Betty (thanks, Jeph! Damn Brett for getting you started on the show!). I've also eaten breakfast, and when it's a reasonable time to wake Conrad, I'll go get dressed and make a run for a grande misto. I think I may bake today as well.

But back to the trip. If only. Back to work tomorrow, but this morning I'm starting on blogging Wellington.

Of all the places in New Zealand we were planning to visit, Wellington is the one that most excited me. I don't know. Maybe it's because our hotel, The Bolton, looked really sleek and modern (and we got it at a great deal).



(Nice view from the window!)

It didn't disappoint, the exorbitant Internet connection fee aside. Quiet end of town, though. The shops (another exciting aspect to the city) were a bit of a stroll - not a bad one - away, and we were up around the corner from the Parliament buildings. Note the Beehive - controversial but iconic in its way.

And from there it's a hop across the street to the National Library or to the Cathedral. A terrific area (and an outdoor pool in the same neighbourhood, so we finally got a couple of swims in), but the streets rolled up after work on the Friday we arrived and didn't get lively again until Monday morning.

Nevermind. We loved Wellington for a whole lot more, including the good food there. Dinner the first night was at Shed 5. I thought it was a little attitude-y when we arrived, but a bottle of the Burnt Spur Russian Jack Pinot Noir and some tasty food won us over.


When we went back the last night in Wellington, they remembered us and were very gracious and friendly. My octopus salad with smoked paprika was excellent, and the bluefin osso bucco with truffled polenta fries was no less tasty.
Conrad enjoyed his squid served with greens and prociutto and his tuna as well.


Saturday morning in Wellington, and we were up kind of early. It was a sunnier day than the day before, so on went the sunscreen, and off we set along Lambton Quay before veering off to catch the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens. The city is built on the hills around a large harbour, and the way the buildings climb up from the waterfront is not unlike San Francisco. Only smaller and a national capital.
We could have ridden back down, but it was a lovely morning, so we walked into town, passing through the Victoria University campus before beginning our shopping on Cuba Street.

The guidebooks made Wellington sound like a shopping mecca, and there are a lot of shops. In fact, a lot of Cuba Street and nearby is cheap and/or sleazy in a lot of ways. There are some good restaurants there, and a few cool shops, but we saw a lot of the same store names in other towns as well. At least we stumbled on Floriditas for lunch.Terrific food (I loved my fish with a light salad of cucumber ribbons and mint, and check out the beautiful colour of the yolks on Conrad's salad!), but that was where I got to try the Seresin Marama Sauvignon Blanc. Barrel aged, it's not at all like ther sharp, even pungent sauvs we mostly had in Marlborough. Wonderful stuff, and I guzzled it wherever else we were that I found it.

After lunch was shopping, mostly clothing, mostly for us. Rixon Groove was a jackpot, and I now have a few more ties that are fairly unique and will long remind me of the trip. Conrad did especially well with his purchases, and with the addition of some books and postcards, we felt like we'd succeeded.

A rest break at the hotel at the end of the afternoon, and then out for dinner. We headed early to Boulcott Street Bistro to snag a table at the start of their dinner service - no reservations for dinner are taken. Another place we'd highly recommend. Conrad asked after our main course if I wanted to wander and walk and find dessert elsewhere, but I easily persuaded him that we were enjoying the Bistro too much to bother going elsewhere.

I started with squid this time, while he had a salad of asparagus. The salmon on couscous lured us both in, and we shared a side of salad.


My dessert was the molten chocolate cake with saffron ice cream, and I think Conrad still wants to go back for more of that. He opted for cheese, and more wine for each of us, of course! Sam Neill's Two Paddocks The Last Chance 2004 kept our meal company. A fine meal, and we ended it feeling quite content.




Oh, and here's the flat white, our new coffee drink of choice.

Oh, and just in case you think ALL we do (glamorously) is shop, eat, and drink (well, and take photos and write postcards), laundry awaited us on our return to the room.