What a week that was..new house and a puppy!

The first week of December was truly momentous for Pip and me. We were twice blessed! Or icould it be double trouble!

We'd been trolling the 'lifestyle block for sale' websites for a few months, visiting the more promising candidates.  We saw some fabulous historic houses and cottages, relocated gracious homes and modern new builds but they were all an hours commute or more from family and friends. Each time I did the commute to view properties I realised it was too much too soon for us.

Then we found an affordable ugly duckling within 8 minutes of the southern motorway about 25 mins from the city and 10 from Pips work. 3 acres and a simple 30 year old cottage. Something about the gently sloping land and view to the west and Manukau Harbour struck a chord with us both. It was a place that was much better than it looked. We felt it had potential, a blank canvas.

With a few emailed negotiations Coal Mine Cottage was ours! We move in on Feb 1st and we just cant wait. We are both itching to rip out the old and start making a place of our own after 8 years of apartment living.

We are desperately sad to leave our gorgeous pad at the Viaduct. We love love love being by the sea and the security of the 5th floor location. The tranquil sunrise's and still evenings. I will miss the everchanging Skytower light show, the cruise ships, Team NZ and Vodafone catarmarans, all the party boats that amuse us at weekends as revellers bop to the tunes aboard. We will miss our wharfside walks and rides to local farmers markets and the ease of living with pool, spa and gym onsite.

That said we can't wait to start our new adventure into country living, growing our own fruit and veg, eggs and meat! We are planning our new garden already. I'm dreaming of roses, old fashioned country flowers and herbs.

So that was Monday... the day we bought Coal Mine Cottage!

Friday we welcomed a rescue Westie pup called Lachie (pronounced Lockie) into our lives and hearts. A swift decision but a good one. Our beloved Mcgregor , who was allergic to puppies, would not have liked this little chap but we do. We were not really ready to have another pup but one look at him and I was a goner! It was love at first sight for us both. He's a bit of a Mummy's boy right now but he and Dad are bonding on walks around the Viaduct each morning. 

Suddenly the world seems right way up again and we are heading towards 2013 happily and with excitement at what the year of renovation  and country living will bring! Watch this space!

Pics to follow

Wedding at Kitenui Deer Farm near Taupo

Kitenui deer farm just outside Taupo was the venue for an unforgettable wedding last weekend. My friend Chrissy's son Ben was marrying long time sweetheart Taryn.

The setting was a woodland paradise surrounded by lush rolling pasture dotted with exotic zebra, bison, thar and ostrich as well as inquisitive deer and goats. The couple were married in the charming garden under spring sunshine to new age melody's played on the harp and guitar. Bridesmaids looked nymph like with circlets of blossoms and tiny drifty dresses. The boys channeled 50's choir boys in bow ties, slim slacks and v necked navy jumpers. The bride was slenderly beautiful in a heavily beaded slip with wafting veil drifting behind her, Ben, the groom in his signature slim navy suit.

Delicate tea sandwiches and Veuve du Vernay champagne flowed under trees adorned with jam jars brimfull of blue-bells and blossom. Later guests played croquet, others table tennis or walked as we did up the airstrip to admire the animals and rustic stone and timber farm buildings. The Antler room, studded with hundreds of animal horns and guns,is regularly used by corporates for conference parties. WW2 jeeps, a chopper and an old air ambulance are amongst some of the unusual vehicles on display too.

Guests then meandered down a winding wooded path to the Marquee draped in fairy lights and decorated in soft white and yellow flowers in old brass atop slices of pine log central to each table. Two gorgeously droopy ivy chandeliers twined with tiny yellow flower lights and big lemon peonies hung over the tables.

Dinner was roasted home grown or wild meats and dessert was the wedding cake I'd made. Pip and I worked with the chef to turn out the dinner for 135 guests but that is another story! In total 13 cakes were baked for the dessert cake, the four different flavours served with coulis, cream for the choccy cake and a lemon curd and yogurt cream for the citrus syrup cakes. My huge base cake was wrapped in layers of fragile porcelain stiff ruffles, the top layer was ivory buttercream garlanded with delicate dogwood flowers made of sugar. I was thrilled with the way it turned out.

This last photo is a close up of sugar ruffles and dogwood blossoms while I was making them.

However I have decided that this was my last wedding cake. I love making cakes but doing this has given me a greater understanding of the time and labour of love these things are. I have retired from Kiwicakegirls, Nicki will go solo from here and I wish her all the best. She is making the cutest novelty cakes for which I predict she will become highly sought after. Remember her when you need that special cake. www.kiwicakegirls.com

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Happy birthday Pip

Whitebait fritters at Matakana Market

Sunday was Pip's birthday, it was also Fathers day in NZ. After an uneven year and with his Dad and Mac in heaven, my plan was a 'staycation weekend' indulging in some of his favourite things.

First up was a trip to the farmers Market at Matakana, an gentle hours drive from Auckland where he nibbled on fresh whitebait fritters from the Whitebait stand at the charming rustic market. After a stroll through the craft and food markets we drove off for brunch a the Speckled Hen cafe where chickens and roosters strutted through the cafe, one rooster yodeling his head off while we kept warm and enjoyed brekkie. Neither of us had been to Matakana for a number of years, the development was astounding especially at Omaha beach where I'd booked us a round of golf. We both loved the course with its bush walks between holes and waterside fairways, tui's drunk in the banksia trees sang their heads off as we batted around the course. Chilled to the bone after 18 holes in a stiff sea breeze we headed home, picking up 2 dozen Matakana Oysters and a bottle of bubbly which we enjoyed back in our pad. Sunday morning more oysters, this time artfully transformed by mois into fritters( recipe thanks to Lisa from Mahurangi Oysters), for brekkie then we headed over the harbour bridge to Bliss Spa at Takapuna for a couples massage and pedi!

Pizza oven and veggie stall at Matakana.



From top left, Sculpture at Riverhead and view back down river. Our friends enjoying sundown arrival at Riverhead. Ferry, Golf themed birthday cake and night sky.

We ended the weekend rendezvousing with a group of friends at Billfish cafe, Westhaven, for a surprise birthday trip on the Red Boats 'Riverhead cruiser' to Riverhead Tavern for dinner. Such fun cruising the upper harbour, which is surprisingly beautiful, bushclad and full of history. Dinner in the Portage Bar was such fun, we played pool, had a few drinks and scoffed ribs and bangers and mash with gusto! Cake and dancing on the boat as we chugged through the night under a full moon suddenly revealed to us for our trip back up the harbour to Westhaven by nine thirty. Highly recommend excursion this for an adventurous group. Its not smart but its quite lovely.

Te Punga Lodge Whangapoua

My good friend Vicky Broadbent has launched her new venture at pristine and beautiful Whangapoua on the Coromandel Peninsula. 

Te Punga Lodge offers a luxury B and B experience with glorious views over green hills and sparkling ocean for those wanting a tranquil getaway or a base to explore the beauties of the Coromandel Peninsula.

Te Punga Lodge is also available for holiday rentals and special events with accommodation for up to 26 in a combination of luxury suites and comfortable bunkroom options, perfect for that extended family reunion or beach wedding. You can find more details about Te Punga Lodge at the following links: 

http://www.vrbo.com/419757

http://www.bookabach.co.nz/baches-and-holiday-homes/view/19611/locale/whangapoua

Cakes and Parties

Since Nicki and I started making cakes life has taken on an accelerated pace! Who knew baking party cakes was so addictive or so time gobbling!

Last weekend, our biggest yet, with five cakes going out to five happy customers. I was lucky enough to enjoy two of the celebrations we'd made celebration cakes for. 

Ben and Taryn's engagement party ticked all the boxes. Thoughtful arty decorations, a hip venue at Minnie Street Studio's in Eden Terrace, a dessert buffet with monogrammed chocolate goodies, pretty pink meringues and my OTT cake.

Kermadec Exhibition at Maritime Museum

9 artists travelled on the NZ Navy ship Otago to the remote Kermadec islands. Video of their journey and artistic responses to the pristine string of volcanic islands along the edge of the Kermadec Trench are on exhibit at the Maritime Museum.

You might be as surprised as me to find that Raoul Island, the Doc inhabited island in the Kermadecs, is not off the tip of NZ but situated two days run in the ship out from Whakatane on the way to Tonga.

The work I loved best were the giant tapa's of  Robin White, the fabulous vibrant resin works by Elizabeth Thomson, Phil Dadson's sounds of the Kermadecs and Fiona Halls beaks and peaks.

Artists are: Phil Dadson, Fiona Hall, John Pule, John Reynolds, Robin White, Elizabeth Thomson, Bruce Foster and Gregory O'Brien.

. Exhibit entry is free to aucklanders with proof on address.

JAFFA's go Bush in Gissy! An adventure at Tangihau Station

Last weekend 8 old friends took a short plane trip to Gisborne on the east coast of the North Island. The hostess Susie, Rosie and I have known each other for about 50 years!!! I had been on farm tour with Susie about forty years ago...which makes a long time between donning gumboots together...and  that last time we were more interested in the surf swells at Mahia Penninsula than farm stock levels, superphosphate prices and the use of farm dogs in the high country!

Tangihau (wailing wind) Station is an historic block of land owned by the Susie's family for generations. Arriving at the homestead we were met by Station manager Dean McHardy and his family. A quick cuppa and intro to the four wheelers we'd be using for the next three days and we were off on our adventure, two up on each bike, bumping over dusty farm roads and tracks high up into the hills.

Entering the Safari Park, a block of bush deer fenced to keep the feral deer in and off the farmland, we finagled our machines up to the hunting hut camouflaged in the bush. Dinner cooked over a raging fire in blackened dutch ovens, red wine flowed and candles lit the night.

Next day we toured the farm, travelling some 67 Ks without seeing the whole near 16,000 acre spread. It was exhilerating to be amongst the hills and animals, thousands of sheep, cattle and deer roaming the mulititude of paddocks. Visiting the deer farm we learn't how velvet is harvested, high up on the top of a hill we raced down the very sloping airstrip and saw the huge vault that holds the super phosphate that is topdressed by planes each year over the hills. Later we stopped at a river camp complete with long drops and fresh water tap, long plank tables and piles of firewood. The river bounds with brown trout and tempted us all to come back and camp on the river flat another day. We saw stands of ramrod straight Robinia's grown for fence posts and the huge farm buildings and yards needed for machinery, shearing and musters.

Claybird shooting was something I did not partake in.. last time I held a gun I nearly accidentally killed a man so I swore never to hold one again. The others all potted a clay or two before we headed back to base for a swim in a brown cool bush dam. Heaven after the dust and heat of the day.

Mark had stayed back, opting to be our chef, and cooked a magnificent venison stew over the open fire redolent with red wine, pepper, potatoes and onions. Before dining Mark and the boys took off on a stealth mission to stalk deer, sadly Al B was having a snooze at the time and missed their exit. Our chef shot his first deer while Al and the girls drank wine and told stories in front of the fire.

All in all it was a great weekend, the weather god blessed us with sunshine, making our final adventure to the Rere rockfall all the more fun. Taking life and limb in hand, said hands grasping a boogie board to ones chest, this bunch of fifty somethings slid down the waterfall to land with a sharp splat in the pool below. Dried off and back in our utes we ended our trip winetasting at Matawhero Vineyards back down in Gisborne before the obligatory fish and chips and a quick flight back to the big smoke.

Wedding at the Chateau, Ruapehu

Our friend Andrew married sweetheart Julia this weekend at the Chateau. Pip was bestman. It was such fun being back at the Chateau and a treat to find their service and food was pretty spectacular these days.