insha’allah

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  2 Responses »
Jul 012015
 
inshallah-5

cindy & peter on their yacht

“insha’allah bozburun geri gel” is an expression we have heard a lot in the last few days, “god willing you will come back to bozburun” – as we visit all our friends here and tell them it is nearly time to move on, that is the standard response, and we can but agree! i dont often like to go back to a place i have visited, ultimatley it means i dont go somewhere new. i think in the case of bozburun it will be an exception and we will be back fo another stay in paradise.

our run of meeting interesting people has continued up to the last minute. a couple of days ago we were down at the boat harbour and sal noticed a yacht with a huge australian flag, we were having lunch at one of the restaurants overlooking the harbour so while i was waiting for coffee i went to say hello, i asked, “is that a flag or a sail?” – the tongue in cheek question was well received by the boat’s owners, peter & cindy.

although they did get me back by roping me into helping them with retrieving a pulley sheath that had dropped into the boom while they were trying to grease it, it turned into a major operation with us having to remove the boom! needless to say my coffee was cold by this time!

anyway after an hour or so fiddling around we managed to recover the pulley and reinstate everything to its correct place, peter and cindy offered to take us out to dinner for our help, but we suggested instead that they bring some food along and we would have a bbq at our cottage.

once again theirs was a fascinating story, peter did an electrical apprenticeship when he left school, but after he finished his time he went straight into the catholic church as a priest and worked up in the torres straights with aboriginal communities and missions there. he gave up on the church when he decided that he wanted to have a wife and children.

some years ago he bought a yacht to set off sailing around the world, it was a well known yacht he purchased, “silver spirit edition” – that Ken Gourlay ftom tasmania, sailed round the world, non-stop in 180 days – becoming the fastest, single handed, unassisted circumnavigation by an Australian, a record that still stands.

while on his trip, peter met cindy in florida, living on her own 38′ yacht there, love blossomed between yachting neighbors at the marina and so 2 boats become one and their jouney continued together.

they arrived in turkey 3 years ago and have been teaching english since, they both work in a school in gaziantep – a city that is only 40kms from the syrian border in the far south east of turkey. not exactly the sort of place many westerners hang out! they love living there despite the proximity to the troubles and say the food is the best and most authentic in turkey!

they keep the yacht on the hardstand at bozburun when they are working and then during the holidays come down, put the boat back on the water and go sailing! what a life!!

anyway we had a fantastic night with them, they bought over plenty of beer and wine, a lovely salad and marinated chook ready for the char grill. i reckon it was one of the best paid hours work i have ever done! we have certainly been blessed with the amazing people we have met in this little town – reinforcing the “travel slow, stay in small towns” message.

today we are off to marmaris on the bus, then this afternoon we catch the ferry to rhodes, have a night there and fly to frankfurt to stay with carl and dorethea for a week or so.

sailing3

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  No Responses »
Jun 212015
 

 

sailingmap

we arrived in selimiye late afternoon after a really wonderful days sailing and found anchorage in the bay, it was our last stop before returning the yacht to marti marina, so it was a little sad, but we were also happy to be back in selimiye. kai and i hooked the paddle board up to the tender and i dragged him round the harbour!

sal and i had another lovely meal at sardunya restaurant, where we had been for her birthday, and then the following day we had a leisurely start for the short sail round into the next bay and back to orhaniye to return zambak to her home. we had to be fuelled up and back in the pen by 5:30pm and then we could stay onboard until 9am the next morning.

the marina services were very good, they had amazing showers – we all had very long, hot showers! it also has a lovely big swimming pool and a few restaurants, we chose to eat at the one beside the pool for our last night.

by lunchtime we were back in our cottage in bozburun, it truly felt like we had arrived home and i got a sense of how sad we are going to be to leave when we head to germany in a week or so!

anyway here is a last motley collection of images from the week on zambak!

more bozburun

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  4 Responses »
Jun 102015
 
boz2-10

the view from the road to taşlica

we have been in paradise for another week or so, i took the car back to marmaris on monday so its shank’s pony to get about now. sal and i had a drive over to söĝüt and taşlica on sunday while we still had the car. we enjoyed a lovely seafood lunch at denizkizi restaurant in söĝüt. the road from söĝüt to taşlica climbs near vertically from sea level up to a couple of thousand metres and the views were breathtaking (again!).

we also met an interesting couple on a large power boat from new zealand, robbie & jo had steamed from NZ and then had the boat shipped from asia thru the red sea and into turkey where they rejoined it. they are travelling with another couple on a yacht, peter and heidi left germany 3 years ago and have been travelling the world on their very smart and practical aluminium yacht.

they all came over for dinner last night and we had a lovely time eating, drinking and chatting at our dining table under the grape vine. i knocked up my go to meal here, char grilled butterfly lamb marinated in yoghurt, olive oil, lemon juice, spices and herbs with grilled vegetables, potato salad and a “fresh from the garden” green bean and red cabbage salad.

we have really spent very little time with other travellers on this trip, but this was really a special night and really enjoyable to talk to such interesting and genuine people. i must have been concentrating on the discussions too much because i forgot to take any photos of us together, so once again its just more damn images of food!!

on friday we pick up a charter yacht from marti marina at orhaniye and have 8 days seeing this amazing country from a different perspective, we are all looking forward to it with much excitement! we will be sailing a Beneteau Oceanis 343, the next post will be from on board Zambak!

 Posted by at 8:48 pm  Tagged with:



sal

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  4 Responses »
Jun 042015
 


birthday-5

yesterday was sal’s birthday, 21 again! we started the day with breakfast in bed, a big omelette made with eggs from the chooks at the house here. then we set off in the car to visit marti marina and look into chartering a yacht for a week.

after that we drove across the bozburun peninsula to a little place called çiftlik and had lunch there before driving up the coast through more amazing, steep, rocky country to the village of söğüt which is the next one around to the east from bozburun and has a very good seafood restauant we wanted to find for another day.

after an afternoon rest sal and i drove into selimiye for dinner at a waterside restaurant the owners of the pansiyon had recommended to us, called sardunya. we had a lovely meal there and it capped off a lovely day of celebration of sal’s special day.

at the end of the meal i asked for the bill and they instead brought out an amazing birthday fruit salad replete with sparkler and a tea candle on a lemon inside a hollowed out tomato! we squeezed in as much as could of the fresh cherries, strawberries, watermelon, rock melon, apricots and banana!

chateau

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  3 Responses »
Jun 012015
 

 

bozburun-5

our little french chateau

…so we had arrived in bozburun, i had hurriedly booked a night at Ünlü Apart Pansiyon before we left selçuk – they appeared to have a range of apartments and i figured it would do for the first night, and if we liked the spot we could stay there longer or find somewhere else.

when we arrived they offered us either an upstairs apartment with 2 bedrooms and balcony, or a quaint little stone cottage – once we saw inside and heard the story it was a no-brainer! the apartments are owned by Nail and his wife, and run with the help of his son, fadil and his french born wife, laetitia.

the story with the cottage is that friends of laetitia, a french couple, had fallen in love with bozburun and had the little stone cottage built on nail’s land with the intention of spending their spare time here.

from the photos it looks like they now have 2 young children, and i suspect the spare time is short and infrequent, so they let the family rent it out to people like us. its filled with the owner’s furniture, fittings, knick knacks, artifacts, art, cutlery, crockery – basically an entire home down to some clothes and toothbrushes in the bathroom!

so we just fell in love with it, though small there is a sofa bed for kai in the lounge area, and a separate dining area, small kitchen and bathroom as well as our double bedroom. it has a flat roof with a marble floor so we can sit up there and look over the harbour, it also has a small verandah with a table we sit at for breakfast and then a large tiled patio with a huge grapevine shading it and comfy seats and dining table as well as a hammock.

then its straight onto the small street that runs along the waterfront, across that and onto our ‘wooden beach’, at first i was more than a little dubious about the wooden beach – essentially a wide wooden deck along the foreshore with a ladder to get in and out of the water and comfy deckchairs with shade umbrellas.

i have to say i am totally sold on it now, no sand to get in tricky places, no rocks, straight into deep water, comfy deck chairs and back across the street to grab a snack or beers – and if you forget to stock the fridge its 50m to the shop to grab a few coldies for the ‘wooden beach’

anyway, the long and short of it is that we have just fallen in love with both bozburun and the cottage – or chateau rick as i am calling it! we have decided to stop here for a month or so, we dont believe we will find anywhere this special again and even if we found another village we loved as much, we certainly wouldnt find another french cottage like this!

we are also enjoying being stopped again and being able to cook again – although we havent had to do much thanks to the owner’s generosity! they brought over a huge pan full of dolma yesterday at lunch time – stuffed zuccini flowers, zuccini and grape leaves, as well as a bowl of baby potatoes, cold in lemon juice and olive oil with a big lump of home made yoghurt!

we had a bit for lunch, then ate it with some lamb i grilled for dinner and again with grilled fish tonite! they are already talking about the next dish they will cook for us!

if you never hear from us again, you will know where to look!

izmir

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  No Responses »
May 292015
 

we finished our 2 weeks in istanbul and flew out to izmir on monday, its only about a 50 minute flight but it saved having to drive a car thru istanbul city. we arrived in the afternoon and picked up our rental car – a very nice, near new honda civic. its been a few years since i have had to drive on the wrong side of the road and it took a bit to get the hang of it again – but having sal as co-driver certainly helped! i think the round abouts are the hardest thing to get the hang of, it definitely still takes both of us to get round them! sal tells me where to go and i work on looking in the right place for traffic to give way to!

we had about an hour’s drive across to a town called mordoğan (underlined on map), we ended up stopping for lunch at a little seafood cafe in a place called balikliova, while i was trying to work out how to order some fish, a huge platter of salad, a couple of mezes and a bottle of water arrived at the table! i ended up just pointing at the yummy looking fish the couple were eating on the next table to get our fish! we arrived at our hotel, the mavi keci late afternoon, it was not easy to find as it was up a winding little cobblestone road on the side of the big hill overlooking the town. serdar’s sister serap, knew the owner and had arranged for us to stay there, we got the first night free as a result of some past favour owed! it was a beautiful small boutique hotel, lots of wonderful wood work and very comfortable rooms with a huge terrace separating the rooms from the dining area.izmir.png

the fields surrounding the hotel were filled with ancient ruins, and scattered with grazing goats who have distinctive bells on their necks so you get this wonderful melody as they wander along feeding!

the second day we did a drive up and around the top of the peninsular, down the west side and back across to balikliova for lunch before completing the circle back to the hotel. it is all very quiet here, the roads have almost no cars on them and all the seaside villages have just the locals – although from the massive amount of holiday houses in some places and the many deserted restaurants its obvious that there is a huge influx of holidayers in the season. i think our timing has been perfect in doing this trip now, it would be much more difficult in another month – both the driving and finding accomodation etc.

that night derya cooked up a beautiful meal for us, just a simple baba ghanoush that was wonderfully smoky and garlicy, a serve of fresh calamari deep fried and a big salad. the next morning we headed off to drive down to a little village called ildir where we stopped for a tea looking out over the harbour and then we drove onto the village of alaçati which is just out of çeşme. it was a pretty place, narrow cobblestone streets, with the main part all closed to traffic, lots of lovely old stone buildings and filled with restaurants, cafes and shops. it was very touristy, but in a nice way and again because we are here before the season really kicks off, it was quiet enough. we had a bite of lunch and then headed into find our hotel we had booked in çeşme.

this looked simple on google maps! of course it was rather different in reality and our first real test driving in turkey, first of all the road we were driving along into çeşme became more and more congested as it approached town, it soon became obvious it was market day, then the road promptly ended where it was blocked off to vehicles! we worked out an alternative route which took us down cobblestone streets so narrow the mirrors were just about knocked off the car, we then got caught in a 3 way traffic jam – no possibilty of passing each other, and a battle of will and wits over who would back up to let the other through! i won with my deft use of english against 2 car loads of people who only spoke turkish!

we finally got down into the center of town where the narrow lanes continued, except they were mainly one way, which people mainly, although not always heeded! it also became obvious that our hotel with ‘free parking’ was on a lane that was closed to all cars anyway! after a couple of ciruits of the general area around the tiny lanes, we decided to get as close as possible by driving the wrong way down a one way lane and then parking close enough for sal to find the hotel on foot and ask about the parking.

5 minutes later she returned to the car, we were directed to another hotel that would provide the parking for our hotel! i managed to turn the car around and start to drive out the right direction this time, when we got to the start of the street though we found our path blocked by parked cars and taxis and a row of steel bollards in front of them preventing any possibility of us exiting the street we were in!!

after a minute of so of blind panic i got sal to jump out again and go across to where the taxi drivers were gathered to ask them how the hell we were meant to escape, i think she got a lecture about driving the wrong way down a one way street, into an are that we werent allowed into anyway – but they relented and one taxi driver jumped in his taxi to make a path out clear, as he started the taxi one of the large steel bollards auto-magically disappeared down into the road so we were able to make good our escape!

we found the other hotel, who basically told us we could park in the street anywhere where we could find a space! not sure why the hotel we were staying in didnt just tell us the same! luckily we had already repacked so we only needed day packs with essentials in them and the suitcases could stay in the car, so it was no great effort to walk from the car to our hotel.

sal and went for a walk along the waterfront and stopped in a bar to have a beer, across from us was a small timber motor boat with a group of about 4 guys sitting on it, they got glasses out and started drinking raki and sal commented that it looked like they were setting up for a party. we went back out with kai to look for somewhere for dinner and ended up walking past the boat again – sure enough the party was in full swing, a newspaper for a tablecloth on the engine cover and a spread of mezes, octopus, crab and fish.

i stopped and asked if we could take a photo, they spoke no english but waved us onto the boat to join them! we ended up sharing their feast – and about 3 bottles of raki!! another couple of guys joined the group and they spoke english so then the party was in full swing. they were the most wonderful and generous hosts and we had an incredible night with them.

we staggered back to the hotel at the end of the night and have suffered all day today!

today we have driven down to selçuk where we will visit the ruins at the ancient greek city of ephesus.

 

 Posted by at 12:46 am  Tagged with:



food

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  No Responses »
May 222015
 
street food

typical Istanbul street food vendor

the food of istanbul has been at least as good as expected – which is great because we arrived with high expectations! i have posted lots of images on instagram but i figured some readers may not follow my instagram account so i better throw some foodie pics up for them! so apologies to those readers that have seen all the yummy food already.

eating out here is certainly very cheap, we do frequent the local street vendors, cafes and restaurants, but even the bigger, flasher restaurants are cheap by australian standards. its easy to get a simple lunch with a drink for $4-5 and not much more for a filling dinner. $15 per head will get you dinner and a drink of ayran in a comfortable restaurant with table service.

we have grown accustomed to the turkish national drink, a form of salted yoghurt drink, its called açik ayran and special machines foam it up to give it a frothy head when served in pewter bowls. its actually the perfect accompaniment to the meaty and spicy dishes so common here. the cheaper places just have the ayran in plastic cups like a small yoghurt container, but its still yummy!

we have also grown to love the turkish coffee and the many glasses of tea that are a part of any meal or conversation or opportunity!

anyway, i will let the images speak for themselves!

i realised i need to update with a few more images and words! so firstly dürümzade, reputably the best dürüm in the world, another place made famous by anthony bourdain – and another place in istanbul that doesnt trade on the attention and custom he has brought to the restaurant. it remains a tiny, corner shop, char grill in the window, about 3 tiny tables and a non stop production of one simple dish done really well! two dishes actually, i had a bowl of the mercimek çorbasi (lentil soup) and it too was to die for. the prices are the same as they have been for years, about $3.50 of our pesos gets you the worlds best dürüm.

dürüm is the name of the kebab wrap that is the perfect fast food in turkey, its made with a lavaş a tortilla like flat bread. the lavaş is heated on the charcoal and then the kebab of choice (we had lamb) is grilled, after one rotation of the kebab, out comes the lavaş, the grill master then drapes it over the kebabs cooking over the coals, creating a smoky tent for the meat while keeping the lavaş off of the fire directly.

as the lavaş heats up, the spice rub on the wrap imparts its flavor onto the skewered meat below. While the lavaş is still flexible, the usta (“master” in Turkish) pulls it from the grill and covers it with a bed of chopped parsley, sumac-dusted onions and tomatoes, onto which he lays the freshly grilled meat from the skewer.

no discussion of food in istanbul would be complete without a tip about the best place to eat lahmacun, the amazing dish made with flat bread spread with a paste of finely ground meat, spices and herbs baked to perfection in a wood fired oven, then served on a platter. the customer then adds a handful of fresh parsley and a big squeeze of lemon juice before rolling it up and eating a little bit of heaven, standard cost 4 TL or $2 aussie.

quite by accident sal and I stumbled upon borum taşfirin in kadiköy on the asia side. we went over on the ferry to have a wander round and after a few hours of aimless wandering we happened upon this little shop, again on a corner, it immediatley looked like our sort of joint, not at all touristy, packed with locals, a gaggle of yourng turks in a production line to roll out the dough, spread the secret topping mix and load them in and out of the wood fired oven. we have had lahmacun in many places around the city, but this one was the standout.

 

 Posted by at 5:37 pm  Tagged with:



fener

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  4 Responses »
May 172015
 

 

ishan-23

panorama of the view from our balcony

the area of istanbul we are staying in is the greek and jewish quarter of istanbul and is a rabbit warren of narrow cobblestone streets overhung with narrow fronted, tall buildings in various states of decay and dilapidation. it is quite reminiscent of our time in havana, cuba.

in the morning we hear the sing song calls of the vendors with handcarts selling hot pastries and breads walking the streets. tourists are few and seldom seen. all are just visiting the area, we havent seen any others staying here. its very much a living local community and a great insight into turkish life in this ancient sity.

the cafes, restaurants and street food vendors have only one price – there is no tourist markup, pretty clearly because tourists are so rarely customers.

because of the narrow, steep and winding cobblestone streets its much quieter here, much less traffic than most areas of the city – you dont drive in here unless you have to and you know where you are going! there are always kids playing on the streets, mainly very young syrian refugees – turkey has about 2 million syrian refugees.

(for australians reading, ‘refugees’ are displaced people who are fleeing violence and persecution in their own country. the rest of the world, even very poor countries like turkey, give these people safe refuge and look after them.)

as far as i know, no other country demonises them, imprisons them offshore, allows the children to be sexually assaulted and then forcibly returns them to the violence and oppression they were seeking to escape. australia perhaps should start pulling its weight and comply with international law on the treatment of refugees.

this is a little video of my favourite street vendor, he has a great call and comes through about 10am each morning, so i know its time to get moving! he is selling Poğaça sade which are hot little, flakey, plain pastries – not unlike a croissant.

 

 Posted by at 12:49 am  Tagged with:



bazaar

 foodie stuff, gap year, turkey, us  3 Responses »
May 132015
 

bazaar-6one of the great benefits of ‘slow’ travel such as our gap year adventure is that you have enough time in one place to stumble across things that a normal tourist has little chance to observe.

sal & i had lunch at a little restaurant we had discovered on our walk this morning, and after our delicious lahmacun we went for another wander up through the back streets of fener and we came upon an amazing market that stretched for many hundreds of metres along a road that had been closed off.

apparently it was the Çarşamba Pazar or Wednesday Bazaar, held once a week in this area of fatih. the scale of the bazaar was extraordinary and its hard to imagine the amount of work to set up all the stalls and awnings etc for just one day a week.

autumn

 foodie stuff, gap year, piha, us  3 Responses »
Mar 242015
 

 

piha-13

looking down into piha as you drive down piha rd. *home!*

our time in piha is drawing to a close and likewise the warmth of summer is slipping away, the evenings and early mornings are getting ‘brisk’, getting in for a surf needs a little more prep talk, jumping in to harvest a feed of mussels needs to be offset by the thought of the meal and a walk on the beach needs more than just a pair of boardies if its not in the middle of the day!

last weekend we had jeremy, leesi and friends of theirs, geoff & orla over for dinner, jeremy did a dash over to hendo and stocked up on a suitable selection of boutique beers and kai, sal & i bolted over the ridge and braved the surf and cool afternoon to bag a few kilos of massive mussels off the reef. we found the mother lode of the monstor mussels and luckily kai lugged the backpack most of the way back home! it was a great night with lots of mussels, beer, chat and laughs.

we had intended to do a big walk down a ravine, along the pararaha creek over at karekare with jeremy, leesi, geoff & orla the next day, but sal & I piked out and stayed at home, it was a 5 hour walk thru the forest and along the beach and as the weather was a bit dodgy in the morning we gave it a miss.

later in the day sal & i decided to have a walk ourselves and decided to explore a track thru the forest behind our bach which we hadnt had a chance to check out. we just intended to have a quick walk to blow the cobwebs away, but it was so beautiful, meandering along a stream before climbing gently up a ridge behind north piha beach so we just kept going.

the track got steeper and steeper and the views, when we got glimpses thru the dense forest, were stunning, and we kept thinking we were nearly at the top so we just kept going. in the end we realised the track followed all the way up the spine of a very high ridge that peaks up behind whites beach and is one of the highest points surrounding piha – quite a few hundred metres in elevation!

we ended up at anawhata rd above white’s beach and then had a climb all the way down from the peak of the ridge back to the end of north piha beach and home – it took us a good 2 ½ hours. it was breath taking though, so steep – especially down into whites beach, it was pure luck we did the walk really, if we had known how hard a climb it was we would never have set off to do it, but we were both blown away by the scenery and so grateful we got a chance to see it before we left.

piha-29

the ridge we climbed in the background, we started out of frame on the right

midweek we had another meal with jeremy & leesi, they had been over on waiheke island for a few days and got back late so we told them to come down for a stir fry with us, they came armed with french cheeses and sticky dessert wine to go with! we had the gewürztraminer with the soft goats cheese and pear, and then a nice syrah with the camembert.

 

 Posted by at 6:17 pm  Tagged with: ,



new bach

 foodie stuff, gap year, piha, us  1 Response »
Mar 152015
 
the track from the bach, beside the creek down to th e beach.

the track from the bach, beside the creek down to the beach.

well we have moved down the hill from jeremy’s bach into our little rental bach on the beach in north piha, its a very basic but comfortable little home, we only have to walk out the backdoor, across the lawn and down a 25m track to be on the beach.

we can see the ocean and lion rock from the house which is pretty special. kai and i have new boogie boards and we are living in the surf, as well as doing lots of walks on the beach.

now that jeremy and leesi are back we have been hanging with them which is really cool – we have had so many good times at home hanging out so to do it here with the is special.

they brought over a fantastic thai chicken salad the other night and we had a huge night that put us all of drinking for ever, well, at least until next time!

the weather has been stunning, lots of blue skys and gentle breezes – although we look set for some unpleasant weather with the remnants of cyclone pam due to swing past, the wind is already coming up.

this weekend sal’s cousin luke, zekiah and lorenzo came over, we had a huge day yesterday, once they got here luke and i did a quick sprint over the ridge and down to white’s beach to grab a feed of mussels off the rocks, the tide was a bit high and the swell was up so it was potentially a setup for an episode of piha surf rescue, but with luke as spotter and me jumping in between the big sets we managed to bag a feed.

the rest of the day was spent lazing around at home or in the surf and by the time we cooked up the mussels in a chilli coconut cream sauce we were all pretty knackered! an ecclectic range of nz boutique beers helped wash away the stresses of the day on the beach and it was just lovely having them over for the weekend, kai & lorenzo are great together and i suspect lorenzo idolises his big cousin!

 

Patetonga

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  2 Responses »
Mar 032015
 
patetonga-9

the farmhouse

Patetonga, not to be confused with Pategonia, is little corner of the Waikato Valley, south of Auckland, its Chiefs country if you are a rugby fan and otherwise its basically a big valley between two ridges filled with dairy farms. its lush, green, rolling hills and dales, green as a bag full of emeralds – at the end of summer. The Waikato has the jewel of the Coramandel Peninsula in its north eastern corner and Lake Taupo in the south, Raglans beach on the west coast and a bit of Roturua for bubble. The Waikato is home to the Tuheitia Paki, the  Finn brothers, Daniel Vettori and Colin Mead – just to mention a few.

we are down here in patetonga house sitting a small farm for a week, its a stunning property with views across the green and rolling hills to the eastern ridge, a lovely older style farm house with a classic 80’s sunken lounge, a pool, huge vege gardens, orchard, and a happy little collection of animals!

we are looking after a cat who apparently turned up one day and stayed, she is pretty stand offish, although happy to show off the spoils of a hunt – be it a mouse or one of the many rabbits from the fields. There are also about 30 sheep who have to be moved from paddock to paddock every couple of days, NZ’s oldest sheep in the orchard, (an 18 year old toothless suffolk ewe!), she gets fed pellets and we shake a few tangellos out of the tree for her to squish up in her toothless gob. We also have 3 young steers to look after, they need some feed and zinc suplement each morning. Finally there are a few chooks and a huge old rooster that provide a few eggs a day in return for the kitchen scraps and a scoop of meal in the morning and wheat at night.  Kai has loved being in charge of all the animals, feeding, moving, checking etc and has become quite the not so little farmer.

pop over to his blog to see more photos of him with the animals! HERE

patetonga-3

a fresh apple from the orchard

 

we have really only done one day of heading out and exploring the region, we drove over to Thames and then out the Coramandel Peninsula to Coramandel village for lunch then across to the east coast and through Te Rerenga, Whitianga, and out to Hot Water Beach. the beach is famous for its hot water that is just below the surface of the beach at low tide, you can dig holes and make your own hot spring bath! unfortunately it was high tide when we got there, but the surf was great so i had a half hour body surfing before we headed on to Taipua and then back home.

the circuit through the Coramandel has some of the most stunning scenery you will ever see in your life – and thats saying something in a country jam packed with breath taking scenery, its certainly somewhere I would come back to and spend some serious time exploring.

all in all its been a fabulous week, and i am sure we would all happily stay for another week at least, but the owners, dot & malcolm are back on tuesday night so we head back up to Piha on wednesday and move into our rental bach on the beach for 3 weeks.

rawene

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  1 Response »
Jan 252015
 
dport 089

the view from robyn’s verandah

so we were back up north last week, sal’s aunt had her son, beau staying and we hadnt seen him since our last trip to bali (where he lives), so we piled into the mighty nissan march and buzzed up the coast to rawene again. we went via whangarei, and after lunch at the town basin we headed out to whangarei heads for a squiz.

its a fabulous bit of coastline with a series of stunning, pictursque bays heading all the way out to the heads where there is a fantastic surf beach on the ocean side. kai and i went in to carve a few waves up on the boogy board and it was the perfect break to the trip north.

basically the week was spent wining and dining with robyn and beau, with plenty of tiki touring round the north. i caught up with my old mate andrew dargaville over in panguru and he took kai and I for a day sightseeing around opononi and omapere and the mouth of the hokianga. in an extrodinary coincidence, we visited a cousin of andy’s who has a stunning house perched up above omapere with sweeping views of the hokianga – as we drove off our friend jeremy, in whose bach we are staying, sent me an email and asked what we were up to.

i sent him back a message saying we were just hanging out up north again, and included a pic i had taken from the house – he messaged straight back to say we were in the road where his block of land is! i knew he had a section up north somewhere, but had no idea it was in omapere, or newton rd to be exact!

andy then drove us back to the ngawha hot springs before we caught up with his nephew, tia in kaikohe, whom i havent seen for about 5 years.

the following day we went over to panguru and andy took us to get mussels at mitimiti which is one of the best kept secret  beaches on the west coast, not many get to visit its unspoilt wildness. i had a surf, but it was a bit too cool for kai, we grabbed a big bucket of juicy mussels off the rocks and then headed over to rangi point, where i was given some land when i was here for steve’s funeral many years ago – the fact that it is below the high tide mark is a minor detail!

somehow in the whole week we failed to get any pics of robyn, and there is only one of beau! so sorry, you will just have to use your imagination! last sunday we had a great afternoon at the rawene pub, robyn arranged for a local band to play, they were pretty old school and one of them was the almost famous, tommy ferguson, a pioneer of rock and roll in NZ in the 60’s.

i also did a drive up to ninety mile beach, across to mangonui, down to pahia and opua in the bay of islands and back to rawene thru kawakawa, no one else wanted to come so it was a solo trip!

we drove home on friday, we went the west coast route and stopped off in a little place called baylys beach, about 10kms from dargaville. its a little surf beach town and one of the places i had thought we might try and stay at for a week or so at some point. the surf was perfect, a light offshore breeze and a nice wave. kai and I spent an hour or so in the water and then we had a splendid lunch at a little cafe called the funky fish, the chef is french and made the most amazing pizzas.

,

 

devonport

 coffee, foodie stuff, gap year, piha, us  No Responses »
Jan 242015
 
dport 015

kai on the devonport foreshore with auckland in the background

 

i realised its a while since i posted, and in fact when I uploaded the images I realised I had completely forgotten to post about our trip to devonport, takapuna and dinner with the fabulous luke, zekiah and lorenzo!

we were heading over to auckland to sal’s cousin, luke’s for dinner last friday week and as it was a glorious summers day we decided to head over to takapuna on the north shore, for some shopping and a swim before going to dinner.

we arrived in takapuna about lunchtime so i suggested to sal we head down to devonport where we would be more likely to find a nice cafe for lunch, so thats what we did. we had a wander thru the trendy shops, grabbed a bite of lunch, had a great coffee, kai had a play in the playground, climbed a couple trees and had a swim and then we bundled back into the car and headed back to takapuna.

just as we were leaving zekiah sent sal a text saying she was going to takapuna with lorenzo for a swim and did we want to come over from piha early and meet her there!! of course we rang back and said, ‘guess what! we are on our way there now, see you when you get there!’

so a relaxing swim and lazy afternoon was spent on the beach at takapuna and then we went back to luke & zekiah’s for a lovely dinner – zekiah had made a yummy chicken and chorizo dish which we polished off with gusto along with a few beers and a nice wine!

i also found some more images from round piha that i hadnt posted yet, so here are a few more summer snaps! white’s beach is our little private beach, its only the next beach north from piha but the access is a very steep climb up from north piha and then a magnificent view from the peak, and then a mountain goat climb down the cliffs into whites beach! most of the forest tracks start from the back of piha, so its easy access for us and an alternative to getting our exercise on the beach!

birthday!

 foodie stuff, gap year, tech, us  10 Responses »
Jan 082015
 
bday 002

lego!

happy birthday to our beautiful son, kai. he woke this morning fairly early as is to be expected for a birthday boy! we all climbed into bed together and had a cuddle before he opened his little haul of presents, he added some more money to his wallet care of opa and grammy & pop, and some more lego direct from grandma erica and grandpa bob. mum and dad gave him some new games for the 3DS and some lego figurines.

following a birthday breakfast we headed into auckland for a birthday adventure, sal had discovered a ‘play in the park’ day a couple of girls had organised with lots of games and toys in a park on the auckland city waterfront.

kai had a ball running around and playing with other kids and things, we all had fish and chips for lunch and a wander round the waterfront, it brought back memories for me from when i lived in auckland and worked down on the waterfront doing marine maintenance.

we came home in the afternoon to the inaugural bbq on the little charcaol bbq setup i bought this week for the batch, it comprises of a little kettle bbq, a charcoal chimney to light the charcoal and a small butane camping stove for the chimney.

the yacht is the Salperton, you can charter it for a mere 145,000 euro per week if you like! at 147″ or 45m its a lot of boat, http://www.superyachts.com/yacht-charter/salperton-1556/

in other news, kai has started his own blog, you can see a link to it in the right hand frame in links, it is going to form part of his year 6 work this year, you can subscribe for email notifications of updates if you wish.

also i have added a forum to the server, i am moderating another forum and i had to learn a bot more coding, particularly for forums so the easiet way to learn is to do, hence seekrit squirrel was born. Its actually going to be a useful resource i think, conversatios about ideas, passions, things, places, etc can be better carried on in the forum, it also has a chat function if you scroll down and that means live real time chat if we are online at the time! Again the link is in the sidebar, you can sign up and you will ba able to add topics within the categories yourself, as well as replying to existing ones and using the chat feature.

please have a look and feel free to become involved!

 

whites beach

 foodie stuff, gap year, piha, us  No Responses »
Jan 042015
 
whites beach

whites beach

today was a classic summer sunday, warm, sunny and lazy! we pottered around at the bach, sunbaking, cleaning, washing and a little bit of gardening inderspersed with eating and resting while listening to tunes. all very chillaxing.

this afternoon kai wanted to go for a walk so we he and I jumped in the car and drove down to north piha, he beaches were packed at piha, everyman and his dog had jumped in their cars and driven out to piha for a bit of sun ‘n surf, we had the hot tip from jeremy though, head up into the hills and over to white’s beach when its busy in piha!

i can see why its quiet! Its a vertical climb out of the north end of north piha beach and then an even more vertical scramble down the other side into white’s beach – not for the faint hearted! in fact best suited to sure footed mountain goats. jeremy was right though, there were 4 other people there, so it was like a private beach really.

kai and i braved the cold water for a quick body surf and then we discovered the rocks were carpeted with lovely green lip mussels, so we filled our boardy pockets up with a feed of mussels and began the mountain climb, clamber and scramble back to north piha and then dashed home to cook up the mussels.

i decided simplicty was the order of the day, steamed them for a few minutes in water and then ate them with sushi vinegar, soy sauce, chilli, mayonaise, fresh thyme and coriander as a range of dipping condiments! all washed done with a cheeky little sav blanc!

life is sweet!

new year

 foodie stuff, gap year, piha, us  No Responses »
Jan 022015
 
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the view from the summit of mt eden across auckland city

Ok, i am sorry there have been no posts since last year, but nothing much has happened since last year!

today we headed into auckland to see sal’s cousin, luke, his wife,zekiah and their son lorenzo. they live in the shadow of mt eden hence the photo above. kai and lorenzo had a play and i suspect lorenzo was rather taken with his big cousin! i am sure we will spend some more time with them over the next few months.

we popped down to a little cafe in mt eden for lunch after our visit and went to a place called ‘the garden shed’, the food was nice, but the garden was amazing!

we went for a lovely walk to kitekite falls on new years day, its a walk through kauri forest and ferns that winds its way up from basically the center of piha to the falls at the top of the surrounding hills. there are lots of walking tracks up here and we are only just starting to explore them.

meanwhile i have been enjoying the fresh produce and cooking up a few storms, we got some lovely salmon fillets which i pan fried and served on a bed of fresh parsley and rocket from the garden and a caramelised fennel side, with local asparagus, roasted potato and garlic chips.

today we picked up enough mussels for sal and I and i cooked them in coconut cream with ginger, garlic, onion, chilli and coriander – $2.50 worth of mussels and it was sublime.

 

enzud

 foodie stuff, gap year, piha, us  4 Responses »
Dec 182014
 
nz1 001

bubbly in the air nz lounge

 

it was with some sense of relief that we flew out to auckland from melbourne yesterday, the tragic consequences of the seige in martin place in sydney hung heavy over most australians I suspect.

the tragedy was overhung by the disgraceful reporting from all of the australian media, the murdoch gutter trash the worst, but even the abc was awful. it was a feeding frenzy of sensationalist misinformation, culminating in the disgusting headline from the daily telegraph “death cult CBD attack”. the media’s misinformed hysteria encouraged all of the loony, racist, xenophobic redneck elements in our society to make a range of threats against those they saw as responsible.

in the end it wasnt terrorism, it wasnt even political activism like our none too bright PM claimed, it was a lone, mentally ill, criminal who should never have been out on bail and who should never have had access to firearms. no doubt the one’s that failed to keep society safe from this sick man will now use the cloak of terror to try to further erode our rights, the government has already signalled this in debate on the proposed data retention laws – while ignoring the fact that a man who was out on bail for conspiracy to murder an ex-wife and multiple sex offences was free to lay seige on a cafe not because the AFP couldnt access his data but simply because he wasnt locked up in gaol.

out of all tragedy comes hope though, the #illridewithyou project that came out of twitter and went viral was a reaffirmation of the true australian spirit of tolerance, support and unity across diversity.

also its worth remebering that the last similar, lone, mentally ill, criminal killed more than 30 people in port arthur – but that was before the subsequent gun laws and the banning of semi automatic weapons. imagine the result in america from a similar siege – it wouldnt only be two killed.

anyway, enough of that! we flew to auckland with air new zealand, on a B777-300 in business class,  it was damn nice to say the least, the new style of business class seats are fantastic and it made for a very comfortable trip, the wine and food was not too bad either!

we arrived to a very wet auckland and took a taxi over to pick up our frien leesi’s car from her mum’s house, then drove out to piha in the pouring rain with no internet on the phones and no map! luckily my internal gps seemed to fire and we made it just before dark. we got a handover from friends of jeremy’s that had been staying there and settled in for our first night. i havent bothered taking any photos because its been very grey and dull. today we did a big shop in town and got settled in. hopefully the weather will lift and we can start to enjoy the beach!

nz1 011

cant argue with that!

 

 

 Posted by at 7:10 pm  Tagged with: ,



victoria

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  3 Responses »
Dec 152014
 

 

vict 020

grandpa bob with nick, tim & kai. well the local leg of our gap year is coming to a close, we spent a few days with mum & bob in geelong before heading up to stay with the phipps family in melbourne. while there we popped down for a day to catch up with phil carter and his wife jane so i think we have covered most of the bases!

while with mum & bob we had a lovely dinner at jack & jills which is always a culinary delight – and inevitably too much to eat! they have a unique menu where you select either a plate of 3 or 4 different dishes and then chose the dishes from an extensive menu, i always find it very hard to choose as everything on the menu sounds fabulous!

the time with the phipps family was wonderful, they have a granny flat at their northcote residence so we had a bit of our own space, but joined the family for some amazing meals and healthy debates about politics, philiosophy and economics! peter and suzana were amazingly hospitable and kai loved having arya and surya to play with.

it was also great to catch up with phil & jane, one day didnt seem to be enough time together but i am sure we will get together somewhere soon.

now we are back down at my brother’s farm so kai can have a few days with the cousins and sal and i can relax before heading off to nz on wednesday to start the journey proper. there has been lots of fun and games with tim’s birthday yesterday and a trip into geelong for an afternoon of go-carting. (i would have been by far the fastest except for a mechanical fault with the engine on my cart. Sal was the rookie of the day and flew round the track in the gurls race!)

the sense of anticipation is very strong now, with just a couple of days to go until we head up to melbourne for the flight across the ditch to nz, i think that will be the real start of our adventure!

 

 Posted by at 8:43 am



last day

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  5 Responses »
Dec 042014
 

KI4 026this is the estuary at the front of andrew and di’s property, winding its way into the ocean, as the sun sets over our holiday on king island, the last few days since my most recent post have been a blur of activity, we have explored the island from the northern tip at cape wickham to the southern most extremity at stokes point. we have walked beautiful beaches, clambered over rugged piles of lichen decorated rock formations and driven the beach tracks of this amazing island.

we have eaten wild rocket picked from the foot of the wickham lighthouse, local wallaby, king island cheeses, quail eggs, king island beef, wild water cress, parsley and salty succulents, freshly caught lobster, abalone and warrener shells and we have picked plump, fresh rasberries off the vines, its been a foodie dream and there is no question that KI deserves its reputation for great produce.

all the people we have met have been wonderfully hospitable, friendly and generous, its not hard to see why di and andrew fell in love with the lifestyle!

we had a fabulous day for di’s birthday starting with eggs florentine with wild water cress for breakfast and then a trip up to cape wickham and dissapointment bay before returning to yellow rock for dinner with friends tim & claire, and claire’s parents chris and louise. i cooked abalone slices in butter and garlic for a starter, followed by a chilli spiced mince abalone on rice and the finale of lobster salad with baby potatoes and wild local rocket with a lemon, garlic and butter dressing.

we spent a day exploring the south of the island, visiting surprise bay and stokes point, seeing a huge copperhead snake and a few furry echidnas before ending up at grassy (the other town on the island), for dinner. we got the keys to the sailing club and used their bbq to cook dinner and ate sitting beside their wonderful warm wood fire with friends of the blakes, john and lyn, before watching the fairy penguins make their nightly trek out of the ocean and back to their nests.

yesterday sal and kai and i had a day on our own and explored the kelp factory and kelp walk on the coast by currie before having lunch in a cosy cafe in currie and then heading home via the chesse factory for a tasting and stock up before an explore along porkys beach and heading home to another meal of bbq wallaby and a few glasses of fine red wine!

we will leave the island with many happy memories and a much better understanding of what attracted the blakes this far south! i think we really got in the rythym of our gap year here too, i feel more disconnected from my previous life and engaged in what lies ahead for the next 12 months!

thank you andrew and di for so generously sharing your little piece of paradise with us, your amazing home is better than anything we had expected, far surpassing the expectations created by the tv show and your own descriptions and photos! thanks for all the delicious food, cold beer and great wine.

 

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