From Taupo to Napier!

Rain and cloudy today! These have been the two major coordinates of today! Not my favorite ones! In this context we have had to find some stuff to do.

After a great morning running session along the Taupo Lake, we took off to the Wairakei Terraces and Thermal Health Spa. There we spent about three hours. Most of the time spent there was amazing, especially the pools and the massage; the walk around the so called geyser and vegetation is not worth, so save the money!

From the spa we went back to the Acacia Bay, but because of the weather we shot two pictures and then left to the central Taupo for lunch at Piccolo Restaurant.

After the lunch, with the clouds surveying the region we decided to head to Napier. As soon a we set the address on the GPS we learned that there are about 150 km between the two cities. Moreover, we understood that we will drive mainly through the nature since at the exit from Taupo there is a traffic sign indicating that the first petrol station will be after 130 km!!! Our thoughts proved to be true when we found ourselves driving around green surroundings, with interesting vegetation and many slopes and S curves. Even though there was an deserted area, we meet also a police car checking the traffic…to our big surprise.

After almost two hours we entered Napier. The city was threatened by dark and heavy clouds, but they got away with the time. The city is nice, having a special charm due to its architecture and proximity to the sea. We had a walk in the windy and chilly weather and then had dinner at Mister D Restaurant.

Tomorrow we plan to visit some of the attractions in Napier, afterward we’ll travel many km to Wellington. We are waiting forward to this trip.

Exploring New Zealand – Coromandel

Three days ago I arrived in New Zealand for the first time in my life, being ready to travel across it for 20 days; I am not alone, but with my girlfriend.

The first two and a half days I have spent in Auckland, and it was awesome. However, today we have got to the moment to pick up the car we have prebook it before our arrival here: a Toyota RAV4, from Budget. The staff from Budget in Auckland (Beach Rd.) were very nice and the car is almost new: only 11.150 km on board. However, whoever choose to come down here with a driving licence not in English, have to think twice. I had one issued in Denmark, but with everything in Danish, and they were about to cancel my booking. In the end they found someone to translate my driving licence; it took one hour and it costed 69 NZD.

Going further into my day, driving on the left side of the road was something not known to me, so it was full of fun…however I got it pretty easy. I was surprised though by two things:

• the limit speed in the highway -100 km!!! and,
• the design of some segments of roads. For example the one to Coromandel Peninsula…it has segments of road very narrow and very close to the edge of the steep edges of the road; moreover there are no parapets.

We drove from Auckland to Coromandel Town. The driving occurs mainly on the highway, but there are also the last 60 km that are dome on the peninsula and the scenery is fabulous. I stopped every few km to take pictures.

Once in Coromandel, we went to our motel booked before coming here. There are not hotels or stuff like that. Coromandel is pretty much like a village, but a very nice one. Moreover, the design of some of the houses and public institutions are very nice, remembering me of the ones seen in the american old movies with cowboys. So far here I have been to the beach and I “went out”. The beach is not covered with sand but with little stones; however, it is very nice the view and the driving to there.

For eating out everyone coming here must visit Mussel Kitchen; it is amazing. For evening I tried Pepper Tree…very good as well!

This was for today! Now I am going to bed, ready to take off tomorrow to the Waitome Cave, Hamilton and the settling at Matamata.

 

 

Black thin tagliattele lobster, cheese, friends, and great memories….

In my opinion the Italian cuisine is one of the best in the whole world, if not the best one. Personally I love it so much that I would even travel for it. The captivating thing is that even though it looks so easy to cook Italian dishes, in fact it is very difficult to obtain the same delicious meal as an Italian does…repeat, this is only my opinion, and my recent trip to Italy cemented it even more. I traveled to Italy, particularly to the Piedmont region, to meet some friends, and even though I was there for them in the first place, I couldn’t resist the temptation to eat out as often as possible, looking to try out everything but especially the Italian food.

One of the places I enjoyed a lot was Ristorante PiQuadro, in Arona. Of course, I didn’t go there because I knew the place, but because my friends invited me and some other friends there, saying that the food is amazing. As I am always open to new experiences especially if they are linked to food, I was totally ok with this restaurant proposition.

As we arrived at the place, we could feel the buzz from outside, and once we entered –in the way to our table, I noticed that all the tables were taken at that hour -20:00, on a Saturday; not a really surprise given the time, but still a very nice atmosphere!

Another thing I noticed on the spot, was that Ristorante PiQaudro has a thematic design…music being the theme they chose to animate the delicious time guests spend there. There are everywhere links to music, even on the tables, where the plates with food are set on the classic CDs.

As soon as we took our seats, we decided “to do some business” and so we were ready to order, three courses each person. The first one was suggested and ordered by our friends for all of us. It was a plate with four different delicious little pieces of happiness…. Sardines, seafood, goat cheese and beef tartar. The enumeration I make here is accordingly to the order we were recommended to eat these small dishes. Because I love cheese so much, I liked the most the goat cheese; but all four dishes were delicious; even the beef tartar, which I usually don’t like it tasted great in that Saturday night…of course being pushed down my throat by some egg yolk and bread…it might sound a bit too much the combination, and I would say not very suitable: mixing beef tartar (which is however not easy to eat it unless you are a fan of it) with raw egg yolk which is also a big challenge for many, at least for the ones not used with it. I would say the tartar would go better with some lemon …but I ate it the way it was served, and now I am happy I accepted the challenge!

The food couldn’t taste good without some good red and white wines and sparkling and still water!

Second dish, actually the first course of the dinner was my own choice. After a thoroughly check of the menu, I settled my eyes on Black thin tagliattele lobster! I choose it not because it was the most expensive dish under the fisherman section (16 €), but because I had never tried the combination, especially the black tagliattele. The excitement was big and the patience very small, but I filled the time with a small chat so in no time my dish was on the table. It looked splendid and it tasted amazing. The soft taste of the lobster mixed with the tagliattele gave it a much flavored taste and made this dish memorable for me. The dish came in no time, and was gone in no time!

Not that I could even ate more, but because I love it and I wanted to try the cheese plate, I also ordered it as the closing dish of that superb night. The cheese plate arrived and its plating was fantastic, I like it even more than the plating of the Black thin tagliattele lobster. Of course the cheeses were Italian, and of course I wanted more details about them. Trying to obtain more info, I discovered that Ristorante PiQuadro has a waiter specialized in cheeses, so I got to talk directly to him about the great display I had got on my plate. From him I found out that he goes himself at least once a week and purchase the cheeses after his taste them at the places he visit. Then, based on his evaluation the cheeses are bought and served in the restaurant to the guests. Of course there are also indication about the way to enjoy them, namely from left to right, all this for a more intense and delightful experience. Once I finished them I could say this was the best cheese plate I had ever got in a restaurant, especially due to the fact it didn’t have blue or red cheese.

Although I said I thought of the cheese plate as being the closing of the night, an Italian dinner is not Italian unless you enjoy a coffee and a limoncello at the end of the dinner. I did so and then I found it so difficult to go home…luckily there were my friends, else I would have been there even now….!

Thank you Ristorante PiQuadro for this memorable experience, and I am looking forward for visiting you as soon as possible.

Lunchtime on the Peblinge Lake!

Summer is about to be over, at least in the northern part of Europe. Yet there might be few more days with very beautiful and warm days, when any of us would like to spend the day somewhere out, chilling next to a drink and enjoying a nice view.

Thus for all of those belonging to this category of people, I might have a suggestion, at least for those living or visiting Copenhagen. My suggestion is to go and spend some quality time at Kaffesalonen (http://www.kaffesalonen.com/), on the Peblinge Lake (Peblinge Sø).

I was there myself on the beautiful Saturday that has just past, and I had a great time. The interest in this place had been built up by my brain some long time ago. It is so because it, my brain, linked the excellent position – on the lake – of the cafe, with my interest in exploring new places and enjoying a day next to the water…and this link was made all the time I travelled by bus around that place. So, at a moment when all the Danish media was talking about the great weather from this last weekend and about the best and sunniest August in the last 11 years (http://www.dmi.dk/nyheder/arkiv/nyheder-2015/08/dejlig-varm-august-maaned/), I couldn’t remain cold to it, and I decided to go out and enjoy the day at this particular place from my must-do list, Kaffesalonen. With no reservation, but with my girlfriend and two more friends, we hit the road together towards this cafe.

Kaffesalonen is centrally located, some 10 minute walk from Nørreport Station, in Nørrebro’s direction. Then, just after passing Queen Louise Bridge, which is the most crowded bicycle bridge in the whole world (https://designtoimprovelife.dk/busybikecph/), we turned left (the cafe can be easily seen from the bridge) and there we are, ready to meet one of my interest summer spots in Copenhagen.

Kaffesalonen – on the left side of the lake!

Without being welcomed or anything like that we walked alone around the place, looking for a spot to satisfy everyone of us: chairs, tables, standing, sitting etc. In the end, we decided to seat in the area that looks like it was designed for picnic.

There we had the menus as well; menus that I would say offers a quite good diversity of drinks and food.  After a thoroughly check of them, we decided to order; but for this we had to go the bar.

The bar!

India Pale Ale Beer!!!

At the bar we thought we could order both food and drinks, but we were wrong: only the drinks could be ordered at the bar, for the food it is necessary to cross the street and go to the cemented location of Kaffesalonen, and place the order there. However, we ordered the drinks and with them went to order the food.

On the way there I unpleasantly discovered that my beloved ice coffee was actually ice-cream coffee, a totally other think that, despite its desired refreshing effect, it is very sweet and it has nothing to do with the ice coffee I know, like and want: coffee and ice, dot. Disappointed to have been paid 45 kr for a drink I didn’t want, I was looking for a better experience from the food. Like I said, the cafe is just over the street, and it looks like many other coffee shops in Copenhagen: that Danish style, with simple arrangements, bare walls and, in this case, grey walls although they were designed for sure to be white. When at the desk, I had another disappointment: the waitress told me that even for my Caesar salad, the average waiting time was of about 40 minutes!!!! I was blank for a second, then I started joking and in the end I still ordered the salad, paying 119 kr, knowing that we would be there for at least one more hour; but still 40 minutes!!!!

My Caesar salad

These chain of events were the most challenging facts of that afternoon, because once we return to our fancy spot we started talking and having a great time while enjoying the hot rays of the sun. The place is magnificent! Imagine only: you are in the middle of the city but in the same time you can lie down, even strip, and enjoy the sun next to the lake! It was all I needed. In the end, I received the salad too. It was very good, but the memories of those 40 minutes made it taste less delicious that it actually was.

We spent there about three amazing hours, and then we had to go with the thought that we have to return there again, maybe next year.

As a last line, I don’t specifically recommend Kaffesalonen, but I recommend its position and its great asset…the seating on the lake.