We all know winter is coming, whether you live in Westeros or somewhere in the Southern Hemisphere – it’s coming for you. To slightly delay this natural phenomenon we decided a trip to the top of the North Island was in order. We packed up the trusty Corolla with a bunch of goodies from the garden and set off on what was to be one of the best holidays we’ve been on. Here’s a run down of where we went and most importantly, what we ate!
Orua Bay
This little gem of a place is only accessible at low tide – as you have to drive along the beach to get there. When the tide went out we collected cockles and mussels from along the beach to have for dinner. When the tide was in, there was nothing else to do but relax, eat some cheese and think about what we were going to cook next – which isn’t really that different to our day to day lives… You can find the recipe for the roasted pumpkin, olive and feta salad here and we posted how to cook bone marrow on our Instagram, if you’re interested.
Cockles, Mussels + Pepperoni Rizoni
Prep 30 minutes // serves two
2 handfuls of mussels (cleaned)
2 handfuls of cockles
1 spicy pepperoni, sliced thinly
5 cloves crushed garlic
1 glass white wine
Rizoni pasta
1 tbsp butter
Olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
Garlic chive flowers for garnish
Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the pasta. Meanwhile steam open 3/4 of the shell fish, reserve the juice and remove the cooked shellfish from their shells. Over a medium heat fry the pepperoni until it’s nice and crispy and reserve as garnish. Sauté the garlic in the butter and when it’s nice and golden add the wine and begin to reduce. Cook the rizoni until almost done, about 3 minutes less than the time recommended on the packet, drain and add to the pan with garlic, wine and the reserved shellfish, still in the shell. Finish the cooking like a risotto, stirring and adding leftover shellfish juice as the pasta absorbs the liquid. Cook for another 3-4 minutes and when the pasta is done stir through the oil, lemon juice and cooked shellfish meat. Season and garnish with crispy pepperoni and garlic flowers.
Mangawhai
We called into Mangawhai to visit our mate Dylan who lives on a farm not far out of town. They have a few patches of very tasty watercress on their property – we had hit the jackpot. We went surfing with Dylan, who is Mangawhai’s number one surf instructor – his business is called Mangawhai Heads Surf School. Surfing was good fun, but the very best fun was had at Bennetts chocolate shop. I have never tasted chocolate so wonderful in my whole life. We tasted many many chocolates and visited at least three times in the two days we were there. We tasted almost every chocolate – our favourites were probably the sea salt caramels (which use sea salt collected from the local beach and refined in house) and the peanut butter chocolates. To compensate for the chocolate consumption we did the Mangawhai Heads cliff top walk, it was a absolutely stunning, with views out to the Hen + Chicken Islands.
Matauri Bay
One of the best kept secrets of Northland would have to be Matauri Bay. This place was spot on. We booked a place through book-a-bach and it turned out to be absolutely purrrfect. Right up on the hillside over looking the Cavalli Islands and the rest of the Pacific Ocean. We used this as a base to explore the whole region. We went on an epic 3 hour hike to Duke’s Nose that gave us views over Whangaroa Harbour and it’s turquoise waters. Another day we drove up ninety mile beach – more on this below. we Wax went fishing off the rocks to catch us dinner, which resulted in a less than satisfactory outcome. We also had a good look around Kerikeri – Wax found a butcher that meets his standards – he now wants to move there. There is also a beyond excellent chocolate shop that goes by the name of Makana, that has the tastiest macadamia butter toffee crunch the world has ever tasted. Just out of town is Mahoe farmhouse cheese, where we picked up some fantastic cheese, notable mention must go to the very old gouda and the mahoe blue. Our last taste of Kerikeri was at the Saturday farmers market, where we gorged ourselves silly on all the tastiest produce the region has to offer. A very nice part of the world indeed.
Ninety Mile Beach
On our journey up north there was word on the street that there were tuatuas to be found along ninety mile beach. So after checking the tides to make sure the Corolla wouldn’t be swept out to sea we drove onto the beach at Waipapakauri on the hunt for tuatuas. Ten minutes in we thought would be the perfect spot for a bit of tuatua twisting – for those non kiwis reading, this action requires you to dig your heel into the sand and twist it about to find the tuatuas hiding in the sand. Wax informs me that they use to learn a song at school called ‘doing the tuatua twist’ – I can just imagine. Anyhow the spot we picked was teeming with the little suckers and within no time we had enough for dinner.
Tuatua Spaghetti
Prep time 10 minutes // serves two
4 handfuls of tuatuas (cockles/pipis)
8 cloves crushed garlic
2 tsp chilli flakes
1/4 glass white wine
Handful of roughy chopped watercress
Lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
Spaghetti
Put a large pot of salted water on to boil for the spaghetti. In a large frying pan, fry garlic and chilli in the oil over medium heat until golden, add the wine and begin to reduce slowly. Cook spaghetti for 2 mins less than the recommended cooking time, drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Add the tuatuas to the onion mixture, turning over gently until the tuatuas open. Add the spaghetti and carefully mix through, adding reserved pasta water if needed. Season with salt and pepper and toss through watercress and lemon juice.
Waiheke Island
This food and wine lovers paradise is only a short 20 minute ferry ride form downtown Auckland. We actually had the ferry all to ourselves and were part of a rescue mission on the way out. A fellow sailor had been tossed off his boat, so we swung the ferry around to pull this guy from the water. The trip was off to an exciting start!
Jesse had organised a sweet pad for our stay at a place called Taraire Lodge, in Little Oneroa. It was only a 10 minute walk to the beach, the bus stop and the centre of Oneroa. Our first night was spent in a bar watching the world cup cricket final and what a win it was! The following day we decided to check out this Italian place that our mate had recommended – Poderi Crisci. And oh WOW. We were blown away by this little slice of Italy right here in NZ. Everything we ate was so fresh and tasty, the service was exceptional and friendly, the wine was delicious and the location stunning. We had a great afternoon here and it was a definite highlight of the trip. Over the next couple of day we ate at The Oyster Inn and Te Motu, they were both good but had nothing on Poderi Crisci.
The end.
