Back from a week in
Highlights?
Perfect weather.
The sky. So expansive. So very much bigger, brighter and bluer than the sky here at home. Almost too big to take in. The photo, taken from the hotel room, does not do it justice. Achingly beautiful clouds. No rain.
A sculpture walk about an hour out of
Miso soup for breakfast, standard hotel buffet-breakfast fare meant for Japanese tourists no doubt, but what a way to start the day. Tiny cubes of firm tofu, small, neat rectangular pieces of nori that melt in the warmth of the soup and, best of all, deep-fried shallots set out neatly for floating in your bowl. Habit-forming.
Panko-crumbed fresh snapper fillets, cooked by the Artist’s incredibly generous mum. Served with a dairy-free version of Jansson’s Temptation gleaned from the current edition of the Auckland-based Cuisine magazine. Really, really good.
A private viewing of an important collection of New Zealand’s finest art owned buy an old friend of the Artist’s family. Oh my god. I finally get Colin McCahon.
Nearly cried.
2 comments:
15 years ago, my husband took a 1-year trip around the world. Of all the remarkable places and people he encountered, he's always had the warmest memories of Australia and New Zealand. Someday he will take me there. In meantime, I am thoroughly enjoying this post.
Susan, you would adore it. I mean, I'm Australian and love my home here in Melbourne but NZ is something else. Though we do collectively as Australians make jokes about our cousins over the Tasman Sea from time to time (mostly about their sporting prowess it would seem) it is they who have the last laugh. It's a stunning place with lovely people, amazing produce and somewhere I would happily move to if the time was right. I've been many times before - it's where the Artist's family live - but this time it was just wonderful.
Might have had something to do with being upgraded well above our economy tickets to first class too...
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