I have alot of cousins. My mum is one of 9 siblings who have all had children (my cousins) and their children have had children. I have one who lives in Hokitika and another one was visiting the West Coast last week so my daughter R and I had lunch with the 2 of them. I don;t know why the waitress in this photo was wearing a mask as those mandates went out a long time ago, perhaps she wasn't well.
We tried one of the local businesses, Stumpers Cafe and Restaurant for lunch and I was pleasantly surprised. Good coffee at a reasonable price and tasty food, nothing expensive so we will probably go back again at some point.
Good news is the cousin who was here for the week is moving to Rangiora soon which is just outside of Christchurch so hopefully we will get to catch up a bit more.
On a regular basis I like to catch up with friends that I use to work with. Usually we go to different coffee shops but the last few times we have met up at the Columbus Coffee Cafe at the local Mitre 10 store. For those of you who aren't familiar with Mitre 10, it's a franchise of hardware stores throughout the country that usually have a cafe attached.
My favourite coffee is usually a large mocha with one sugar, sometimes the staff will put a chocolate fish on the side (a kiwi icon) or a marshmallow.
As I was looking around I spotted that the side of one of the counters appears to be full of coffee beans - that's a novel idea.
I've got to have a good coffee each morning, something that wakes me up propertly. On a recent visit to a new cafe that's opened in town I saw they had a mural on their wall inside that I think it's advertising the brand of coffee that they use. Sadly eating there was not a positive experience but that's another story...
Another local Greymouth mural - this one on the side of a green building that is leased by a cafe. I have tried finding out who the artist is but have had no luck.
I was able to get my first haircut done last week since we've been in Greymouth, the last one I had was before we moved about 4 months ago so needless to say I looked very overgrown and moppy. Afterwards although the wind was chilly and down to about 10 degrees celsius I had a brief walk through a couple of streets and took photos - the tree on the right has nearly lost all it's leaves in time for Winter. This week our nightly temperature is 1 degree celsius.
I spotted this mural in Christchurch Airport earlier this year. Situated against a wall in the cafe it talks about how coffee and different types of coffee throughout New Zealand is so necessary. I quite agree.
Throughout New Zealand you might see these little buildings devoted to really good coffee. This one in Taupo is very aptly named "Stir" and is made from a converted caravan with a covered balcony, we were going to buy some coffees for us while we were there but there was quite a line of customers to the doorway.
On our travels this week through Northland there was one day we spent with the other half's cousin Ali, she recommended we stop at this cafe in Kaeo (the small blue painted building to the right). Kaeo is a very small town that quite often floods when they have heavy rain up there but it's a very old settlement and mostly is occupied by farmers or fishing people.
Named "The Mad Hatter's Cafe" this quirky little place is in Kaeo, in the far north of NZ. I like anything unusual or different to everyone else and they made a great coffee. This is B posing in the chair.
Decorations on the walls show that odd can be good in a person. I would rather be known as weird because normal is boring in my humble opinion.
And I quite agree with this one, it's always time for tea or coffee.
This is from last September but I hope it's still going and will continue to not just grow but also be something that others would copy too - story from idealog.co.nz
Auckland gets world’s first ‘can for a coffee’ cafe
By Vera Alves,
If you love coffee and you love helping out those in need, then you'll love this idea. Auckland just got the world's first 'can for a coffee' pop-up cafe, on 13 Rose Rd (Grey Lynn).
The cafe is open 9am to 11am on Fridays and Saturdays and, during that time, people can trade a can of food for a cup of coffee. Every single can goes straight to the Auckland City Mission who then distributes them to those who need them.
Locals is a not-for-profit initiative and the brainchild of Brad Robinson, Oliver Johnston and Joshua Wong, supported by Caffe L'affare. The team hopes this new "can for a coffee" cafe will be the first of a number of them around the world, as they work to inspire other coffee roasters to create "Locals" of their own (if you're interested, check www.canforacoffee.com).
"Our motivation is pretty simple: We want to encourage businesses, whether coffee related or otherwise to help meet real needs in the local community. We believe that as business owners, we owe a responsibility to society at large. We would love to see more and more businesses that operate in a manner that is both profitable in the traditional sense and profitable to their surrounding community," says Wong.
The pop-up cafe is definitely going to be open for a month and its continuity will depend on how successful it is. So far, a few cafes have expressed interest in adopting the 'can for a coffee' movement on a weekly basis and the group has also had a few offers from volunteer baristas. The Facebook page has grown to almost a thousand "likes" in less than a week and Wong hopes the number will continue to go.
Dig through your pantry, find a can of something tasty and go trade it for a cup of coffee and some karma points at the Locals.
This morning I spent some time with "the girls" for a much needed coffee at the Frog n Kiwi restaurant right here in Mangawhai. Today has been a typical blustery rainy winter's day so it was good to sit & relax in a warm delightful atmosphere.
My drink of choice - one large mocha - always a good kick of caffeine that usually keeps me going for the rest of the day. Think we're going to have to do this on a regular basis!
This morning was one of those lazy Saturdays where I enjoyed time with a good friend. They make great coffees with a real oomph to them and lovely food.
It's the Ginger Cafe in Warkworth, north of Auckland. Despite it being a busy little eatery all the waiting staff are friendly and happy to help. This is definitely one of my favourite places!
so after not blogging for quite some time, lost my mojo I've come back and have lots of new photos to share. This one is from this morning when I was in my old home town of Maungaturoto having coffee with a friend. Here's the view from one of the outside tables - was a hot morning outside, unusual for Autumn but people were very busy going past doing their daily stuff.
The teens went for our weekly cafe visit this morning, this time we tried a local place called "harvest cafe" here in Mangawhai Heads. They renovated the place a while back, it's taken us until now to go and check it out. Last time we went was quite some time ago for dinner. They seem to have fixed it up in a retro type of way with ornaments, chairs, tables, signs etc. Coffee and hot chips were just as good and were a welcome treat on this rainy Spring day!
