a week in my life, part five: auckland and waiheke island (with my parents!)

welcome back to my WIML series, where each week i detail out how i spent the prior week as an american temporarily living in new zealand! this past week was mostly spent showing my parents around auckland and waiheke island while they are here visiting. this post summarizes march 3rd-9th.

favs of the week:

all the details:

Activities

• Visited Shakespear Regional Park: such a gorgeous park about 50 minutes outside of Auckland city. We walked the Tiritiri path, which was a pretty easy 5km path through the park. we were surrounded with sheep at one point!
• Walked up Mt. Eden: an Auckland tourist classic. beautiful city and bay views!
• Spent the weekend on Waiheke Island: the best weekend getaway spot from Auckland. good food, wine, and views! My comprehensive Waiheke guide is here.
• Visited the domain Wintergardens: finally walked through the domain Wintergardens (two days in a row actually). it’s nice to see if you’re at the auckland war museum or in the domain, but nothing to go out of your way for!

Eats

only including those worth mentioning here 🙂 ate out a ton this past week since my parents are in town! the same will be the case for next week and the following week 😉

• Cream cheese cinnamon roll – Cinnamon Squared. Auckland’s newest cinnamon roll cafe is worth the hype! this place is consistently crowded and seems to sell out often, but it was pretty empty when I went at 10am on a Monday. Cinnamon roll was incredible!! tiktok recap is here.
• Braciole di Pollo – Bossi. Proscuitto and mozz stuffed chicken served over lemon marscapone risotto… do I need to say more??? literally everything from Bossi is amazing so I wasn’t shocked that this was too, but I highlyyy rec!
• several dishes… – azabu (ponsonby). We went back to azabu this week with my parents after loving the food at the mission bay location. we got a lot of the same stuff as the week prior (recapped here), but also had the rainbow roll and Aji Amarillo Coconut Ceviche. again, loved everything! This location was definitely more intimate / darker than the mission bay location, but both were cool for their own reasons.
• Fiesta (set) menu – Casita Miro. This spanish-inspired winery on Waiheke island had incredible food. We did their set menu (85nzd pp) for lunch and everything we had was very good. the set menu included a variety of shared plates / tapas like bread with dipping sauces, shrimp, patatas bravas, goat cheese croquettes, lamb, etc. we loved this place so much that clay and I will most likely come back in a few weeks! see more on tiktok here.
• Caesar salad – ki maha. ok not your typical caesar, but still very good. loved the pancetta!
• ribeye – ki maha. reallllly good steak at ki maha. this restaurant was very cool in general – def recommend if you’re on Waiheke / in the Onetangi beach area.
• Whipped lemon ricotta, fries, and chorizo pizza – man o’ war. all things we’ve had before at man o’ war because they’re just too good to pass up.
• smoked chicken sandwich – Fitzroy deli. auckland’s newest deli is super cute and my sandwich was great! tiktok recap is here.
• Rotolo pasta and pork chop – Three Seven Two. amazingggg butternut squash pasta dish and pork chop from this cute restaurant in Onetangi beach on Waiheke. they had an awesome outdoor patio area!
• Spicy Tonkotsu – Kajiken. even though this place is known for their abura soba which is “soupless ramen”, their actual ramen was also very good!
• Chicken Schnitzel – Saint Alice. the chicken Schnitzel here is unreal. super crispy and the slaw + sauce that it comes with is amazing.

drinks

coffee, alcoholic, etc!! only those worth mentioning.

• Ruby Red Gin & soda – Waiheke Distilling co. Their cherry gin was so good!
• Viognier – Casita miro. Loved this dry, crisp white wine.
• rose – man o’ war. Our favvvv rose! crisp and not sweet.
• Pink lemon and Soda – pals. Pals are my fav “ready to drink” cocktail here. They’re a new zealand brand and every flavor I’ve had has been really good, but this pink lemon is my new fav!
• Spicy Watermelon marg – Queens. Always my go-to at Queens. never disappoints.
• KIWI JALAPENO MARGARITA SODA – Jacuzzi. Went to this cute new restaurant in ponsonby for drinks and really loved the atmosphere! This marg was pretty good, just a little too sweet and not spicy enough for my liking. Will def be back for food though.

etc

reads:

• Red specter: a tier one story by jeffrey wilson and brian andrews. This is the fifth book in the tier one series. even better than the fourth book somehow. finished so quickly.
• How to win at travel by Brian Kelly. brian kelly, aka the points guy, just came out with this book to share his knowledge of the travel industry. I’m nearly finished with it! even as someone who has traveled a fair amount, I feel like I’m learning a lot from it.

looking forward to:

• Spending a few days on the Nz South island in Marlborough and Christchurch
• Traveling to Melbourne for the F1 race
• Clay’s fam visiting us following F1!
• Clay’s 30th in indonesia… eeeep

stay tuned for part six <3

More week in my life content to come! if you have comments or questions, please let me know below.