Belly full of Indian

Had a Sunday full of vegan happy dancing, first of all me and Guy bumped into this Scandinavian food store on K-road, where they sell everything I've missed, even stuff I've forgotten about! The best things that came back into my life (and went home with me in the bag) is lingonberry jam AND salty liquorice, yummmmm

We continued on Kroad and just saw Indian-vegan on a sign and decided to give that a go for our big Sunday lunch. The restaurant is called Gujrati-dhaba, it's such a cool interior, almost like you're in a vault, and it's so cheap aswell.

Compared to other more westernised Indian meals you don't get that ohy God I'm dying I'm too full feeling, this feels like a much more authentic Indian. We tried the thali that came with amazing roti, yummmmm x 2

We're definitely coming back here!

Road trip 3.0

On the last day of our Auckland getaway, we had breakfast with the stunning Paihia view and drove through the little town of Pahia, where Guy has his own road.

Continued to Whangerei heads where a cool waterfall is to be found. If it hadn't been rainy and cold I would've jumped into the water, but I too much of a BADKRUKA as we say in Swedish. It has to be warm water otherwise I'll always bail, even though I love swimming in waterfalls..

We headed down a bit more south and found mount manaia track where you can spot actual kiwi birds if you're lucky (which we unfortunate weren't!)

Got off track the trek and found our own little spot on the top of this huge rock where we just sat for ages and enjoyed the gorgeous view from up here. It was absolutely incredible and if we didn't have commitments to get back to in Auckland we would've sat there until it got dark.

And then we drove for another few hours, back to the city and it felt like we'd just come back from a completely different country.

The end.

Road trip 2.0

The next day we woke up to this stunning view that last nights darkness had hidden from us. 

We went on to this gorgeous beach nearby, climbed a few rocks and just sat down in the sun and enjoyed the silent and this beautiful day.. (until it started to pour down heavy rain all of a sudden.. typical NZ winter, eh!)

We continued our road trip down south, towards next long stop in the Bay of Islands and found that avocados are way cheaper up north than in Auckland HAPPYDANCE!!! Avocados are freaking expensive otherwise this time a year (like $2-$3 each!!) which sucks for a avocado lover like me. So yes, we stocked up on some unripped avvos!

Do I need to mention how much warmer it is up north in August? It made me want to move up here, where I could finally just wear a tank top and not feel freezing for the first time in freaking ages..

We found the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior Memorial which looked awesome, standing on a cliff just above Matauri Bay. For those of you who don't know; The Rainbow Warrir was a Greenpeace ship that was blown up in Auckland Harbour in 1985 by French government agents in an effort to derail the Greenpeace campaign against French nuclear testing in the Pacific.

After a few more stops along the way to admire the stunning views everywhere, we finally made it through the rain to Paihia, where we checked in at a cute bed & breakfast with a even more stunning view than the place we had left this morning.

Road trip 1.0

What better way to start a road trip from Auckland then to go to vegan heaven first? This piece of heaven is to be found in Grey Lynn. Looking at Tart Bakery from the outside, it is hard to guess that this cute little bakery is the most vegan friendly one I've encountered in New Zealand.

99% of their pastries, pasties and baked goodies are vegan. It was truly one of those moments when you feel overwhelmed by all the choices you have a as a vegan. Being a vegan, you forget how to make decisions food-wise, as the life of a vegan is pretty simpel in other food places; you don't have to choose because there are hardly ever any real options. 

So anyway, there were loads of stuff to choose between so I ended up with three different things on my way out; cheesy bread roll, sausage roll and, AND, vegan freakin' donuts! Everything tasted like christmas in my mouth, but the donuts would have to be the winner as I haven't had a donut for years..

Prepared for a long journey, we headed off on to the highway and just drove and drove for hours just straight up to the top of the country. We started to chase the sunlight after a while as we really wanted to make it to the very top before the sun went down and when the highway all of a sudden turned in to what looked like just an ordinary country road I thought we weren't gonna make it but thanks to Guys excellent driving skills, we did catch the sun just on it's way down at Cape Reinga (even though we did had to run down to the light house, both because we were excited to finally be here, but also because we were scared that it would be pitch black in just a second)

It was the most magical moment ever, the wind was so strong that we could barely hear each other while, it was the most perfect sunset with hardly any other people there and just the thought tha we were as far north as you can go made the experience even more magical. The coolest thing is that two oceans, Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean, meet here and you can actually see the different oceans waving in next to each other.

We drove back down south on the scary road that was now resting in complete darkness, there are no street light either so the whole experience felt a bit scary almost, it was as if we were just driving into a horror movie.

But luckily enough we didn't. Instead we ended up at the most gorgeous little village by the sea, Mangonui, at the most gorgeous motel I've ever stayed at: Waterfront apartments. I totally wish we could've spent more time here, it made me want to live here and never leave.

The night ended with a few glasses of wine out on our private deck and we ordered amazing indian take away from Out of the blue restaurant, that weirdly enough makes the best chips, for just 5 dollars we had a whole bag of chips = happy Guy and Sarah!

Oh hell yeah!

This is what Sunday's are for now. Pizza from hell. I always modify a vegetarian pizza they have now and add the yummy vegan cheese to it, got pretty tired of the Sinister vegan pizza, so it's great that you can order online and be as annoying as you like with modifying your pizza, without misunderstandings.

It's a shame that it's kind of expensive with all the changes I want to make, but damn it it's good! 

Oh my pasta!

I never eat as much as I do when I have pasta. That (and avocado.. And popcorn.. And hummus.. And olives..okay just gonna stop now) is something I could not bear to live without.

Last night after yoga I just wanted to cook something not so time consuming so I came up with this white bean-broccoli-pasta! Just fried butter beans with red onion and spring onion with some dried herbs, added some boiled broccoli after a while. Cut some tomatoes in wedges and put them into the oven on 100 degrees for like 30 mins. Mixed pasta with the broccoli-bean mix and topped it all up with some hummus mixed with lemon juice. Bam!

Rainbow Warrior III

So the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior has been resting up at Princes Wharf in Auckland for a few days now (http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/about/ships/the-rainbow-warrior/) Yesterday we waved her goodbye and wished her and the crew the best of luck on future missions.

On Tuesday I was one of the lucky people who got to spend one night on the ship, when me Charli and Nicky signed up to volunteer as Night Shift crew. 

My shift to keep her safe was between 4-8am, which meant that I could experience the sunrise in Auckland (even though the actual sunrise was hidden behind the buildings at the Wharf)

I was seriously contemplating whether to find somewhere on the Rainbow to hide so that I could come with her out in the Pacific!