A Weekend in Mahurangi
Here's a few pictures of our weekend staying with our friend Jacqui who has a very stylish and welcoming holiday house on the estuary of Mahurangi . We arranged to meet up at the Matakana Markets Saturday morning, buy a few supplies, breakfast at Matakana Patisserie, check out the Craft Market and the Equestrian Centre and then lunch, swim and relax on the deck with a good book.
The new cinema complex at Matakana Village has several eating places. Downstairs a rather smart bar with a lots of concrete and copper. Upstairs the Matakana Wine Centre,also known as The Vintry. They do wine and food pairing tastings and are also licensed to sell wine by the bottle or case .
The Equestrian Centre teaches horse riding or you could just enjoy a glass of wine and watch the horse riders. You could have lessons here and then go horse riding on this nearby beach.
And how about this? Matakana has a real butcher........and Elvis the cow.
Sunday dawned overcast so we set off for a tiki tour around the area looking at some of the many holiday homes around Omaha and Snell's Beach. We stopped for lunch at Mariposa Palm Café. Clickon any picture to enlarge.
Beautiful weekend, Barbara!
Posted by: Kat | February 12, 2007 at 04:31 PM
Sounds like you had a wonderful weekend Barbara, the house/deck/pool looks so inviting as I shiver here on a wet day.
Posted by: beccy | February 12, 2007 at 10:48 PM
What a wonderful sounding weekend! I love the feeling of getting away from it all...especially when good friends and good food (and fantastic scenery!) is involved...as it obviously is here :)
Posted by: joey | February 13, 2007 at 12:55 AM
Kat - not quiet Hawaii but only an hours drive in the car rather than 8 in a plane;)
Beccy - we were lucky with having aperfect summer's day.
Joey - We are moving house this week so the relaxing break was great before the chaos of this week.
Posted by: barbara | February 13, 2007 at 04:52 AM
Lovely photos Barbara. The Mahurangi is such a beautiful harbour, I love going there for work.
Posted by: gisele | February 13, 2007 at 07:25 AM
Lucky you it sounds as though you had a really lovely weekend- all that sunshine and so many places to visit. The market looks interesting and the scenary is beautiful.
Posted by: chris B | February 13, 2007 at 09:14 AM
Giselle - Beautiful and the water is so clear.
Chris - I put in the horse riding link especially for you!
Posted by: barbara | February 13, 2007 at 07:08 PM
Wow, what a beautiful place!
Posted by: Ml | February 14, 2007 at 12:44 AM
barbara that did catch my eye so thank you
Posted by: chris B | February 14, 2007 at 02:59 AM
That looks wonderful and so peaceful.
Posted by: Isis | February 14, 2007 at 03:10 AM
Ml - and only an hours drive from Auckland.
Chris - You're welcome.
Isis - and at night, through the window in our bedroom, we we could lie in our bed and look at the Southern Cross in the night sky.
Posted by: barbara | February 14, 2007 at 03:48 AM
Wonderful pictures!I wish I was there too!
Greetings,Steffi
Posted by: Steffi | February 14, 2007 at 07:00 AM
Hi Barbara, Great blog. Mahurangi looks great. You seem like such a lovely person.
Posted by: Richard Yonge | February 14, 2007 at 02:18 PM
Hehe Ric...or is it Shirl!
Posted by: barbara | February 14, 2007 at 02:26 PM
Hi Steffi - I wish I could spend more time there.
Posted by: barbara | February 14, 2007 at 07:14 PM