Mimi’s Auckland Sojourn

Second guest post of the day… What?! Keep your eyes peeled for this blog hitting the NYT best seller list prior to Xmas…

For those of you who have been lucky enough to not have me complain constantly about my current role, I’m working for AIA NZ on the implementation of a new insurance standard. This means that I get the occasional trip to Auckland – which after being here a second time, I’m classifying the city an Aldi version of Sydney (contains all the required components, but just doesn’t really seem to get some things quite right).

This trip I’m here for 2 weeks, and because I’m a friend of the environment (and also work couldn’t justify the extra plane fairs), I’ve stayed for the weekend. So here is my recap.

The weekend started off strong with AIA having a xmas party at 5pm on Friday night, which meant that the office cleared out (who puts a xmas party after work on a Friday? The least they can do is start it during business hours…). Given I’d spent each night previously working in the office longer than I would like to, I decided to leave at 5.30 and get back to the city. I didn’t have any ideas for dinner, so in true Mimi style, I google the top hot chips in Auckland, which resulted in a rec for a NY style diner with sells Poutine. So that was it – I was now on a mission.

After having some of the best Poutine in Canada – this one unfortunately came nowhere close (Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more…). The chips were freshly cooked, but they were quite dry inside. Gravy was well salted (tick), but the curd cheese wasn’t good at all (was almost like cubes of cream cheese), and the chips weren’t salted! Not salting chips is an offense punishable by death in my books – so added a heap of extra salt. After dinner I went for a bit of a stroll around the city and got some views of the sky tower.

Saturday I needed to get to the gym so that I could join a BodyAttack class in the motherland. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Les Mills cult – Les Mills is a collection of workout classes (originating in NZ), which has been launched all around the world. In Australia, I go to these classes, and am currently training to be a BodyAttack instructor. In NZ, there are actual Les Mills gyms where you can go to all the diff classes, and I’ve been told that it’s a much better vibe than in Australia. I found the class that I wanted to go to and signed up for a free trial, only to find that when I went into the group fitness studio, it was a yoga class instead!! Grave error on my behalf – it turns out the class I wanted to go to was at another Les Mills gym 1.6km away. Luckily I got there with 10 mins to spare, so after a quick run to the other gym, I successfully attended my BodyAttack session 🙂 Tbh the teacher wasn’t as much of a vibe as my favourite instructor in Sydney, but all in all it was a positive experience.

There were some farmers markets across town which closed 50 mins after my class ended, so I decided I’d hit them up. Google maps said it was only 3km, so I figured that’s a snappy 15min run. A word to the wise – always look at elevation gain when walking around in Auckland. That 3km walk had an elevation gain of 150m! I realised very quickly that this was not going to be a run. I walked through the Domain (their gardens) and it was all very well kept and lush.

Made it to the Parnell farmers markets just in time, but after trying multiple stores to buy some fresh veg, and then turning me away cos they only do cash or bank transf, I decided that I would just look around. Was just like a local markets (maybe around the same size as the bondi markets), so nothing very impressive.

It was still early in the day, and I was near a different part of town which had an icecream store that multiple people had recommended to me, so I decided that icecream would be my lunch of champions. Duck Island Ice cream is a bit like the Messina of NZ – inventive flavours, cool branding, great collabs. The current special flavour is ‘Malted chocolate Icecream with potato chips and Dulce de leche’ (literally has my name all over it!). I decided that since this was my lunch, I would have a double scoop which allowed 3 flavours. However after she put two full size scoops in the cup (equivalent of a single scoop from this store), I decided that it would be sufficient. I got the malt flavour and coffee with chocolate crumb. The flavours were divine – malted choc with potato chips was just enough savoury and crunchy and the caramel complemented it perfectly. The coffee wasn’t too sweet (which brought out the coffee more than regular coffee icecream) and the chocolate crumb had a great sweetness to balance it out. 10/10.

Got back home for a bit of a rest (was already at 25,000 steps for the day), and then it was time to determine what I would eat for dinner. I was in the mood for noodles, so once again did some googling and found a place called ‘Dumpling Hours’ which had some good reviews. On I marched. Got a big bowl of hand pulled noodles with a cumin sauce and it was DIVINE. Perfect way to end a long day of activity.

Sunday I was on a mission to get to a bakery with a friend recommended. It was in a part of town that I was yet to explore, so decided I would kill two birds with one stone (or two stones with one bird for those of you who still enjoy Chuck Norris jokes…) and would go on a long run which would end at the bakery. Chose a wonderful route along the Auckland waterfront, which is all paved or boardwalked to allow people to do scenic walks. Really nice (and also really flat since it follows the water), so was a great way to start the day. I decided that I make my way to a beach, and then to the bakery.

16km later, I get to the bakery. And boy was it worth the run!! This place is called Little & Friday and I highly recommend this for anyone looking to visit Auckland. It reminded me of the Ottolenghi cafes in London – brilliant selection of cakes, pastries, brioche buns (sweet and savoury), salads and sandwiches. Yum!

Decided to get a cinnamon brioche donut, because as most of you will be aware, this is one of my all time favourite treats! And it did not disappoint! Brioche donuts really do hit different – the increased density of the brioche dough allows it to be chewy and moist inside, but it still retains a nice crunch on the surface. I was taking a selfie of me with the donut (for posterity ofc), and the barista was kind enough to come over and asked if I wanted him to take a pic (ofc I do!). Was pleasantly surprised with his photography skills. 100% will be coming back here again. If this was in Sydney, it would be my go to cafe/bakery hands down.

Overall, 10/10 weekend. Will it be dampened by needing to work late tonight so that I can get on top of work before Monday? Possibly. But I definitely made the most of the time I had.

Until next time. xoxo Gossip Girl