So the weather today continued being very average with the wind and rain continuing most of the day. We decided to stay in while our friend showed signs of being energetic and went for her daily run despite the weather. Deb and I did not join her, choosing to stay at the house.
Following our fruitless search for ‘fish and chips’ in Paihia, we found a local shop that did a very nice crumbed snapper. After lunch, Deb’s friend went to collect her daughter who had been working at Mangawhai as crew at a music festival. She had camped in the rain, but was surprisingly pretty well rested.
I was finally able to leave the house as we went to a local craft brewery called Hallertau for some drinks with some additional friends. Hallertau is named after a small town in Bavaria where in 736AD the first known hop plants where harvested and incorporated into beer production. There is no connection with the New Zealand rugby league player Dene Halatau. (just saying).
The venue is undergoing a renovation, so they were seemingly a bit short on seating, so we ended up sitting in a temporary annexe until the extra friends left. I started with the two tasting paddles on offer. These were a variety of beers brewed on site. They had a good range of beers to suit most tastes. My favourite being their ‘Statesman IPA’ while Deb quite liked the ‘Kolsch’ (a german style).
With the beer tasting done it was time to move onto the food. We chose a variety of tapas plates. The food was delicious although the waiter service was just a little off the mark. We had some chicken wings, calamari, pork belly, beef croquettes, baked salmon and roasted beetroot, with my favourite being the pork belly and the girls preferring the salmon.
After eating our fill it was back to the house for a bit of television and the last chance to catch up before we head home tomorrow.
Until tomorrow!
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 