Best restaurant for dinner with friends?<\/p>\n
Gerome, in Parnell, has a great selection of gluten-free, vegan and dairy-free options on their delicious menu of modern Greek dishes. There\u2019s something for everyone and each of the four dining spaces only holds a maximum of 50 seated guests, so you get the sense of comfort and privacy, whatever sized group you have. <\/p>\n
The place to take a visitor?<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t go past our black-sand beaches. So few people, wherever they\u2019ve come from, have ever experienced anything the expanses of black sand we have along our West Coast, so a trip to Piha or Muruwai are definitely top of the list, but the Auckland Museum is always worth a visit, for visitors of all ages, and of course the top of One Tree Hill \u2013 Maungakiekie with its view across the city. <\/p>\n
Best spot to finish a night out?<\/p>\n
My husband enjoys a good whisky, so we\u2019ve been known to enjoy a visit to The Jefferson at the end of an evening in the city.<\/p>\n
Best coffee?<\/p>\n
Coffee Lab, on Silverfield Rd, Wairau Valley, on the Shore. The coffee from Anna\u2019s \u201clab\u201d is amazing (according to my son and husband) and I love her hot chocolate. Oh, the gluten-free treats in her cabinet are delicious, too, though my boys can\u2019t go past Anna\u2019s cheesecake options.<\/p>\n
Favourite trail for a hike?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re spoilt for choice with the wonderful walks around Birkenhead and the North Shore and I love the walk along the North Shore coastline at low tide. I love the walk out to Kitekite Falls, too. I used to go Geocaching with my cousin \u2026 we haven\u2019t done it for quite some time \u2026 maybe this summer it might be time to get the clues for a treasure hunt and take the whole family! Or a game of Getting Lost! <\/p>\n
Favourite fish and chip shop?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not easy finding a fish\u2019n\u2019chippy that has a gluten-free menu, so when you find a good one you tend to only go there! The Chip Shop in Royal Oak is my go-to. The fish is always fresh and the GF batter is crispy and delicious. You can\u2019t go past their chunky fries, too. There are a couple of seats inside the shop, but they\u2019re more for perching on while you wait for your order. We tend to drive up the road to One Tree Hill and either sit in the car before going for a walk. Yumm!<\/p>\n
Venue for a gig?<\/p>\n
Auckland was once alive with great venues, so we\u2019ve been delighted to see new venues popping up we\u2019re loving Goblin\u2019s jazz nights, (keep an eye out for the next performance of Daybus Jazz Orchestra, in particular, they are amazing and play classic jazz standards that are so slick and snazzy). But I\u2019ve got to recommend the beautiful Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, where I\u2019ll be bringing Suzy Cato\u2019s Animal Antics as part of Auckland Live\u2019s We The Young festival. <\/p>\n
Best spot for a bargain?<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve yet to visit every op shop in Tamaki Makaurau, but I\u2019m slowly working my way through them all, as I love op shopping and finding hidden treasures! I love our markets, too, though the car boot sales seem to be a thing of the past, I love scouring the tables of the many farmers and craft markets for interesting gifts and yummy treats.<\/p>\n
Auckland Live\u2019s We The Young returns for its second year from Friday, September 25 to Sunday, October 11. The festival will transform the heart of T\u0101maki Makaurau into a celebration of children\u2019s natural playfulness and imagination, while encouraging their capacity for curiosity, creativity, wisdom and adventure. Suzy Cato\u2019s Animal Antics takes place on October 2, at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre as part of the Festival. Tickets are on sale now<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Best restaurant for dinner with friends? Gerome, in Parnell, has a great selection of gluten-free, vegan and dairy-free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,22398,14645,294918,4749,2199,54983,22397,1364,10938,78,4977,111,43,139,69,22399,9095,1963,180,10041,10809,36181,1120,223,165,1961,208,686,12025],"class_list":["post-598443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-auckland","tag-aucklanders","tag-beloved","tag-cato","tag-childrens","tag-city","tag-entertainer","tag-favourite","tag-her","tag-herald","tag-in","tag-my","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-places","tag-secret","tag-series","tag-shares","tag-spots","tag-sunday","tag-suzy","tag-takes","tag-the","tag-their","tag-this","tag-tour","tag-week","tag-wellknown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}