Arrival of Autumn
“As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colours enough to paint the beautiful things I see.”
Vincent Van Gogh
Celebrating March
March in New Zealand is our first month of autumn. As our days start getting shorter, we also saw the sunrise over the Hauraki Gulf moving from Rangitoto Island towards Rahapora Point illuminating the sky with incredible morning colours right in front of our luxurious rooms at Elements of Castor Bay, perfect for your North Shore romantic getaway.
Although some say March is the end of the whale watching season in Auckland, Orcas can in fact be seen passing through the Hauraki Gulf all year round. We were excited to have these playful Orcas visit the North Shore on the last Saturday in March. They often travel in pods of 5 – 15 and are specialists in hunting rays and sharks. If you want to see them for yourselves, Auckland Whale and Dolphin Safari offer a 4 -5 hour cruise through the beautiful Hauraki Gulf Marine Park departing from central Auckland.
Photo Credit: Vanessa Bryce
Restaurant Recommendation - Tokki, Milford
We take our responsibility when recommending restaurants very seriously, and make sure we know each one recommended very well.
This month’s restaurant is the wonderful Tokki right here in Milford only 1.3 km from Elements of Castor Bay. An intimate space with simple décor, it is a modern Korean restaurant serving unique mouth-watering dishes. Each time we go we order the House Menu which changes with the seasons but maintains from customer feedback variations on the favoutire dishes. The finale of the House Menu, the Melona S’more is a bite sized taste sensation that has to be experienced. A la carte is also available.
Tokki was created to represent Head Chef Jason Kim’s spiritual animal, the Rabbit (tokki is the direct translation of rabbit in Korean). We love the description of their culinary journey on their website “Much like the white rabbit in Lewis Caroll’s famous novel ‘Alice in Wonderland’, we want Tokki to be able to invite our beloved customers to follow him down the rabbit hole into Jason’s culinary adventures.” If there is just two of you, we recommend trying to grab a spot at the bar so you can watch the chef at work.
Coming up in April
Some picks for the month of April in Auckland are:
· 2 April Synthony in The Domain 2pm, Eden Park
· 2 April Black Caps v Sri Lanka
· 7 April Good Friday
· 9 April Rod Stewart, Spark Arena
· 10 April Easter Monday
· 14 April Joanne McNally - The Prosecco Express, Bruce Mason Centre
· 15 April New Zealand Guitar Ensemble 18th Annual Concert, Albany
· 25 April ANZAC Day - All For Peace - ANZAC Tribute The Pump House Theatre