Managed to fit two coffees in this morning. First was from Drop Cafe, trendy little coffee nook hidden at the back of clothing store. This one was mentioned in the NZ Herald article on great Queenstown coffee locations as well.
It looks like the coffee is severed in an enamel cup, which would have been interesting, however it’s just a ceramic mug that’s been shaped and painted how we expect enamel cups to be.
Drop Cafe
Second coffee was around 11am from the Bathhouse cafe right on the lake at the front of town. The weather today is 100% perfect, clear sunny day, about 21c with a very very slight breeze. We sat here for a while just basking in the glorious sunshine sipping the coffee. Pretty good coffee too.
Approx 12 months ago we decided we would head across the ditch and spend 10 days on the South Island of New Zealand. We are basing ourselves in Queenstown with two overnight stops elsewhere on the island that you will see in future posts.
I’m somewhat embarrassed that after over 50 revolutions of the sun, I still haven’t visited New Zealand. It’s so close, I have so many wonderful Kiwi friends and colleagues yet had never bothered to get on plane and give the place a visit. I guess It’s something I always thought I’d get to later, well joke is totally on me, I’ve only been here a few hours and I can already see its drop dead gorgeous and amazing. I’ve been missing out. The flight over the mountains and into Queenstown has some eye popping views. We were also blessed with a clear sunny day on arrival.
A few minutes from landing
The other novelty of visiting NZ after spending the last few holidays in Europe is that it’s only a two hour flight. Take off, quick meal and we are getting ready to land.
As far as travel days go, we had an amazing one. Home to the airport in about 40 minutes, one of the fastest checkins and security clearances ever in Sydney, less than 15 minutes from walking in the airport to looking for a coffee on the airside of the airport. Coffee was the usual Sydney airport affair, average and eye watering expense.
Took the jet ages to taxi around the airport, they had set flights to take off from the eastern end of the runway. Unfortunately we didn’t fly right over the city, as soon as we took off the pilot pulled an Elon (AKA a hard bank to the right…) and we went straight out to sea and over to NZ.
It was equally good in NZ, about 10 minutes from passport control to getting bags and passing customs. Only slight hitch was we went to the wrong side of the airport to get the hire car.
I spent a good 5 minutes talking pictures of the hire car checking for damage then remembered I’d paid extra for zero excess (walk away) insurance, so that was essentially a waste of time. Airport was only a 10 min drive from the apartment, after checking in we dusted off our Jandals, grabbed our chillybin and headed off to local supermarket to grab some local supplies. Pineapple Lumps are the bomb!
The other bonus of coming to NZ is the exchange is in our favour by roughly 10%, way better than visiting the UK !. Was also checking FB history, exactly a year ago we were in Spain, exactly the opposite side of the planet to NZ.
The lake here is massive, apparently it’s 380m deep. It’s so deep part of it is 70m below sea level.
We had booked dinner at the Stratosfare Restaurant at the top of Bobs Peak, you take the Gondola there. Of course it’s beyond silly cost wise for a buffet dinner (NZ$170 per person), but you are really paying for the view and the upkeep of the Gondola. Great selection of food on offer.
I think Dave Dobbyn was correct, this place really is a slice of heaven.
Every few Christmases we are in South West Rocks at my in-laws house. SWR is a great little town that hasn’t been overwhelmed with development over the past 30 years.
It still has many of the traditional post war “fibro” houses right near town. There has been an uptick in new housing but most of it is further west on the outskirts of town closer to Jerseyville.
Every morning I’d go for an early walk to grab a coffee from the best cafe in SWR and go drink it just watching the ocean from Horseshoe Bay in town.
Went for the same walk Christmas morning with no expectation the cafe would be open, but walking into town I saw a few people with takeaway cups and thought could that be…. On Xmas… ?
And sure enough the cafe was open! On Christmas!! Sure enough it was significantly more than usual, not that I cared, awesome coffee on Christmas!! Santa has delivered ! It’s a Festivus Miracle!
Just before Xmas, I purchased a drone. Pic below is from that. Had been thinking of getting one for a while, but after visiting a friend in the Hunter Valley region who has one, the deal was sealed. Will be great for our upcoming trip to NZ.
Coffee at Sixty Degrees, South West RocksOverlooking Horseshoe BayDrone Pictue over Back Creek, South West Rocks
Early October is a long weekend in NSW, and I’d been wanting to really try out the foodie scene thats been happening in Orange for a number of years, so I booked in a three night weekend. I’ve travelled through Orange a few times in the past couple of years when going to other places and saw enough to know it really was a happening place and we needed to spend more time there.
I remember years ago as a kid, the food scene in country towns (as well as everywhere else) was pretty dire. Meat pies, pub steaks, fish and chips or the 1970s Chinese takeaway were about it. The roads were also terrible. Wow, things have changed……
One “fun fact” about Orange is that is has nothing to do with growing Oranges. The climate is too cool for the fruit and is one of the few towns in Australia that will likely see some snow in Winter.
Be prepared to read through what was essentially three days of a food and drink extravaganza.
First stop in the morning on the way to Orange was Glenbrook in the mountains for Coffee & Breakfast at Glenbrook Underground. I’ve mentioned that cafe before. Glenbrook is a great place for Breakfast as it’s the first town on the way up the mountains so many people skip it in the morning and wait till they reach Leura. Glennbrook seems less crowded, I’ve not had any issues getting parking there on a morning.
A quick stop in Bathurst to top up the car and we were on the way to Orange for our lunch stop at The Agrestic Grocer for lunch. This place is just outside town to the North West, but I’d say it’s a microcosm of everything thats great about the Orange food scene. They sell lots of interesting fresh local produce and have a great cafe attached. They often have live music and a fireplace for when it’s cold. This is a must visit place if you are staying in Orange or even just passing through.
We picked up lots of local samples to try. Got a selection of the red apples, they were all massive and all super delicious.
The Agrestic Grocer
After checking into our hotel, looking around for something to do in town, noticed a local distillery that also did pizza. We drove over and shared a Gin tasting menu (Had I not been driving I think I could have had quite a few of these! They were wonderful). Was really too early for dinner, considering lunch wasn’t that long ago, but we decided we would come back and get a takeaway Pizza for dinner.
One of our favourite butchers shut up their local shop in Kirrawee and relocated out here to Orange. We did pop by his new shop to see if we could pickup some of our all time favourites. Thankfully he does do local visits back to Sydney for regular customers a few times a year.
So if you are in Orange and want a great Pizza or a great Gin (or both!) head on over to Parrot.
Parrot Distillery
The hotel we picked was the de Russie Boutique Hotel. It looks relatively modern, has onsite parking. It’s located on Hill St which is only a very short stroll from the centre of town and close to some wonderful restaurants and cafes. They have a number of serviced apartments and the room we had included a small kitchenette.
Breakfast on Saturday morning had to be back at Factory Espresso, I was impressed when I came through in August and wanted to have a breakfast here. Was a great decision, I had one of the best Bircher Muesli I’ve ever had. Only potential improvement would be to use normal yoghurt as opposed to coconut yoghurt. Pic of the dish in the block below.
After breakfast, started the day with a visit to a winery just a few minutes out of town : Nashdale Lane. They were all great but I had a real liking for the Pinot Noir. Of course, we purchased a box of wine. Leaving the winery carrying the box some smarty on the way in suggested I was walking out with a box of problems, I suggested they are actual a box of solutions to one’s problems….
Nashdale Lane also have some accomodation onsite with Glamping tents if you want to stay on the vineyard.
Next stop was the historic town of Millthorpe. It’s a quaint little old town, much of it on the National trust. Back in the late 19th century a flour mill was built and the railway came to town. Well worth a wander with lots of little cafes, “old ware” type shops, pubs and restaurants. If you were looking for somewhere close to Orange but maybe a little quieter, you wouldn’t go wrong here.
Had a browse through Millthorpe Providore before settling on the Old Mill Cafe and Restaurant for lunch. Couldn’t fault the coffee or the food. After lunch went for a walk around town and checked out the historic rail station.
Millthorpe NSW
Around a few places I’d seen this local Cherry Gin mentioned or for sale, being a slight fan of Gin, I was keen to buy a bottle to take home, but cherry flavour can be hit or miss, so I really wanted to try it first. The distillery is in Lucknow just outside Orange, so we dropped in on the way back for a tasting. Glad I did, as it wasn’t particularly to my liking, maybe a little on the medicinal tasting side. Next time in Orange will try some of their others, as no shortage of selections !
Dinner later Saturday night was at the Union Bank House Restaurant, a short 5 min walk around the corner from the hotel. Lovely old colonial building, food was as good as the ratings suggested. I had a miso encrusted steak and Sharon had a fish dish.
Day three of the food tour started looking for a coffee. Bit of googling suggested there was a great one about 15 minutes walk away called Academy Coffee Roasters on Woodward St. It was a nice walk through Cook Park, however I should have checked closer as it was closed on Sundays. Not to worry, I’d walked past an amazing looking place “Anything Grows” which is a cafe inside a plant nursery. Whilst the Coffee was no where near as good as Factory Espresso, it was still good and the location and atmosphere is amazing, especially on a nice cool sunny day.
Sisters Rock Resturant
After breakfast we had a walk through the Orange Botanical Gardens, then over to Lake Camobolas. That’s a man made lake, it was once the main water supply to Orange, however thats been replaced with a larger dam further out from town and this is now a recreation and picnic area.
Anything Grows, Lake, Gardens & Dinner
Lunch and the afternoon were spent at Sisters Rock Restaurant and the Skybar. I’d started to worry a little as they had recently had some lower google reviews, however we had a fantastic experience there, the food and wine were excellent. I’d started to really feel all the food from the weekend already so I stuck to a vegetarian option. 5 stars on my review !
Views over the valley from both the restaurant and the skybar were amazing on such a clear sunny day. I tried the Cherry Liqueur…. This was very very nice. The restaurant also had free EV charging, so was able to top up the car whilst we had a leisurely afternoon too.
Much later that evening we walked 5 minuted from our hotel and had Thai in the Gladstone Hotel. Excellent food, served super quick, couldn’t fault it at all.
We sadly had to leave Orange on the Monday morning, and then faced a coffee dilemma in that Monday being the Labour Day holiday, almost nothing was open. We drove past “Crema on Lords” (which had also been recommended to me) and it was open. There was a massive queue, however absolutely worth the wait. First cafe that I’ve ever seen that gives you a free macchiato whilst you wait for your late, cappuccino or flat white.
On the road and back up Victoria pass in the mountains for a night there before heading home.
Back in August I had another trip back out through Cowra and Grenfell. I’d quickly visited Grenfell back in April to see the painted silos, however I’d failed to notice that there was an interesting car museum I’d missed, the Grenfell Chrysler museum. It looked interesting and I was annoyed that I missed it, so I decided to head back that way for a road trip and check it out.
Initially I’d thought I’d just stay in Cowra again, however looking around I found Grenfell Hall, I very nice looking period house that had been turned into a B&B. So I booked in there. The house was wonderful with so many ornate features, very comfortable and included a great breakfast. The only slight disappointment was that they didn’t have a fire going, I’d been hoping to sit in the lounge in front of that and read a book at night. I was lodged in the Chapel room. If you love country houses, this is well worth a visit.
The car museum was fantastic. When I returned home, I mentioned to a friend of mine who is a car magazine editor where I’d been, and he suggested that I write a guest article, which I did. You can read my full report (in my first professionally published article here below).
Dinner in Grenfell was a hearty pub steak (Its a small town, so you don’t have a heap of options : really two pubs, the bowling club or a Chinese restaurant. I chose the Criterion hotel. The steak was fantastic.
The coffee scene in Grenfell isn’t massive, in the morning on the Sunday, there was only one place open that did coffee which was the Kim Chi Bakery and Cafe.
I left Grenfell mid morning on the Sunday and headed to Parkes. I wanted to visit the Henry Parkes centre and have lunch at the “Dish Cafe”, the same dish made famous in the movie “The Dish“. Along the way I stopped for some pictures of the car near some Canola fields which were in full bloom. I also discovered that central NSW promote the “Canola Trail“, something I’ll be doing on a future road trip.
I was disappointed to discover that the Cafe at the dish had been closed for renovations, so I drove back to Parkes for lunch there, before driving onto Orange where I was staying a night before heading home. Did a drive to the top of Mount Canobolas which is well worth a visit. The road up the mountain is in poor condition though.
Orange is an utter fabulous foodie destination in NSW, which I’ll cover more in a future post, however the Cafe recommended to me was Factory Espresso and the coffee was fabulous.
Trecking home, I stopped in Bathurst and spend some time in the National Racing Museum in Bathurst (right next to Mount Panorama). I real mecca for fans of Australian Motor racing. As an added bonus they had free EV charging on site so I was able to charge the car for the drive home later that day.
It's all about the coffee 