During a year in which we’ve spent way too much time becoming familiar with our couch and four walls, we’re celebrating some of the best activities that are happening in our great nation this weekend – get out there and enjoy!
GO TO THE CINEMA
One of my greatest regrets between lockdowns, was that I only went to a movie theatre ONCE (although I did use that one occasion to see the best film I’ve seen in forever – Waves – so make sure you also hunt that down too). This time, I’m getting out there and watching films!
And I can highly recommend Miss Juneteenth – a drama that follows a single mother and former Miss Juneteenth preparing her daughter for the very same beauty pageant years later. But, as the competition draws close, the mother and daughter begin to question the pageant’s significance… It’s beautiful and moving, and you don’t just have to take my word for it – it was the winner of Best Texan Film at SXSW.
TAKE THE KIDS – MEET A MEERKAT!
If you’re in Wellington this weekend, end the school holidays with a bang and pay Wellington Zoo a visit. I’d likely spend the bulk of my time in the primates area (there are pygmy marmosets, spider monkeys, capuchins, squirrel monkeys, gibbons, lemurs, chimps, golden lion tamarins and my FAVOURITES – cotton top tamarins!), but I’d also be keeping one eye on the clock so I didn’t miss the Talk Time visit to see the Sun Bear in action at 2pm. If you haven’t seen one of those guys with his arms stretched up wide, praising the sun, you haven’t lived.
If you want to take your visit up a notch, I’d book in for the 4pm Meerkat Close Encounter, where for $99 they let you into the enclosure to feed them, while an expert talks to you all about the little critters. I did this at Auckland Zoo with the ring tail lemurs and it was honestly one of the best afternoons of my life.
GO OVERSEAS (KIND OF…)
I read a story recently about ‘the flight to nowhere’ where, essentially, people are booking IN DROVES to pack a carry-on and board commercial flights that literally just go up, cruise around for a few hours and then drop them right back at the very airport they came from. And I kind of understand. Right now we’re all looking for a bit of escapism.
But rather than shelling out for a flight to nowhere, I’ve got a better suggestion. If you want to get that ‘I’m going to a whole other country!’ kind of feeling – just jump in the car and get yee to Hamilton Gardens.
There’s a huge number of gardens to explore – many are insta-perfect (you’ll likely have seen friends posing in the Surrealist Garden which is set up to make you feel like you’ve shrunk to the size of an ant), but right now, there’s nowhere more perfect to go than their Paradise Collection to feel like you’ve made a great escape.
I’m too torn to pick a favourite – each of the six gardens feels like you’ve touched down in another country, in another time! The Italian Renaissance Garden is tremendous, with a soothing geometric design, featuring statues, an upper level under an arched trellis, looking down to an outdoor theatre. The Japanese Garden of Contemplation feels like you’ve just landed in Kyoto to gather your thoughts in a meditation room overlooking a lake, while the Chinese Scholar’s Garden is equally enchanting with a winding path that leads you through a cave, bridge, an island of whispering birds, through a dense bamboo forest to the red Ting Pavilion. Then there’s the stunning Indian Char Bagh Garden, The English Flower Garden AND the Modernist Garden. It’s simply stunning and perfect to take in alone, as a couple or with the family – and better still? Entry is free!
HAVE A STAYCATION
Seriously sick of looking at the same four walls? Feel like your home has somehow shrunk in the last six months? I hear you. This weekend it’s time to say goodbye to cabin fever, and hello to a change of scenery.
Staying in a hotel in your own hometown can give you a whole new fresh look at your own city – it gives you permission to play tourist for the weekend, or to just enjoy sleeping on a soft as a cloud hotel bed and silence those nagging thoughts giving you the guilts that say ‘I should be tidying/washing/unpacking those boxes that I still haven’t touched four months after moving in’.
I highly recommend getting on a site like Booking.com and checking out what is on offer – but also go directly to the hotels, because lots of them are offering discounts at the moment. My personal picks this weekend if you’re in Auckland would have to be:
- The Cordis. Their beds are like a dream and it’s a beautiful hotel, but tbh my absolute favourite thing is their pool/spa. Sometimes I save up my pennies to get a spa treatment there, then I make a total day of it – you can take a dip in the rooftop pool (it’s 27 degrees year round) or the hot spa pool and order a cocktail from one of the pool loungers. Plus the best bit – entry into the sauna/herbal steam room and snail shower. If you’re a guest at the hotel, you’re welcome to use the facilities and you will 100% sleep like a baby.
- Hotel de Brett. It’s a boutique, luxury old-world hotel right in the midst of the action in downtown Auckland. There’s just 25 rooms, that each have their own chic personality and HUGE bathrooms. The restaurant on-site is seriously amazing and it’s right next to a cozy little bar that is one of Auckland’s best kept secrets. I see online they’re doing a deal for $600 for two nights, with a $100 restaurant credit, which seems like a bargain for their usual rates!
- Hotel Britomart. This JUST opened and right now I’m enjoying spying on everyone’s Instagram posts who has visited. Right in the heart of Britomart, it offers dazzling waterfront views – with some seriously beautiful aesthetics. I love the timber-lined rooms, with super-king beds (freshly made with organic cotton sheets). Plus, right downstairs are some of the greatest restaurants – just a stone’s throw away. If I were you, before heading to your room I’d share a plate of oysters, the shaking beef and spicy poached chicken at Café Hanoi, or I’d pop into Xuxu for cocktails and baskets of the steamed prawn & ginger har gao dumplings (oh, and the friend chicken & shitake mushroom dumplings!!).
