Monday 6th December

You may notice by the date that I am a little behind with the blogging. We were with the Mills and I was having too much fun and doing too much work to keep up. So on Monday we made it to our first couple of cafes. The friends and whanau had given us their recommendations to add to the ones we already had, at one point I began to melt as the ideas were coming too thick and fast for my brain to compute. Anyway after an executive dyad discussion (me and Matthew) we decided to go to Provisions in Arrowtown as our first mission.
What a treat. Dianne and I shared a psychology/psychotherapy moment as she told me the story of how she and Pauline started with making use of the local fruit in the Cromwell area to make preserves, jams, chutneys etc. They moved on to initiating the Cromwell Farmers Market before they took the opportunity to be in one of the original cottages in Arrowtown to create what is now Provisions cafe. Busy women who have made a valuable addition to Arrowtown and have fast become a local favourite destination. The much talked about Obscenely good sticky buns have a solid following that harks back to the days in the farmers market. Yes they are good and no we were unable to prise out the recipe from those present, although I believe I may have cracked it, I won't tell.
Having been slack with the cafes for a couple of days it was on to another. Vesta is located in the oldest surviving Queenstown original cottage. Kim has owned the place for five years and is it design, cafe, fashion and garden melded into a very appealing package. Kim is great and appealing in her honesty and welcome. It is nice to meet someone who is upfront with vulnerability and obviously strong as well, I like. The garden is a highlight with a glasshouse positioned to veiw over the lake with opportunity to sit inside out of the weather should you so desire.
The kids managed to play on the beach while we did the work, today was not a highlight for fun, but the job is facilitating the trip and so it is appropriatly swings and roundabouts. They got to play with Gabs and Harrison when we returned home.
I cooked dinner for the combined families while Matthew made yet another visit, this time to the Smoko Run. Innovative idea by some locals who started the famous Joes Garage then moved on to Motogrill before this latest venture. A container adjacent to Placemakers that has blokes in mind, has been converted into a 'cafe' of sorts with some kick butt coffee. Matthew has the notes and names so I will get on to that when he returns from his latest mission.
A day filled with work, tomorrow some recreation.