Rapaura Gardens & Koru @ Rapaura Café

This blog post is for my friend Kerry. She said don’t just tell us about your travels, I want to hear about boutique food or great cafés you find. So here you are Kerry, one for you (as I’m not sure how great or numerous the cafés are going to be as we move further up the peninsula)

Today it is overcast with a few passing showers, rain the area desperately needs but nowhere near enough. As with the rest of NZ & in particular the North Island the endless summer continues with a serious drought taking hold. We had planned to visit the Rapaura Gardens & it was quite pleasant without the hot sun beating down & the drizzle just enough to not make a nuisance of itself.

The Rapaura Gardens & Café are located not too far up the Tapu-Coroglen Road. In sixty four acres of what was once totally native bush, there are now tranquil garden walks & garden art, beautiful waterlily ponds and a native bush walk to the Seven Steps to Heaven waterfall. They also have lodge & cottage accommodation along with the lovely Koru café where we had lunch after exploring.

David had one of his favourite dishes;  locally fresh caught flounder which he said was superb. Lightly panfried & finished off baked in the oven, it came with a salad & freshly baked potato bread in a small flower pot. 

I had Moroccan meatballs, tomato topping & couscous which were also delicious and very filling. The coffee was great and the family & staff very pleasant & friendly.  Sasha the chef has a very good name in the area as we were recommended to the café 3 or 4 different times on our travels.

So if you are in the area to stay or just passing through; here is another recommendation; Rapaura is definitely worth a visit.

And there in the gardens was another Trekka for David to inspect; had he delivered or sold this one? He couldn’t find any identification to help & red was not a standard colour so who knows…..

The Trekka deck was planted in pongas(tree ferns)

 Check out more photos from Rapaura here