Monday 05 February, 2025

If you hadn’t already realised, my favourite thing about going to any different city is food. This morning I had a little Italian cafe picked out for our breakfast, which was just down the road a bit in one of the gorgeous laneways on Little Collins – Caffe e Torta. It did not disappoint – eggs with feta for Craig and I, and fantastic coffee (because Italy) and an Italian donut for Jessie… so good.

Already the temperature was rising quickly, heading for that 37° mark, so we got on our way to DFO straight after breakfast. It’s a lovely walk from Collins Street, passing underneath Flinders Street Station, over the Yarra River and alongside it, walking past lots of lovely looking eateries and bars, until you reach the where the DFO is located just past the massive Convention Centre at South Wharf. Jessie brought her wee camera with her, so we stopped a few times for photo ops.

We spent a good couple of hours looking through DFO – we’d told Jessie she could pick her birthday present here, and she chose (not surprisingly) a popper; admittedly it’s a cool one… it’s Pikachu shaped like a gaming console and it lights up where you need to push in the poppers.

We all made a few purchases, and then started to leave when it was time for a lunch booking I’d made at Docklands, but I suddenly realised (because it was sooo hot at this point) that I didn’t have my sun hat. I raced back inside to each of the stores I’d tried things on in, to no avail. RIP sun hat 😔 – this is 1/3 fails for me on this trip (there’s always something when you’re a mum though, right? Too busy thinking about the tiny human). Onwards and upwards though!

I’d made a booking at a place called Teeny Tiny Cafe as a little surprise for Jessie, and as I expected, she loved it. I wish something like this place existed in Christchurch… such a simple concept, but effective. You buy a ticket at a certain time – it was $15 for Jessie, which included a drink and meal and entry, and $5 each for Craig and I, which could be redeemed for a drink on the day. You select your food/drinks on arrival and then you’re taken upstairs into another room where you take your shoes and socks off, or wear shoe covers (which gave me a flashback to being on the ferry between Argentina and Uruguay, where they strangely make you do the same 🤔). The room is filled with every wee kid’s dreams – costumes, dressers with pretend makeup and hairstyling accessories, cars to ride with little gas stations, a big slide, a little groceries store. So blimmin’ cute. Jessie sort of made friends with other wee ones there, though I’d so love to have seen her there with her own friends… they’d have a blast. The only thing was it’s quite loud… some of those Loop earbud things would’ve come in super handy, but ah well… parent life!

After Teeny Tiny Cafe we were a bit too hot to walk back to the hotel, so we jumped on the tram (free, so why not!), and went for a bit of a swim and hot tub and rest before getting ready to go out for dinner. The hotel pool is not too bad as far as hotel pools go – it’s sort of indoor but not, thanks to the atrium in the hotel, so it feels nice and open. Heated, so it was really pleasant.

Before dinner, we stopped at the Novotel’s Bar as I had some free drinks vouchers, and then we carried on to Guhng The Palace on McKillop Street (walking distance again), which is Korean BBQ where they cook at your table and have these fun looking extractor fans over the BBQ. We were so excited by this novelty, and absolutely loved the food… it was delicious. The service was brilliant, and the waiter brought Jessie over a couple of free Korean drinks as an early birthday present. Craig and I ordered a jug of Soju Bongbong (grape juice with soju) because why not take advantage of not having to drive, which was absolutely delicious, and one of Jessie’s drinks was non-alcoholic bongbong, which she really enjoyed too. After sending photos to my family, my brother and his wife tell me there are some Korean BBQ restaurants in Christchurch, so I’ll definitely be looking to check them out.

After dinner we came back to the hotel where we chilled out watching some TV (the latest Queer Eye for me, because I love a bit of JVN in my life) and had an early night again.

For our last day tomorrow, we are going to check out the NVG – the weather is going to be cooler, which will be nice wee break, as I see this hot Aussie weather is on its way to Christchurch now!

See you tomorrow!

❤ Laus