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Vegan in Sydney

October 3, 2017, 1:57 am
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There's something about visiting cities with iconic buildings that really floats my boat. NYC, Paris, Barcelona, and now Sydney are all up there with my favourite cities in the world and that's what links them in my mind. The other thing they all have in common is amazing vegan food!


Sydney can be a challenging place for a traveller on a budget but the good news is that the centre of the city is very walkable. We walked from our hostel, YHA's Railway Square hostel, up George Street towards the Art Gallery of New South Wales, harbour bridge, Museum of Contemporary Art, botanical gardens, and the opera house almost every day during our stay. Their super central location means that you're literally inside the station surrounded by pricier accommodation options but paying a fraction of the price. It really is considerably cheaper than anywhere else in the area. As well as being by the train and bus depots which will whizz you to vegan destinations all over the city it's basically on top of a Lord Of The Fries (the chicken and chips is a total bargain by Aussie standards and I love their $5 mini chicken burger), in amongst multiple bubble tea spots (Coco forever!), and close to Brew Street for your breakfast muffin and coffee. 

The Railway Square YHA is also walking distance from Chinatown where you can get yourself some cheap vegan eats at Blossoming Lotus which is located in a delightfully scuzzy and slightly disorganised mall food court. The one vegan stand is easy to spot!


My food photos are too horrible to share but the BBQ buns are excellent as is the Pad See Ew. If you aren't contending with a bunch of allergies the rice + one, two, or three sides is an excellent budget option.

For our first two nights in Sydney we made use of our ePacks and stayed in a dorm room in a train carriage on the platform at the YHA Railway Square hostel. I honestly thought that this room was a delight; I'm a pretty solid sleeper so the station announcements didn't bother me (Nick was pretty unamused about the 03:40 train to Newcastle though) and I liked the layout of the room - it reminded me of my favourite sleeper train journeys just with less jolting and cleaner sheets.

There are two absolute must visit areas in Sydney for vegan travellers, Newtown and Glebe. We started in Newtown where we headed straight for 100% vegan fish and chip shop Bliss and Chips.


I loved this place! I've always been a faux fish fan and it's much harder to come by than fake meat. I went for the fisherman's platter whilst Nick went for the classic battered fish and we shared an order of chips. My platter consisted of all sorts of faux fishy deliciousness including prawns, tofu fish, calamari, and crab sticks. I loved it! This is also the place where you can get battered and deep fried vegan mars bars and peanut butter cups. Amazing. If fried chocolate doesn't float your boat then consider popping down the street to Doughnut Time for dessert. I can never resist the Fairy Godmother doughnut although their specials always look and sound amazing.


Our next meal was at Soul Burger in Glebe where I have to admit to being slightly disappointed. I could tell that my burger was delicious but I think that it may have waited around a while for all of the components of Nick's ridiculous hash brown and pineapple topped burger to be ready meaning that it was a little cold when it arrived at the table.


There was only one person working the register and a decent line so I didn't complain but I probably should have. I'm sure that this isn't a reflection of what this popular local chains burgers are usually like. Nick's burger was piping hot throughout and he thoroughly enjoyed it. All of the reviews on Happy Cow are glowing so definitely don't skip this place because I didn't love it. We checked out The Cruelty Free Shop after lunch and grabbed some delicious snacks to take into the outback with us, they sell a range of cheeses, protein bars, chocolate, and mock meats - everything you'd hope to find at a vegan shop!

One absolute must eat spot in the city is MAKER which is located on Paramatta Road. This self described coffee bar is so much more than that, they make killer desserts, amazing sandwiches (including ridiculous specials) and delicious scrolls and on top of all of that they're just the nicest people. Check out my post about them here.

Back over to Newtown and this time we decided to eat at Gigi Pizzeria. This totally vegan place doesn't take reservations unless you're a large group so arrive early if you don't want to wait around. We rocked up at 6:20pm, 20 minutes after opening, and they were able to squeeze us in. Service was swift but I was slightly less excited by the menu than I expected to be. I'm a total faux meats and cheese kinda girl and the fact that I ordered the Funghi e Radicchio, a pizza basically covered in veggies, is pretty out of character and goes to show that this menu is very veg heavy!


This pizza did have cheese just not your usual abundance of melty cheese favouring a little touch of vegan blue cheese and roasted walnuts to give that cheesy vibe. It was topped with an abundance of radicchio and mushrooms as well as garlic and olive oil. I definitely liked this pizza, the base was some top notch stone roasted wood fired deliciousness, but Red Sparrow in Melbourne is where my pizza slice shaped heart lies. Nick's really not a vegetable fan so he ordered the Marinara which he said was solid but not the best he's ever had.


Gigi Pizzeria is definitely somewhere I'd visit again if I was in the city, I enjoyed the cosy atmosphere and there are definitely more pizzas on the menu that I'd like to try. Gigi's is located just around the corner from another 100% vegan spot Gelato Blue which makes for the perfect dinner plan. Get to Gigi's for an early dinner and then head around to Gelato Blue for dessert. Top tip- Gelato Blue actually has seating upstairs!


Gelato Blue has such an abundant selection of flavours that I found it genuinely hard to choose. Usually I hone in on something nutty and something chocolatey and I'm done but this spot made it much more challenging. During my time in the city I tried the milk chocolate cookie, tiramisu, mint choc chip, pistachio, and chocolate hazelnut and they were all delicious. The pistachio didn't quite meet my super high standards but the chocolate cookie and the tiramisu were ridiculously good, this should definitely be on your must eat list if you're into ice cream and really, who isn't?

Sydney is a super awesome spot for a city break and it's a great jumping off point for a trip into the red centre to visit Uluru. I definitely recommend the super central YHA Railway Square hostel, whether you're travelling on a tight budget and grab one of their $35 dorm rooms (lock it in for even less with an ePack) or wanting a little more privacy in a double you won't find better value for money anywhere else. Nick and I will have stayed there three times by the time we leave Australia and you can't get a better endorsement than that.

This post was sponsored by YHA Australia and as always all words and opinions are my own. Posts like these help me to keep bringing you travel posts from around the globe.
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Wagamama Launches Vegan Menu

October 8, 2017, 3:28 pm
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Since I left the UK in January 2015 the vegan options at chain restaurants have blossomed, with chains like Zizzi's adding vegan menu items and Tofurky launching their range of vegan sandwiches I'm going to be coming back to a country that's a whole lot more vegan friendly. One of the few downsides of travelling is that I don't get to go and eat all of these delicious new things the very second they're launched but when Wagamama contacted me about trying their new vegan menu I decided to do the only sensible thing and pay it forward. After scouring Instagram for Brighton peep's who take excellent photos I found Stevie, @thebrightonvegan, who was more than happy to attend the event on my behalf. Hopefully I'll be bringing you more guest posts as I try to keep on top of the UK's growing vegan scene from a continent far, far away. Over to Stevie...

For some time, the word on the vegan grapevine has been that Wagamama was launching an all new vegan menu. Vague news articles and the occasional insta-story indicated that it was tantalisingly close.


Well friends, it's here. And, oh, it's good.

I was always surprised at how few vegan options were on offer at Wagamama – Asian cuisine is usually pretty veggie friendly – so when the opportunity arose to sample a sneak preview of the new menu at their Brighton restaurant, I grabbed my trusty vegan pal Caitlin and practically broke their door down.

Before we sat down to eat, Karl, the development chef in charge of the new menu, took us through a quick history of its evolution. He was keen to get across how serious they are about keeping vegan food vegan, speaking as enthusiastically about their plans for a dedicated vegan fryer as he did about the menu itself. Honestly, their dedication to doing it properly was heartening.


But the food, what about the food?

Rather than having to order from the giant allergen file brought over by the manager (you know the one), the veggie menu is the same as the regular one, but with the added benefit of not having to trawl through the meat and dairy dishes to find the vegan options.



As diligent (and greedy) reviewers, we ordered three mains, three sides and two desserts between us (it's a tough job):

Kare Buruso Ramen

Silken tofu coated in shichimi (a kind of Japanese seven spice) and deep fried served with mixed mushrooms, veggies and udon noodles in a curried vegetable broth. This dish was designed from the ground up to be their new vegan flagship, and it was absolutely delicious. Fragrant and spicy, it’s like the ramen version of a katsu curry.


The great thing about it is that it’s not just a ‘regular’ meal with some bits taken away to make it vegan; it’s whole, satisfying, balanced and deeply flavourful. Particularly those mushrooms, full of garlicky umami goodness, I could’ve eaten a bowl of those without coming up for air.

Warm Chill Yasai Salad

This was an unexpected favourite. We ordered the salad to freshen things up a bit (plus, we're vegans, it's all we eat right?), but it turned out to be the winner of the evening.


Tofu, fresh veggies and cashew nuts nestling in baby gem lettuce and tossed in a curiously addictive sweet chilli sauce, the zingy freshness really hit the spot. If you’re dining with a friend, splitting this between you is a great alternative, or addition, to the usual sides.

Yasai Salma Curry

Despite being full of fragrant ingredients, this one didn’t pack quite as much punch as the other two. It was pretty good, but maybe a little underseasoned – nothing a splash of soy sauce couldn’t fix. 

Flavoured with lemongrass, coconut and coriander, if you’re a fan of thai green curry, this is the one for you.

Sides

The vegan sides aren’t a great departure from the regular menu. Yasai gyoza, edamame and japanese pickles have always been in my Wagamama order, pre- and post-vegan days. Always a solid combo, and they complemented the main dishes perfectly.


Dessert


At the moment, the dessert selection will be a familiar sight to any vegan that has ever eaten out: Sorbet.

That said, they were pretty good. Out of the two flavours, pink guava and passionfruit or lemon, the former was definitely the best – reminiscent of a more grown up Solero.

We were assured by Harry (who, incidentally, was the friendliest waiter I think I’ve ever met) and Karl, that better things in this area could be on the horizon.

If you’ve been keeping an ear to the ground, you may have heard rumours of a seitan katsu curry coming to the Wagamama vegan offering. The bad news is that it hasn’t been included in this iteration of the new menu. The good news is that we were reliably informed that it is currently being trialled in their test restaurant in London. 

Seeing as Wagamama sells more chicken katsu curry than it does Coca Cola (no, really), you’d think that rolling that one out would be a no-brainer. Here’s hoping.

Wagamama is the latest adopter in the growing trend for bigger, better, more readily available vegan options. No longer doomed to constructing weird pseudo-meals out of side dishes (chips, salad and mediterranean medley anyone?), vegans can look forward to eating proper food at high street chains. With everyone from Pizza Express to Bailey’s and now Wagamama catching on, the future is looking a lot more vegan.

You can find more of Stevie's excellent photos on Instagram @thebrightonvegan and watch this space for more guest posts about vegan eats in Brighton. This post was sponsored by Wagamama, as always all words and opinions are the writer's own. 
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Vegan Eats Sydney

October 12, 2017, 1:11 am
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This is probably going to be my final Sydney post and I've been putting off writing it because it means that my time in Australia is really over. No more wallabies, considerably less delicious vegan pies, and no more hanging out with my friend Amanda. Making friends online can be the absolute best because it's a really cool and easy way to connect with people who you have a bunch of stuff in common with (you also get close fast because people like to overshare online!) but the flip side is that sometimes your favourite people live in Sydney, or Austin, or Vienna, or somewhere else far away and you hardly ever get to see them in real life.

I try not to get too sad about it because it's so fun to be able to meet up with people whilst I'm travelling but my dream is to live somewhere and have a bunch of awesome vegan friends living nearby so that we can have potlucks, and brunches, and sleepovers, and pizza parties, and go for hikes, and get involved in activism, and eat my carefully crafted pick 'n mix together at the movies. One day! I'm also getting to the point in my travels where I can't wait to be settled somewhere so that my friends can actually come and visit me for a change. I miss that!

Amanda and I have one final dinner date planned during my layover before I fly to Hong Kong and I definitely will not cry when we part ways like I did in Portland that time! I spent about seven days in Sydney and as well as visiting MAKER, one of the best vegan businesses on the planet, a couple of times and exploring everything that Newtown, Glebe, and the CBD have to offer (blog post here) we managed to squeeze in visits to a bunch of other cool places including Pineana in Avalon Beach, The Hold in Manly, and Funky Pies in Bondi.


Pineana specialise in Asian inspired bowls and they have six options for you to choose from meaning that there's something for everyone. Even I was able to order without making any modifications which is a little unusual! 



Options include the Bali bowl, the Hanoi bowl, the Malay bowl, and the Bento bowl and I went for the Bento bowl (front right) which was full of so many of my favourite ingredients. Rice noodles, salad leaves, edamame, tofu, mushrooms, nori, pickled ginger, and a miso dressing. It was delicious and when I'm not living out of hostel kitchens I would love to eat more food like this, it's just kind of impossible to keep all of those ingredients fresh whilst moving from place to place every few days y'know. Avalon definitely isn't on the tourist trail but if you're a YA fan then you should definitely visit to eat bowls and check out Beachside Bookshop which has shelves and shelves of YA lit.

On one of our very first nights in the city Nick and I took the ferry over to Manly to meet Amanda after work so that we could try the new vegan menu at The Hold. This is a regular meaty burger joint but they've gone to the effort of veganising every single burger on their menu. Whaaaat?! Amazing! This photo is terrible because I was too busy chatting to take multiple shots but this was seriously one of the best burgers I've ever eaten.


I had to e-mail ahead to make sure that I would be able to eat something and when they said that I could eat almost all of the components of their Captain Jack burger including the vegan mac and cheese I was ecstatic - I only had to replace the BBQ sauce with ketchup which isn't too disappointing a switch. If getting over to Manly didn't involve a ferry ride I would definitely have visited The Hold more than once because the burger was super flavourful and stuffed full of deliciousness. It's definitely up there with one of my favourite burgers in the world.

Amanda, Nick, and I also managed to squeeze in a visit to Bondi where I had my heart set on trying some Funky Pies. It turned out that there was only one pie on offer that I was able to eat but it was their Eezy Chic'n Cheezy Pie which is blatantly the one I would have chosen anyway.


It was stuffed full of faux chicken pieces, broccoli, and mushrooms in a deliciously creamy and indeed cheesy sauce. Their pastry was very impressive too, I hope to learn how to make pastry this good one day! Nick insisted on ordering the pies with mash, peas and gravy as we were sharing but after our packed day of eating I was definitely a little too full for all of that food so I just stuck to pie and Nick devoured most of the sides.

Have you ever visited Sydney? Do you have a favourite off of the beaten track eatery that I should be recommending to people? Let me know in the comments! If you want to see more of our Sydney eats you can check out Amanda's video of our foodie adventure right here on her You Tube channel.
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Vegan in New Zealand

October 23, 2017, 2:22 am
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New Zealand was an interesting travel experience for me. Mine and Nick's preferred travel style is to move slowly, to plan a little in advance but not too much, and to have the option to stick around somewhere if the mood takes us. We did a little of that, an extra night here, another night there, but with our travel budget New Zealand was not the place for that style of travel. If you're under 30 I would seriously recommend looking into working holiday visa's for NZ, Australia, and Canada. Anywhere that will allow you to work. If you don't have ties take these opportunities now because they won't be there forever. If, like me, you're a little older and unable to get the magical visa that lets you earn money whilst experiencing a new culture then you're going to want to plan, book ahead, and scope out deals online because New Zealand is expensive. Australia definitely takes the top spot in terms of pricy places to travel but NZ is a close second. One way that we cut back on costs was by renting a car and working with the great peep's at Hitch Car Rentals for the entirety of our North and South Island road trip.


A whole lot of research led me to Hitch Rentals and they came out on top of my car rental list by miles. They have the cheapest rates, they let you take the car anywhere (no qualms about unsealed roads), and if you have the cash available you can hire an Eco Hitch, aka a gorgeous Prius. There is a one way fee but it isn't too high in comparison to other companies. We rented a Budget Hitch and were surprised at how roomy and comfortable it was, in Europe if you hire a budget car you're usually lucky if you can squeeze your luggage into the boot!

New Zealand is an ideal place for a road trip. It's almost unbelievably gorgeous and I loved having the freedom to stop and snap pictures wherever I pleased - I certainly didn't see the bus pulling over at any lookout points along the way! Bus travel is also quite pricy in NZ and with the amount of stops we were making Hitch's prices worked out much cheaper than bussing everywhere would have done. Our road trip started in Auckland in the north of the north island and we worked our way down the island before hopping onto a ferry and then zig zagging across the south island until we hopped onto a flight out of Christchurch six weeks later.


I'm going to write two separate North and South Island posts with all of my favourite eats and activities from each area as well as a hot springs guide (I am basically in love with the activity of going to hot springs!) but here are some vegan travel tips that will serve you well on both islands.

Pack 'n Save is the best supermarket for bargains, we consistently found the cheapest tofu and burgers there and there were often great deals on fruits and veggies. New World has the best bread by far but you can often find good bread at Pack 'n Save stores in larger cities. Countdown is NZ's other supermarket but there are no discernible benefits to be found from going there other than the fact that there are more of them about so sometimes they're your only option. You can also buy nooch at New World supermarkets which kind of blew my mind, why don't any UK supermarkets sell nooch yet?

These burgers are the best, find them, smother them in sauces and enjoy.


Vegan yoghurts are everywhere! There are soy yoghurts and coconut yoghurts but coconut definitely takes up the biggest space on the shelves. From locally made flavours like these from Raglan Coconut Yoghurt to imported tubs of Coconut Collaborative you're sure to find a fave.


These are the tastiest balls around and you should definitely keep some in the glove compartment on your road trip. Annoyingly there are zero chocolate treats that fall onto the good side of the Food Empowerment Project's list to be found in supermarkets in NZ but there are plenty of other flavours of energy ball to choose from.


It was definitely harder to find grab and go food to take on hikes than it was in Australia (I miss you Soyco Japanese tofu) but we managed just fine with a little pre preparation. Bio Cheese shreds were a lifesaver on a couple of occasions and we ate a lot of PB sandwiches, but overall we found the cost of food worked out cheaper both at the supermarkets and at restaurants.

Lastly you're going to want to buy a jar of New Zealand Marmite (I guess they just call it Marmite?!) as soon as you arrive. I know that Brit's and Aussie's won't like this but it's by far my favourite of the yeast spreads and it makes for an excellent PB&M sandwich.


This post was sponsored by Hitch Car Rentals and as always all words and opinions are my own. Posts like these help me to keep bringing you travel posts from around the globe.
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Tepla Sustainable Jewellery Giveaway

October 27, 2017, 2:39 am
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Tepla are a Brighton based jewellery company who work with vegan, sustainable, and ethically made materials. Their beautiful pieces are made using components, processes, and tools that are non toxic, and 100% animal cruelty and animal product free.


Tepla's founder Sandra started the business because she wanted to bring together her mixed media art jewellery background and her personal ethics which is something that really resonated with me. I'm always looking to work in fields where my passions and skills mesh well with my ethics. Tepla source their materials with the impact on both the environment and human health and wellbeing at the forefront of their minds and I love their commitment to using recycled silver.

Today I've teamed up with Tepla to give away a pair of these gorgeous recycled silver and organic cotton earrings. You can choose from blue/yellow, white/blue, grey/yellow, or grey/blue so check out Tepla's online store to pick your favourite.


This giveaway is open worldwide and all you need to do to enter is to leave a comment below telling me where you'd wear your new earrings and which colour combo you love. Please make sure to leave me your email address or Twitter / Instagram name so that I can get in touch with you if you win. The giveaway closes on October 31st at 11:59pm UK time and the winner will be notified the next day. Good luck! 
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Tart Bakery Auckland

October 30, 2017, 11:25 pm
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Nick and I started our North Island adventure in Auckland and one place that was on my radar before the plane even touched down was Tart Bakery. I'd seen pic's of their delicious looking baked goods online and peeked at their five star Happy Cow reviews but there were a couple of things that I didn't know about them. I didn't know that they'd won the NZ Bakery of the year competition in 2016 - pretty epic for a vegan business! And I didn't know that they run on a business model that focusses on charitable giving. 


Tart's owners are very focussed on caring for animals and spreading the vegan message and one way that they do that is by working with someone who helps farmers convert grazing land into arable land for growing crops. With the majority of New Zealand's countryside being covered in farms this is so necessary for the future of the planet and unless we can find ways to convince farmers that they can make money in other ways animal agriculture is going to take a long time to grind to a halt. 

The other way that Tart Bakery helps animals is by getting people to reduce their consumption of animal products by offering amazing vegan alternatives to classic bakery staples like pies and slices. Their ridiculous bakery case was the first thing that I spotted as I walked towards the store and as I was waiting to order I realised that this place is popular with everyone! The line definitely wasn't just made up of the young vegan hipster crew but roadies, business peeps, and students too.



One bakery case clearly isn't enough for this biz so they have a second filled with doughnuts and pastries. 


They also have a pie case becuase New Zealanders, like Australians, are really, really into pies. I've never eaten as many vegan pies as I did during this leg of my travels, they're everywhere and I loved it. From classic pies like steak and onion to the more out there mac and cheese pie you can get almost anything you've been dreaming of. I went for a chicken and cheese pie which is basically my dream pie and I was not disappointed.



Next I moved over to the sweet side of things and picked up a croissant and a simple but classic cinnamon sugar doughnut.



These were both delicious, the croissant had a generous amount of chocolate inside and the doughnut was one of the best I've tried. Classic baked goods executed well are always exciting and they're such a great way to convince people that they don't need to eat animal products. Lastly, and I've really saved the best 'till last here, I bought and ate a fairly decent amount of Tart's fantastic Danish pastries. More pastries than you would think that one human could eat in two days! 


I rotated between the two flavours on offer, blueberry and raspberry, and if I was forced to pick a favourite I'd choose raspberry, I love the tartness that raspberries bring to the table and I find that they perfectly offset the sweetness of the custardy centre. 


Pastries like these really aren't all that easy to come by as a vegan, I can probably count the bakeries I know that make them on one hand. I suspect that it's because they're labour intensive and hard to transport, they definitely wouldn't be my first choice if I was setting up a market stall, but they are oh so worth it.

Tart Bakery recently opened a second location on Auckland's bustling K Road which is even bigger than this first location and, if what I've heard is true, they even have indoor seating so you can chill there even on the rainiest of days.

Do you have a bakery like Tart in your hometown? What would you pick if you were visiting?
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North Island Vegan Road Trip

November 6, 2017, 10:25 pm
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Nick and I started our New Zealand road trip in the North Island and the first thing on our agenda was picking up our rental car from Hitch Car Rentals. This was a super straightforward process and we were whizzing all over the place in our Budget Hitch in no time. New Zealand is definitely a destination where you'll want your own wheels, even major cities like Auckland are challenging to navigate on public transport and they're sprawling so not everywhere you want to visit will be walkable. A prime example of this is Tart Bakery which was our very first road trip destination. I wrote a whole blog post about them here because they're really that good so check it out. Our second stop was Moustache a super hipster cookie shop located on K Road. I was a little dubious about their vegan options as two of the three are gluten free but I bravely forged ahead and ordered one of each flavour.



These cookies seriously exceeded my admittedly low expectations and reminded me that I need to step up my XGFX baking game. I've eaten some epic gluten free baked goods in the past but I've also eaten a whole bunch of awful gf "treats" that would put people off of veganism altogether. These were up there with the best I've ever had, think London's Cookies & Scream or Portland's Back to Eden, and if I hadn't known they were gluten free I wouldn't have guessed. The Oreo cookie was your classic soft sugary cookie whilst the PB Choc and Double Choc reminded me of Ben's Cookies (do any other UK vegans remember eating those before going vegan? They were the best!) which is the highest compliment. They were soft on the outside and gooey on the inside and I loved them. If I had to pick a fave' I'd go double chocolate but really you should just get all three.

After spending a few days in and around Auckland mainly eating baked goods, recovering from a hectic month in Australia, poring over maps, planning our road trip (shout out to Alys from vegan travel blog The Wild Life who happened to be staying in our hostel and who gave us an amazing map and a bunch of NZ tips), and taking little adventures to check out waterfalls and to climb hills, we were off south in our little car who we named Addy after a dog we cared for at a shelter in Japan - the car was white and Japanese just like her so it made perfect sense!


New Zealand is awash with forests, waterfalls, and truly tremendous views so it's the perfect country for a road trip. We were there in Spring which was weird because I'm not used to Spring being in September, I'd even forgotten that I'd need to be taking allergy medicine and spent a few days sneezing and itching all over before my meds kicked in.


One of our first stops on our road trip was Hot Water Beach on The Coromandel because one thing New Zealand has in spades is geothermal activity and we wanted to get involved with some hot pool action asap! Hot Water Beach is literally a beach where you rock up, dig a hole, and create your own hot spring. You can visit two hours each side of low tide and most accommodations in the area will have the tide times posted somewhere. Our hostel even loaned us spades! On the day we were there low tide was after dark and we got to lie in our hot pool looking up at the stars. Digging the hole was surprisingly confusing as we weren't sure exactly where to dig and some areas were so hot that you couldn't even dip a toe into the water that was coming up through the sand. Luckily some locals helped us pick a spot and it was a delightful evening. Be warned though, after dark the walk back to the car is really cold!

Our next road trip destination was Rotorua for more thermal activity and to take a ride through the forest on zip lines. First we visited Tikitere, aka Hells Gate, which is one of NZ's most active geothermal zones and let me tell you this place is pretty wild! There are bubbling geothermal lakes everywhere, it was so cool to see.


Our next stop was a guided forest canopy tour with Rotorua Canopy Tours which threw up the first of many vegan problems in New Zealand. When we booked the tour we read on the website that as well as being a place to go zip lining they also help to conserve the forest. Now being a Brit I assumed that that meant that they planted some trees but about halfway through the tour it became clear that what this actually means is that they run a program that eradicates the forest of "pests" aka stoats, rats, and possums, to help wild birds thrive. Now I'm not a conservation expert by any stretch but as an animal activist I don't believe in killing any animals for any reason. It sucks that New Zealand doesn't have many native birds left but that's because European settlers decided to introduce possums, stoats etc and I don't think that it's okay to try to go back on that by killing a bunch of wild animals. I really enjoyed zip lining, the people running the tour were kind and calmed everyone's nerves, and zip lining is so fun! I never thought it would be the kind of thing I'd be into - I'm usually more of a books and tea person than an adventure sports person but I really loved the actual zip lining part of the tour.


I really didn't love the part where we were shown pictures of dead animals and told how our cash was contributing to their deaths. It was super graphic and quite upsetting. This is an issue all over New Zealand though, it definitely isn't just something that this business is doing, almost any activity you want to do in NZ will contribute to the deaths of wild animals. Towards the end of the trip Nick and I even had a running joke that everything you do in NZ murders a possum. Even some cider companies (UK peeps have seen the Old Mount ad's right?) donate money from every bottle sold to a program that kills possums and stoats! The NZ government has laid out a plan to rid the country of non native wildlife by 2025 and seemingly everyone is involved. We saw traps in forests that were sponsored by primary schools! Ultimately what you do in New Zealand and where you draw your lines is up to you but I'm writing about it so that you can make an informed decision, I didn't know about any of this before taking the canopy tour and I was definitely a little blindsided.

Our final stop in Rotorua was the Polynesian Spa where we had our first official outdoor hot springs experience. We'd already hit up hot water beach and we once stayed at an amazing hot springs hotel in Taiwan but this place was on another level. There were so many pools to choose from and we loved bathing in the hot water whilst looking out over Lake Rotorua. I didn't love the weird man who told me he was going to take a photo of me, I politely told him to get lost but why? Why do men have to do this creepy shit? Just leave women alone.

One cool free spot to visit, and the next stop on our road trip, is Tongariro National Park. There's an amazing hike you can do here through the Tongariro Alpine Crossing but unfortunately it was still too snowy to attempt it when we were there. If you visit in summer or autumn it's an absolute must-do if you're into hiking. We just went on a few shorter hikes and drove as high up as we could get without needing to get Addy any snow chains. One of our walks was so snowy and so beautiful that if you don't mind the cold, or if you're into winter sports, I would definitely recommend visiting in Spring or even Winter. It was stunning.


The Waitomo Glow Worm Caves are another must-visit on the north island. There are other places to see glow worms around NZ but none are as spectacular as this, I checked! We took the boat tour through the caves and it was one of the most stunning things I've ever seen. You can't use your camera but if you Google it you'll see some official pictures that'll knock your socks off!

New Plymouth was somewhere we ended up for a couple of nights of maximum relaxation. There was a Loving Hut where we could load up on buffet foods and we stayed at a gorgeous boutique hotel with a kitchen where I whipped up some of our favourite noochy buttery garlicky pasta. Perfection.


Buffets are often challenging for me as there are hidden allergens all over the place but the staff at this Loving Hut really tried to help. On my second visit they let me know that they're putting together an allergy and ingredients guide for every item on the buffet so that there will be less confusion next time someone comes in with an unusual allergy. More of this please vegan businesses! The only disappointment was that all of their desserts were raw but thankfully they make an excellent hot chocolate which hit the spot for me.

Our final stop was Wellington which was a city that we both really enjoyed, it has a really laid back vibe and there are some great vegan businesses there. More on that next time though!

We ended our North Island adventure with a ferry trip across the Cook Strait from Wellington to Picton in the South Island, I don't love boats but we sailed on a calm day and the views on the way through the Marlborough and Queen Charlotte Sounds made it well worth it, until next time...




This post was sponsored by Hitch Car Rentals and Rotorua Canopy Tours. As always all words and opinions are my own. Posts like these help me to keep bringing you travel posts from around the globe.
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Vegan Adventures in Shenzhen

November 9, 2017, 10:30 pm
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When we were planning our travels from New Zealand to Thailand Nick and I certainly didn't intend to visit five countries in seven days but it happened. It was tiring and brilliant and I'd totally do it all over again. We flew from Christchurch to Sydney and spent 24 hours there. Next we flew from Sydney to Hong Kong where we spent one night before taking the metro over the border into China to check out Shenzhen. We were there for three nights before taking the metro back to Hong Kong, spending a night there, and then flying on to Phuket for Thailand's vegetarian festival. Phew. 

Shenzhen was on my original must-visit list for China but it didn't fit in with our plans as it's just too far south to be a sensible stop on a loop from Beijing to Shanghai. I couldn't stop thinking about how much I wanted to go though and when I realised that getting there from Hong Kong is really easy, you just take the metro, I was sold. Okay, I made that sound a little too simple, you take the Hong Kong MTR to Lo Wu, walk across the border, go through HK and Chinese immigration, before hopping onto the Shenzhen metro at Luohu on the other side. Still, pretty simple as far as border crossings go but I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't tired of carrying my backpack when we arrived. We decided to stay by Laojie station in one of Shenzhen's major shopping destinations which is only two stops on the metro from Luohu so that final section was short and fast.

As soon as we arrived we decided to get metro cards and I was very pleased to see that Shenzhen has the best metro cards anywhere in the world! Hello Kitty surrounded by desserts?! Yes please. Me and Nick both chose this one despite the lady selling them trying to push some kinda Transformers card on Nick.


Our first stop in any new place usually involves food and this trip was no exception. We arrived hungry and went straight to the nearest veggie spot on the Happy Cow app. Windlucky is located on the 4th floor of a food mall and the easiest way to find it is to go in the door between McDonald's and Watson's and to go straight up those escalators.

The menu was on iPads which had English translations for a lot of the items but there were pictures too so they weren't totally necessary. We only got stuck when we had to place the order as we had no idea which of the three buttons we should press. The staff were more than happy to help though!

We ordered the black pepper steaks, a plate of vegetable dumplings, toon fried rice, and a noodle soup and they brought some delicious tea for the table.




I was definitely concerned when I saw the soup, bright red foods are normally full of chilli, so I made Nick taste it first but the red colour just comes from all of the tomatoes that are simmered in the broth. I can't even explain how good this soup was, the thick noodles were perfect and the broth was so flavourful. I loved it and basically ate it every day during our time in the city. 

On our next visit we branched out and ordered some toon pinwheels and green dumplings alongside our soups. 


I wish I could tell you more about these but I have no idea what I'm eating a lot of the time. Thankfully you order by picture so if you see something you like the look of here you can just match it up with their menu. I'd go as far as to say that this was one of my favourite eateries in all of China, everything we ordered was spot on and I still think about that soup most days. They have two other locations in Shenzhen which are also listed on Happy Cow.

One of the main reasons that I wanted to go to Shenzhen was to visit the Window Of The World theme park. This place is kitchy, ridiculous, a little run down, and one of China's most visited theme parks. The park has miniature versions of famous landmarks from all over the world, some that we'd been to, and some that we hadn't. Their largest landmark is the Eiffel Tower which we kept seeing popping up everywhere, looming into view behind Tower Bridge, hovering behind the Sydney Opera House.




I haven't been able to do this in real life yet but this version will do until I can tick Pisa off of my must visit list!


I can only assume that they did this on purpose after you know who got elected...


There are even rides at Window Of The World! We took a miniature train ride, rode the monorail, drove a luge around a track, and got unbelievably wet on a log flume. I was totally soaked despite having been given a plastic mac, the boat started leaking as soon as we launched and our feet were hovering uncomfortably above about 6 inches of rising water until we went down the first drop and it all splashed out of the log. I also forgot to put the hood up on my free mac which meant that my hair was dripping wet by the end. It was pretty hilarious! 


Of course we took snacks with us as we weren't expecting to be able to eat at the park. We had date and nut balls from New Zealand and these soya meat snacks from Chinese Walmart. The blue ones are spicy but the green ones are just peppery. 


Of course we ended the day with our favourite soup at our favourite restaurant! The next day we decided to branch out and head to a well reviewed vegan restaurant for lunch after spending the morning exploring the shops in the Dongmen Shopping Plaza but sadly it was closed. I was far too hangry to walk far to get food so I nibbled on a soya meat snack from my handbag whilst Nick fired up Happy Cow to find us a new lunch spot. Times like these are the main reason that we bother getting local sim cards when we travel. It would be so annoying to have to go back to the hotel and start again or to just grab some crisps and a banana from 7/11. Luckily Hong Kong sims work in China so you don't need a different one, they also let you use Google maps although you'll find that Apple Maps actually works better in China. The place we found was Dengpin Vegetarian and it's a huge buffet restaurant on the second floor of a large building that was a little difficult to find. It should be easier for the next peeps though because I uploaded a picture of the outside of the building to Happy Cow.


I'll be totally honest this was one of those situations where the experience was better than the food. I love a huge confusing buffet in a foreign country where you're clearly the only westerners they've seen for a long time. I definitely enjoyed some of my choices although the purple soup was a mistake! The buns were good and I went back for more of the turnip cakes and bacon bits. Be warned that the tea is really sweet, almost unbelievably so, I've never tasted such sweet tea before.

We only had a few days in Shenzhen but I'd say that that's about right unless you're really into shopping. I bought a few cute winter things from a store called 6ixty8ight because my Aussie summer wardrobe isn't going to work during winter in Japan and I'm gonna need layers but that was it for me and shopping. Have you been to China? If so did you include Shenzhen in your itinerary?
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Vegan in Wellington

November 13, 2017, 10:30 pm
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Wellington was our final stop on our North Island road trip and we made it there just in time for the Wellington Friday Night Market on Lower Cuba Street. It was a super busy and bustling market with a great atmosphere and I was more than a little surprised at just how many vegan options there were. Aside from In Bloom the 100% vegan stall selling burgers and raw cakes there were stalls slinging vegan dumplings, takoyaki, tacos, churros, and more. We started with dumplings from House of Dumplings and we chose two each because we knew we were going to do a lot of eating that evening.


We went for one Spinach, Tofu, and Bok Choy dumpling each and then I grabbed a Japanese Six Mushroom dumpling whilst Nick opted for the special which was an Indian Dhal Coconut Cashew dumpling. Vicky who started House of Dumplings is from Hong Kong so these were legit and they made an excellent starter. If you have cooking facilities you can find House of Dumplings dumplings in supermarkets all over NZ but I don't know which ones sell the vegan versions.

Next up was the Takoyaki stall, Gogo Takoyaki, and I don't mind admitting that we loved these so much that we got in line for them twice!


I tried Takoyaki for the first time when I was living and volunteering in Japan. I found a Takoyaki pan at the volunteer house and set about finding a recipe and the ingredients to make them ASAP. I can safely say that these ones were about a hundred times better than the ones I made! They had the same konnyaku filling but these were actually round and had just the right level of crispiness on the outside without being at all raw in the middle. Making Takoyaki is definitely something that takes a little practice.


Gogo seemed to be doing a roaring trade in their vegan option and the konnyaku filled balls were right up our street. I loved that they had vegan mayo and that they were keeping the vegan and non vegan things separate. This market should definitely be on your must visit list for NZ, if you're lucky and time your trip right you could even be there for the monthly vegan night market Vegan Vault which takes place on the first Saturday of every month. I won't lie, I was a bit gutted that we missed out on that, but you should go for me and tell me all about it!

Our next eating adventure took place at Sweet Release Cakes and Treats because I'd heard that they make epic baked goods have pies on the menu. Sold! I ordered a Chicken Pot Pie because faux chicken is 100% my jam and Nick ordered some kinda potato topped pie. I wasn't really paying attention to his pie because I was too focussed on my amazing pie and his was gone before I could request a taste.


The chicken pot pie was seriously so good, I'd been eating a lot of pies by this point in our Aus & NZ adventure and this was definitely one of the best. Far better than any vegan pie I've ever eaten in the UK. We couldn't skip dessert once we knew how good their food was so I stuck to the pie theme with a veganised version of a Hershey's pie whilst Nick opted for a PB Brownie.


These were also completely delicious. I hadn't heard of the pie that this one was meant to be imitating but apparently it's kind of a big deal in NZ right now and I can see why. This chocolatey cookie crusted mousse filled and cream topped delight was, well, delightful. I wish I'd had space for a second slice. It seems that Sweet Release also make something called a Doof Doof which looks like a huge doughnut muffin hybrid. I didn't see any of those when we were there but please swing by and eat one for me if you're in the area. They look uh-mazing!

The YHA hostel we were staying at was around the corner from Commonsense Organics which is packed full of vegan goodies including faux meats, cheeses, and my very favourite treat, Dandies marshmallows. I usually order these from iHerb (Use my code JOJ321 for a discount on your first order) for a very reasonable price but that's not an option when you're on the move all the time and don't have an address. I'm happy to pay import prices for something this delicious though!


Located a little way away from where we were staying Mara Restaurant in Newtown was another spot on my must-eat list. Thanks to Hitch Car Rentals we had a car to zoom around in so we headed there for dinner on our second night despite the fact that it was pouring with rain. The place was cute and I think that they're pretty new but unfortunately the menu wasn't great for me. The only thing that they could make me was the polenta dish topped with veggies but with no sauce, granted the eat in menu was small, around eight or nine dishes, but I didn't feel like they were really trying very hard to accommodate me and it wasn't exactly busy when we were there. The dish itself was okay, decent even, but it wasn't exactly exciting and I don't feel that I got to experience what their food is really like. Mara have some good reviews but I wasn't sold after this course.


Dessert was where I was able to sample their food as it's meant to be eaten and I tried the Black Doris Plum and Beetroot Custard Tart with house made rose ice cream whilst Nick went for the Reincarnated Chocolate Three Ways which consisted of a chocolate brownie, chocolate mousse, and cookie ice cream. We were none the wiser about the whole reincarnated thing as the waitress told us that it was an inside joke that even she wasn't in on.


This dessert was pretty good, I enjoyed the flavours of my dish when they were all together, the beetroot, rose, and plum compliment each other nicely but I would have liked more plums and the pastry definitely could have been better. Nick wasn't super impressed with his dessert but I enjoyed the mouthful I tried, the brownie was fudgey and the ice cream had a good flavour but I agreed with him that the texture of the ice cream was a little strange and that the mousse could have been airier. I can't decide whether I'd recommend this place or not, they're new and just getting on their feet so maybe they'll iron out some of the creases in time and for upscale food in NZ it was surprisingly affordable. It's definitely a date night kinda place and if you do try it out let me know what you think.

V1 Vegan Store is a Wellington must visit, the people running this place are so lovely so even if you don't need anything drop by and give them some love. You're sure to be impressed by their range of faux meats and cheeses, the line up of vegan pick 'n' mix, and their bulk nooch bin.


They also have a little bakery counter selling cakes and cookies including the amazing cookies from Moustache in Auckland that I wrote about here. I loved them so much that I couldn't resist picking up a couple more. I also picked up some of Savour's organic cultured nut cheese in Cheddar. I was tempted by the beer infused cheese but I was pretty sure that Nick would hate it so I played it safe and I definitely wasn't disappointed. We managed to make this last two meals but I desperately wanted to eat it all in one go.


Speaking of cheese Nick and I also grabbed pizza from a couple of spots around town, firstly from Cin Cin, a non vegan pizza place with vegan cheese and a vegan chocolatey dessert on the menu, and secondly a slice of veg covered pizza from Tommy Millions, a take out hut on Courtenay Place which we could see from the window of our Wakefield Street hostel. They're open until 4am and whilst they don't have vegan cheese yet their veggie toppings were very generous and the slices were huge.

I was definitely impressed with the wide range of vegan options on offer in Wellington, we just kept stumbling upon things, and I would definitely suggest that you spend a few nights here if you're road tripping through NZ. We were pretty food focussed during our time there and we spent one day hiding from some truly terrible weather but there are good museums and walks so there should be plenty to keep you occupied. If you missed parts one and two of our New Zealand adventure so far you can catch up here and here.

This post was sponsored in part by Hitch Car Rentals. As always all words and opinions are my own. Posts like these help me to keep bringing you travel content from around the globe.
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Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2017

November 16, 2017, 11:45 am
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A couple of weeks ago I touched down in Phuket ready to eat my way around the Vegetarian Festival for the second time. I was last there two years ago and I wrote a couple of pretty substantial posts about the festival food in Phuket and about the vegan eats you can find at convenience stores dotted all over the country. This years fest' was quieter and a lot more chilled (there were very minimal fireworks this time around and no large processions) because the country was still in mourning for the king so my blog post is going to be more laid back too. This year Nick and I met up with our friend Cici (read her post about the festival here) and did a whole lot of eating, drinking, and hanging out. Like her I'm going to focus on my very favourite eats of 2017's festival rather than posting every single thing I ate because that might be a little overwhelming! Without further ado, here are my 2017 Phuket Vegetarian Festival Faves.

Favourite Stall - The faux meat place on the corner

About halfway up Ranong Road on the left (if you're coming from the roundabout) is a stall in front of a building on a corner which sells mock meats. If you've reached the turnoff towards Jui Tui Shrine you've gone too far. They have so many meats to choose from including three kinds of faux fish, my favourite. Inside the building they have even more faux meats as well as curries and veggies and you can eat there or takeaway. We decided to eat there one lunchtime and we were all very impressed. 

I just noticed that mine and Nick's plates are almost exactly the same!

The range of mock meats you can choose from is almost overwhelming and I got three kinds. A black pepper steak, a saucy mock duck, and some red pork. They were all really flavourful and very different texturally. These are up there with the best mock meats I've ever eaten. The faux fishes were all excellent too; one had a great texture but it was really salty so you had to eat it with something else, rice or bread, to stop it being too much, another had a drier texture but the flavour was excellent and lastly, my very favourite of the three, was this yuba faux fish which had both the texture and flavour nailed.


At 80THB / $2.40 / £1.80 (geeze, this exchange rate) it was more expensive than the other faux meats which put me off trying it for a few days but I'm so glad that I decided to buy it in the end because it was oh so good. I love yuba and I definitely need to cook with it more often. That very same stall also sells these meat sticks which are marinated in a sweet sugary sesame sauce and then barbecued. They taste amazing and make the best snack.


Favourite Street Food - Takoyaki and pandan custard pancakes

This may be cheating a little as my favourite stall was clearly street food but I couldn't just show you one spot. I'm gonna cheat more and choose one sweet and one savory option for the next two categories because it's my blog and I do what I want. The winner in the savory category were these amazing Takoyaki. I love these Japanese konnyaku filled balls but I'd only ever tried them twice before. I was so excited that they were good, better than good, amazing.


In the sweet category these pandan custard filled pancakes were seriously the best. They were like a little scotch pancake and I was gutted that I was only able to find them twice. They also reheated beautifully in the microwave and made an excellent breakfast snack.


Favourite Convenience Store Food - Family Mart sandwiches and 7/11 banana muffin

These sandwiches from Family Mart were new to me and took the crown for my favourite convenience store food. I was very excited to see them because I love bread and whenever I travel in Asia I see these cute delicious looking little sandwiches made with white bread in convenience stores and I'm always sad that I can't try them. One was shiitake mushroom and coleslaw and the other was barbecued pork. It's hard to pick a fave here but I'm going with the coleslaw sandwich because that's an unusual thing to find a vegan version of.


The 7/11 banana muffin is an absolute festival classic and I always freeze a couple during the first few days so that when the Jay eats have disappeared and I'm getting a bus outa the city I'll still have something delicious to snack on. They're super moist and bursting with banana flavour and I would definitely choose these over the larger banana snack cake every time. Oh and at 10THB / 30¢ / 23p they're a total bargain.


Favourite Drink - Everything at Phuketique!

I would be hard pushed to choose between Phuketique's Thai Iced Tea, the Iced Matcha Latte, or the Iced Latte, because they were all so good. The drinks are all made with soy milk (something that Phuketique serve all year round) and they all come in huge glasses which all three of us were very excited about. I think that the regular latte was probably my absolute favourite but it's kind of a guilty pleasure because coffee and colitis are not good friends and I really shouldn't be drinking coffee if I wanna be a healthy human. 


Bonus Fave - Torry's Ice Cream

I wrote about Torry's Ice Cream last time I blogged about the fest' and they've only gotten bigger and better since I was in Phuket two years ago. They have an ice cream cafe now and during the festival they make most of their flavours vegan. My favourite flavour is still the Corn Milk closely followed by the Avocado which I believe is a year round flavour. I was also lucky enough to try their passionfruit sorbet which was really fabulous and tart.


Until next time Phuket!

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South Island Vegan Road Trip - Part 1

November 19, 2017, 10:30 pm
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When Nick and I arrived on the South Island we were both feeling a little lost, we hadn't had time to sit down and plan our South Island road trip at all and we had no idea where we were headed - just that we had a car and the freedom to go anywhere. The very first thing that we spotted as we were checking into our hostel was a flyer for tours of a peanut butter factory! That was clearly a sign and we were sold. I was on the phone booking our spots in seconds. Coincidentally someone I knew from Brighton was in the area housesitting so we hooked up with her and her husband and headed to the Pic's factory in Nelson the very next day.


Pic's are actually a super cool peanut butter company, the founder started making PB in a concrete mixer in his garage and selling it at farmer's markets and it's grown into a bit of a peanut butter empire with stockists all over New Zealand and a chunk of the rest of the world. Pic seems like a cool dude, he's all about employing local people and keeping the business local as it grows. Pic is blind and him and his lovely seeing eye dog made a great video about the cool PB journey he's been on.



Factory tours are free and run every weekday morning at 10am so if you're in the area go along and grab a jar of PB for your journey around NZ. After hanging with Nikki and her husband we decided to head to the Japanese Gardens with our maps and some green tea to do some planning. We sat under the cherry trees for a couple of hours and mapped out our entire South Island adventure. We were still working with Hitch Car Rentals so we had the freedom to go anywhere and do anything which made narrowing it down a little challenging!



The South Island is definitely more wild than the north and we loved getting outside and exploring the coast early on in our journey. We were so lucky with the weather, it was well and truly springtime, and we were able to go on some fantastic walks along the coast, around parks, and to Buller Gorge.


Hokitika was our next major stop, it's a little town on the west coast and it was a fine place to stop. It has a cafe with vegan options that was closed whilst we were there so we just had a little walk around before getting on with the outdoor activities we had planned.


Firstly we headed to Hokitika Gorge. This is a stunning spot for a walk and the water really is that colour, no photoshop! The swing bridge is a fun but wobbly walk and there are rocks you can sit on at the end of the walk to marvel at the gorgeous water some more. 



Pancake Rocks was our second destination and all that they made me do was crave pancakes! I kid, of course I was also in awe of the beauty of the coast but damnit why did they have to set up a pancake restaurant right there with no vegan options?! So rude! 


As you can see this place is called pancake rocks because the rocks are layered like pancakes. I think I've spent too much time cooking from American recipe books because I was expecting a few huge rocks piled on top of each other like a classic US pancake stack rather than these thinner more crepe like rocks. 


Whatever they looked like I was still craving pancakes pretty hard when we got back into the car so we set off on a mission to find vegan pancakes. It's at times like this that I'm glad that I'm married to another vegan. I'm not sure that most non vegans would go on wild missions to find and make vegan pancakes! We went to four stores but eventually we struck gold.


Nick's the pancake chef in our house so he whipped up the pancakes whilst I chopped fruit. This was an epic pancake plate, we didn't have any syrup but the sugar from the fruit was enough and we had margarine. The pancakes themselves were surprisingly good given they they were from a gluten free box mix and they're a good option when you're travelling and don't want to be carrying around a bunch of ingredients.


After dinner we popped down the road to explore the glow worm dell. It's just a little path off of the main highway and after dark it comes alive with bright little glowworms. It wasn't as spectacular as the Waitomo Glowworm Caves I wrote about in my North Island post but it was still pretty cool and it's free so you can't complain. After that we drove to sunset point right by the water to look at the stars, there was a little too much light pollution and it was a little cloudy but it was still gorgeous and I think that getting to see the stars in another hemisphere is super cool.

One of the main things people come to the South Island for are glaciers. Both Fox Glacier and Franz Joseph glacier are world famous but sadly, just like the Great Barrier Reef, they aren't what they once were thanks to global warming. It was still cool and interesting to see them in real life in comparison to older photos online but it's still sad. They're good hikes though because they're well marked and through interesting landscapes.

One of my favourite things about Franz Joseph was that there are hot pools. I love hot pools! Nick treated us to a private hot pool experience which was really fun. We've never done that before and we loved having our own private cosy peaceful space where we could stargaze and hang out together. The only downside was that there was no control over the temperature of the water and we found our pool to be a little on the warm side, I spent quite a lot of the time lying on the decking with just my arms or legs in the water which meant that it wasn't quite as relaxing as it could've been.

Right opposite the hot pools is King Tiger an Asian restaurant with a couple of vegan options on the menu. We both ordered this tofu in gravy dish that they were happy to make without the peppers. It came with rice and it was really delicious. It was nice to take a break from cooking our own food!


The next stop on the road trip was Wanaka which is such a cool little town. We weren't going to stay there originally as it's so close to Queenstown but we were so glad that we did. The YHA hostel there is lovely and the lake is gorgeous. There's even a surprising amount of vegan food in Wanaka! We found pizza, hot chocolate, ice cream, and even crepes. We took a lot of walks around the lake and spent time sitting and chatting by the shore. It's a really breathtaking place.



After devouring hot chocolates and pizzas at cute riverside spot Kai Whakapai Cafe Bar on day one we stumbled upon this ice cream spot the very next day. Black Peak Gelato only have sorbets for vegans but they were really good sorbets and they has some fun and interesting flavours including salted chocolate and nectarine.


They made a weird combo but they don't do individual scoops so we had them together and shared to save cash. I'm definitely a fan of chocolate sorbet and this one didn't disappoint. I've never had a nectarine sorbet before and I loved it, it was so fresh tasting and bursting with flavour.

We spotted the Charlie Brown crepe cart when we were walking to our hostel and the sign said vegan options all over it so we had to give it a try. We really got our hopes up when we asked what could be veganised and the dude working said everything. I was imagining a vegan cheese and ham crepe followed by a chocolate berry crepe but it turned out that the guy just thought we meant gluten free. Why does this happen so often? Gluten free and vegan couldn't be more different damnit. It turned out that despite the sign the guy working didn't really have any idea about what was vegan and after asking a couple of times it turned out that even the chocolate sauce contained dairy so we just played it safe and got a simple sugar and lemon crepe.


It was totally delicious and I loved that there was a vegan option and appreciated that the guy working was super apologetic about the confusion but I'd suggest that they get more knowledgeable about veganism and stop telling people they can veganise everything because it definitely gets your hopes up a little too much. It got me dreaming of an all vegan crepe cart though, wouldn't that be amazing? Let It Be or Oh La La (RIP) in Berlin are the closest I've gotten to my vegan crepe dreams coming true and I can't wait to get back to the city for more one day.

Zipping all over the south island in our Budget Hitch was so much fun, as you can see we visited a lot of cool spots and ate a lot of delicious vegan food. Queenstown was our next road trip destination but I'm going to save that and the rest of our South Island road trip for my next post. See you then!

This post was sponsored by Hitch Car Rentals. As always all words and opinions are my own. Posts like these help me to keep bringing you travel posts from around the globe.
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South Island Vegan Road Trip - Part 2

November 23, 2017, 10:30 am
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This is part two of my South Island vegan road trip. if you haven't read part one yet you can catch up here.

After eating out quite a bit in Wanaka Nick and I cooked for ourselves most of the time in Queenstown. Accommodation was expensive and the hostel had a huge kitchen so it was a good way to even out our day to day costs. We made and ate veggie burgers, spaghetti with marinara sauce, tofu scrambles, and a lot of peanut butter toast. Simple easy meals that are perfect for busy hostel kitchens. We contemplated taking a trip to Doubtful Sound, most people use Queenstown as a jumping off point for that trip, but we'd heard so many stories about the mist making it impossible to see and it's not a cheap day trip so we decided to skip it. We'll head to Iceland one day to check out fjords when we're not travelling on a backpacking budget!

The one time we did eat out in Queenstown was when I spotted some pictures of Bespoke Kitchen's vegan breakfasts on Instagram. They looked amazing and I knew that we couldn't skip it so we went out for brunch on our last morning. We both ordered the pancakes and got a matcha latte and a green juice to share. We also couldn't resist grabbing a chocolate muffin topped with chia jam.


We'd read rave reviews of the pancakes online and they certainly didn't disappoint. These were some high end pancakes, thick and fluffy and topped with all sorts of deliciousness including poached spiced apples, coconut whipped cream, raspberry chia jam, seeds, and freeze dried berries with a mini jug of maple syrup on the side. I could have done without the seeds (I hate seeds!) but once I moved them to one side these tasted just as good as they looked. 

The matcha latte was also excellent, world class, and I'm pretty fussy about my matcha lattes. The chocolate muffin was delicious too, it was super chocolatey and soft on the inside but with a crunchy top. It was topped with their raspberry chia jam which I really loved, I hate chia in every other application (seeds. ugh.)but it was damed good here, I guess I just really like jam!


Dunedin was our next road trip destination and this was one of the longer drives we did on the south island. We set off super early and had Let Them Eat Vegan in our sights for lunch. Let Them Eat Vegan is a fantastic 100% vegan cafe run by two lovely vegan women who were super chatty and friendly. We ordered grilled cheese sandwiches and a couple of desserts and talked about food and travel and how rad Isa Chandra Moskowitz is and how brilliant all of her cookbooks are. It was fun!


The sandwiches were enormous! They each had a gigantic slab of melty cheese inside as well as thinly sliced ham and the bread was cut really thickly. They were delicious and so filling that we couldn't even make a dent in our desserts. This ridiculous PB&J Brownie Stack was fantastic much later in the day and the cookies were delicious the next morning.


Let Them Eat Vegan should definitely be on your must visit list because as well as sandwiches, pies, and desserts they sell their homemade cheeses and meats as well as a few other deli items. We bought a tub of tofu egg salad, a block of smoked gouda, and a package of deli ham slices which kept us in fun sandwich fillings until we got to Christchurch.


Modaks Espresso is a quirky cafe right on the high street and it's another must visit spot. Modaks isn't a vegan business but they have a lot of vegan options, far more than you'd expect from a non-veggie spot. Their huge range of cakes and treats kind of blew my mind, there were seriously about 10 cake flavours to choose from. In the end I went with the marble cake and a ginger nut latte. A solid breakfast!


The ginger latte was one of the best hot drinks I've ever tried, I loved it. I had a fantastic mug of steamed ginger soy milk at Vegan Heaven in Taipei and this brought those memories flooding right back. It even came with a vegan meringue kiss on the side. So fun! I'll be adding ginger lattes to the list of things I need to learn to make at home.

We also grabbed some food from a new vegan spot called Watson's Eatery which is located opposite a Lush store in a mall. The chocolate berry scroll we took away was fantastic but their avocado toast left a lot to be desired. The avocados were so raw that smooshed avo toast really shouldn't have been on the menu and I ended up leaving most of it and just eating the toast and tomatoes.

Next we drove up the coast to Omaru for the main thing we came over to this coast to see, penguins! Nick has always loved penguins and whilst we've been in Australia and NZ we've been taking any opportunity to see them that doesn't involve keeping them in captivity or harming other wildlife to keep them protected. We heard that a great place to spot a penguin was Bushy Beach so we drove there and then walked quietly down the path towards the beach.


As we turned a corner we saw a small group of people standing by a roped off area. Now you have to be really quiet and still if you don't want to freak out the penguins so we crept down to the fence and ducked down so that they wouldn't be able to see us. We were able to watch these two penguins just doing their thing for about 20 minutes and it was so amazing to see them from up close.

The next morning we explored Omaru which is famous for steampunk. That seemed super weird before we arrived but once we were there we realised that the whole steampunk vibe just totally fits with the surroundings in this town. The buildings downtown are victorian which I read was because back in the 60's or 70's the town didn't have much money so they couldn't afford to tear down the old buildings to build new ones so they stayed. We found a cafe with soya milk for hot drinks and then checked out Steampunk HQ.


This whole place is kind of a weird cool art installation but my favourite part was probably the least steampunk thing ever - A mirrored room filled with twinkly lights.



I loved it so much! The room got dark and played music and the lights changed colour, it lasted around three minutes and you can bet that I went round more than once. Do you think that I could build one of these in my house? Just the mirrors and the lights... It'd be so fun!

We'd actually contemplated skipping this whole leg of the journey but it turned out to be one of our favourite sections of our whole New Zealand road trip. Cute quirky towns, delicious food, gorgeous coastline, penguins, nice cafes, weird art. I'm so glad that we decided to make the drive.

The next place that we zipped off to in our Budget Hitch was Lake Tekapo because we had a star gazing adventure booked at Tekapo Springs.


I love looking up at the night sky and since being in New Zealand I'd developed a serious passion for hot pools so combining the two seemed like an amazing idea. The whole experience at Tekapo Stargazing was so relaxing and wonderful, we were able to walk there from our lakefront hostel and we were ushered up the driveway and into the warmth of the cosy dark sky reserve. The stargazing tour takes place outside on clear days and inside on cloudy days and we got lucky that the night we were there was clear to start with before the clouds blew in. We were given cosy blankets and gloves and then we headed outside where our guide introduced us to the night sky.

We learnt so much about the original Maori names and interpretations of the constellations as well as about how old the stars we see are. I'll be honest with you, I mostly wasn't paying attention at school, so a lot of it was new to me and I found it fascinating. I'll never look at the sky in quite the same way again. After this section of the tour you get changed and hop into the pool to stargaze some more. The fantastic guides are there to answer questions and to tell you more about the night sky which is such a lovely way to spend time. Sadly the clouds had well and truly covered the stars by this point in the evening but we still loved this part of the tour, they have these amazing floating hammocks so we just lay on those in the warm water chatting and learning more about the sky. It was such an amazing and relaxing adventure and I'd recommend it to anyone. You can book your ticket online here.

The next morning we were off on our way to the next adventure but I was definitely sad to be leaving Tekapo and the amazing hot pool behind. Luckily we were on our way up to Hanmer Springs for more hot pool fun. Our time at Hanmer Springs couldn't have been more different than our time relaxing at Tekapo Springs. Hanmer Springs is a huge complex and it has so many different pools to choose from that it's almost overwhelming. It's a very family friendly spot with slides and a big pool for kids to splash around in. My favourite pools were the hexagonal hot pools, the sulphur pools and the adult only hydrotherapy pools. It was a great place to get some relaxation in before bed but I probably wouldn't recommend a visit during the day because it's quite hot and busy - there isn't much shade and there are children running around everywhere which isn't the most relaxing thing. That said we were there during school holidays so maybe it's a little more chilled during a normal week.

Our final road trip stop before Christchurch was Kaikoura where we were on a mission to see seals in the wild. We weren't sure whether it would be difficult to see them or not but we knew that there was a great coastal walk there so we figured that we'd have something to do even if we didn't spot any seals. As soon as I saw this sign I knew that seeing seals was pretty likely!


The peninsula walkway is seriously gorgeous, it winds up the coastal path and then along near the edge of the rock face so that you get amazing views the whole way. It's a stunning walk but don't forget your suncream, there's no shade up there at all!


Seals, just like penguins, will get frightened if they're scared so you need to keep 5 - 10 metres away from them at all times. They will also get aggressive if they get freaked out so it's best to stick to this advice rather than get chased by an angry seal. There's a seal warden in the carpark keeping an eye on people which seemed totally necessary as people are terrible at following rules. There were plenty of tourists getting too close as well as parents just letting their kids walk off towards the seals on their own. The seals were so cute when they were just chilling and these sleepy seals made my day!



We absolutely loved visiting Kaikoura and would definitely recommend adding it to your South Island itinerary. It's not the easiest place to get at the moment to as the main road leading there from the north of the island is still closed because of earthquake damage so you have to take quite a long route to get there or take a trip up from Christchurch. If you combine Kaikoura with a trip to Hanmer for some hot pool action it's a really fun trip and the road should be fixed in early 2018.

This post was sponsored by Hitch Car Rentals, Tekapo Stargazing and Hanmer Springs. As always all words and opinions are my own. Posts like these help me to keep bringing you travel content from around the globe.
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2017 Vegan and Cruelty Free Holiday Gift Guide

December 5, 2017, 5:42 pm
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I love reading holiday gift guides so I always make sure to spend the beginning of November scoping out and bookmarking cool things to share with you. Since I've been travelling and living without an address it makes the list of things I can't wait to treat myself to when I'm settled get a little out of hand but it's absolutely worth it. I believe in trying to support businesses and organisations that are trying to do good and to make a difference to the world all year round but it's especially important during the winter holidays, a lot of retailers get by on the the sales made at this time of year so it's a great time to reach out and support small businesses by making intentional purchases rather than doing all of your shopping in one fell swoop at a department store or huge online retailer.


  1. VREV Tote Bag designed by Harriet Heath. I've been tattooed by Harriet a couple of times now and I adore her work. She made this tote to help Manchester based vegan business V Revolution stay open after water damaged their premises so much that they had to close for a chunk of time. Grab one of these for a friend and buy one for yourself whilst you're at it. £9 + P&P from vrevmcr on Big Cartel.
  2. Vegan Queen Jumper from Bright Zine. This cute Fairtrade, organic and carbon neutral crewneck sweatshirt is just the thing for keeping cosy this winter. Grab this gift for £31.90 + P&P online.
  3. Truffle Selection No2 from Booja Booja. I pick up a box of these fancy truffles every winter and they never get old. They've been certified as a-ok by the Food Empowerment Project meaning that you know there was no slavery involved in the cocoa supply chain which makes them all the more delicious. Available at both indie health food stores and Waitrose / Ocado these are an easy treat to get your mitts on. From £3.99.
  4. Lush Merry Christmas Gift This gift is full of all of the christmassy bath bombs that your cosy winter dreams are made of. It includes my two 2016 faves; the honey scented but totally vegan Shoot for the Stars and the magical Golden Wonder as well as two new-to-me bombs, peppermint and cocoa scented Thundersnow and the super festive Christmas Sweater that I can't wait to try. Pick up this gift for £22.50 at a Lush store near you.
  5. Set of 4 Stainless Steel StrawsI bought myself some steel straws this year and they're helping me have less of an impact on the planet. Pick up this gift from £10 online at boobalou. 
  6. Christmas Pud Soy Candlefrom Vegan Bunny. This candle is glittery af, has a 25 hour burn time, and will make your loved ones house smell like Christmas pudding. What more could you want? Available in red or white. Pick one up for just £7.
  7. Animal Rights, Social Justice, Vegan Pizza Iron On Patch from Herbivore Clothing. This cute patch advertises all of the cool things that your friend cares about right on one patch. I love this and so should all of the vegans in your life. $5 from Herbivore CC online.
  8. Delilah Bra and Hipster Brieffrom Lara Intimates. If you're giving the gift of underwear this winter then you can't do better than something from Lara Intimates, they use reclaimed luxury fabrics so you're getting a fancy product that's kind to the environment and everything is stitched together in London. From £20 online.
  9. Help Refugees Charity Donation. I spent time volunteering with Help Refugees last year and they're a charity that I will continually support in whatever way I can. They're a grassroots response to the refugee crisis with bases in Calais and Thessaloniki. Make a donation in the name of the most right wing member of your family and help to keep someone warm on the streets of Calais this winter. Donate online or go one step further and organise a clothing / food collection to take to Calais yourself over the festive period.
  10. Christmas Iced Jewels from Hannah Banana Bakery I've had my eye on Hannah's treats by post for a long time and her Christmas range is stunning. These make the perfect stocking stuffers and will only set you back £2.50 + P&P
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