We drove north again yesterday in order to dine at the Sawmill Cafe in Leigh. Since we had driven past it the day before, and Leigh is on a decent sized road near the coast, no problem, right? Well, at the circle in Matakana we turned left instead of going round the circle to go straight. It was a pretty road. We didn’t recognize the scenery, but then it looked similar to everything we’d seen before. So we drove on… and up… and up… and up. Okay, we were pretty sure we’d made the wrong turn when it was clear we were no longer near the ocean. But it was still pretty. We stopped nearly at the top when we saw a place to pull over. The view of the valley and ocean from such a spot is breathtaking.
Close by was this sign of property for sale. Don’t be put off by that price tag – NZ$975,000 is less than USD$750,000!
Matakana Valley Road
We drove back to Matakana and stopped for a while. A cute village with nice shops (mostly closed late Sunday afternoon) and place called Blue with organic ice cream and blueberries. A popular choice is vanilla mixed with fresh, crushed blueberries – delicious!
We finally made it to the Sawmill Cafe and Micro Brewery. It’s a lovely enclave in Leigh, New Zealand — restaurant, accommodations, shop and micro brewery. We tasted the Leigh Pale Ale and Thornycroft Dark Ale, both of which were tasty. We were so excited to walk in the cafe and see a pinball machine — alas it was Out of Order!
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