Beaches and Sausages.... The saga continues....

Beaches and Sausages…. The saga continues….

 

 

This beach trip today was meant to be to Tokau Bay but we struggled to find access to this beach and ended up a little bit further north on the coast. Matauri Bay is a brilliant looking beach. It would be great for families with younger kids. The water was warm and inviting on a hot Northland day, although I would have preferred larger waves.

 

 

We went back to Paihia via the twin coast highway, where there are a number of smaller spectacularly visually appealing bays between Matauri Bay and Whangaroa Harbour. The drive via the coastal route is well worth it.

At dinner I was in charge of the barbecue (as had become the house routine) and we cooked sausages from Churchill’s Butchers and Deli in Kerikeri. When we had called in on New Year’s Eve the shop was very busy and the meat cabinets showed that the shop had sold a lot of snarlers that day with trays for many varieties empty. I purchased the pork and cider sausage along with Nürmberg sausage.

 

 

The pork and apple cider sausage was a medium to fine grind - gluten, dairy and soy free. Lumps of apple can be seen in the sausage. The sweetness of the apple and the cider complement the sweetness of the pork well and it is a very pleasant sausage. It was declared by my mate’s partner as the best example of a gluten free sausage that we had eaten over the last few days. High praise indeed when you compared this with the quality sausages that we had consumed. Personally I would have ranked Westmere Butchery’s pork and lemon as the best of the gluten free snarlers.

 

 

The Nürmberg sausage is small snarler, just on appearances I would call it a breakfast sausage. It is finely ground. This is a pork sausage with flavours of marjoram, salt and pepper. It is mildly flavoured and is a sausage what would appeal to a wide range of sausage eaters.

 

    

As our time in the far north comes to an end it is great to have had fantastic company, beaches and simple meals in the evening with salads, fresh veges and of course a fine selection of snarlers. We are looking to head off to Raglan on the west coast of the North Island. We continue the search for more beaches, sun, fine company and the great barbecue snarler. There is more to come….