Favourite Auckland style icons

A couple of weeks ago I went to Auckland. Now that I no longer live there, the traffic and astronomical house prices don't seem such a problem (well, I can avoid rush hour and don't have to pay for the housing). There are parts of it that I find incredibly stylish. Mainly they're old and crafty.

The area around Mt Eden and One Tree Hill always amazes me with its beautiful old villas, lush plants (think nikau palms thriving in volcanic soil) and walls built out of volcanic rock. If it's in the way, dig it up, make a pile of it and build an iconic Auckland wall.

I have a shop I love to visit whenever possible. It's Mixt in Kingsland (the link is to their facebook page because their website's very brief). Everything's old or NZ-made and full of style and character.

However this time I visited LeeAnn Yare's new shop at 20 Normanby Rd, Mt Eden. I was hoping there would be a lot of crafty upcycled stuff, but found it to be mainly new and could have been plucked out of the pages of a magazine. Very of-the-moment. Something I really loved, however, was these gorgeous poufs: think Amy Butler crossed with farmhouse vintage.

The highlight of my visit, though, was definitely staying with a friend of many years, her husband and gorgeous little boys. We talked and sipped. She cooked me a wonderful meal and the finale was absolutely WOW.

This is plum and raspberry sorbet. The plums came from the tree in their back garden and she threw it together in her icecream maker. I was groaning with pleasure at every mouthful. There was so much flavour that I might as well have been sitting under that plum tree in the middle of summer.

She also served me home made feijoa icecream. Utterly delicious. Eons more intense than any shop-bought icecream.

One thing's for sure: I am getting an icecream maker!