Food tastes better when your feet are in the sand
Takapuna Beach Café
The cafe that in August boasted a special brunch menu for dogs is situated beside one of Auckland’s most popular beaches for two and four-legged friends. Score a table on the cafe’s bustling deck to soak up the seaside and enjoy dishes that are as tasty as they sound, from gnocchi with smoked fish, peas and a poached egg to pancakes with apple, lavender syrup and mascarpone. Alternatively, order a gelato from the takeaway store and join the hordes strolling the sand.
22 The Promenade, Takapuna.
The Bethells Cafe
In the height of summer, relief from the scorching black sand of Te Henga Beach comes in the form of the large awning extending from this permanent caravan. There have been various tea shops and ice cream carts on this beachside patch for over 45 years, but when Anna and Jim Wheeler took over 12 years ago it became a destination in its own right. Legendary burgers and Friday night live music jams (which start again in December) attract families from all over the area.
Bethells Beach, open weekends 10-6pm.
Dragonfired
The best takeaways on Waiheke are at Little Oneroa, where the woodfired oven in the caravan offers all manner of Mediterranean flavours in pizzas, pocket breads and calzone. To sit on the sand and scarf down their Greek lamb pocketbread (stuffed with braised organic lamb, tzatziki, tomato and seasonal greens) is to know a particular kind of summery bliss.
Little Oneroa Beach, Waiheke. 10am-8pm, seven days.
