The Princess Diaries

My favourite thing about Rotorua is how close you are to nature.  On Boxing Day I went to The Redwoods National Park (Whakarewarewa Forest) to hike and spend some time in nature - it's only 10 minutes from my parents house.  I spent around 2 hours exploring the tracks, stopping in the Nursery Road area to have a snack and take some pictures from the look out. Of course I also got some typical white girl pictures, though if you are going to do this, I recommend wearing sunblock because I forgot and now my shoulders and back are burnt as f*ck. After the hike, I met my family back at Blue lake for another turn at paddle boarding before heading home (and grabbing some Pita Pit on the way). If you are planning on heading to Rotorua here are a few other interesting things you could try:  The Polynesian Spa Redwoods Tree Walk aMAZEme Rotorua Night Markets (thursday nights) Skyline Luge/Gondola's If you have a favourite spot in Rotorua th...

Everyone has different traditions for Christmas, for me it's all about family. This year our family Christmas was held at my parents new house in Rotorua, after we had our immediate family's gift exchange the food preparations begin for the huge family lunch that we have with all my Aunts, Uncles & Cousins. Of course I snuck in lots of accidentally vegan things into the shared table including garlic bread and a Chocolate Hazelnut & Boysenberry cake that I made myself. I used The Caker's mix for my base, they no longer stock the Chocolate Hazelnut mix but have other options in their online  store . I've also tried the Raspberry & Coconut mix, and the Lemon & Plum - which was my fave! The best part about these mixes is most of them are easily made vegan (I think only one mix includes dairy milk chocolate.) I decided to add boysenberries to make it more Christmas-y, so divided it into two layers and filled with a boysenberry sauce which I whippe...