Of My Birthday - a Recap
Well, that was a spectacularly good weekend.It seems that seven years out of ten I have a long weekend in which to enjoy my birthday. This year was no exception.
It started on Friday night. I’d been led to believe that I’d be going out for quick drinks and dinner and then a movie. X-Men:First Class in fact. I was quite excited about that. It turned out though that that was a deception. A ploy! Drinks at the Northern Steamship for two, became ‘Surprise Drinks for Simon’ for many! It was amazingly cool. My oldest friend, my newest friend and many friends in-between. From my different networks and from different parts of my journey. Friends who’d not met each other.I truly have quality people in my life.We ended up in Kingsland at Nectar (opened this week), where I’m pretty sure we got to name a cocktail... my recollection is a bit blurry to be honest.Saturday morning was soccer dad time. A little worse for wear. Again, another stressful game. My boys’ team SHOULD have won, but managed to salvage a 2-2 draw in the dying moments.After the game I got whisked away to places unknown with the purpose of giving me a memorable and most excellent birthday.Getting directions as needed whilst driving was fun for me - OK I am somewhat of a control freak - but I’m trying to let go. Truly. From the few clues given I did manage to guess (I was trying REALLY hard not to) where we were heading, about 40mins from our destination, which was the Puka Park Resort in Pauanui.
Now - let’s talk about the Puka Park Resort in Pauanui...It is a lovely place with a great reputation. Private chalets nestled in native forest. What more could you want?Good service. That’s what.Here’s where the wheels started to fall off, much to the anguish of my companion. This weekend had been organised for months, with checks and follow-ups. But sometimes things are out of our hands.So I’ll tell the tale as a caution to you dear reader, but please understand that this was, in fact, the best weekend ever!! I absolutely loved it.We’d booked in to dine at 8:30pm Saturday evening and arrived for pre-drinks at about 7:45pm. There was a large group celebrating a 40th present and it appeared that there were not many staff serving and that they were somewhat unprepared. The bartender didn’t seem to know the first thing about making cocktails - reading the ingredients off of the drinks menu and broadly mixing them together with very interesting results.
We were finally seated at 9:15pm. And only after I’d pointed out the five empty tables and asked the staff why we were still waiting? Guests that had arrived after us were seated before us. It was amazing watching the other diners - they all were pretty much pissed off with the service.Time to order our meals. The conversation went like this: “Yes, we’ll have the Venison please”. “Sorry, we’re out of Venison”. “OK, we’ll have the Snapper then”. “Sorry, we’re out of Snapper”. “OK, we’ll have the Lamb then. “Sorry, we’re out of Lamb”. “So.... what do you actually have?”. “Duck”. (The Duck wasn’t even on the menu which is probably why they had some). When it arrived, I do have to say that the food was cooked and presented very well.The next morning, my actual birthday, I was wondering why my companion was appearing agitated at around 10:00am. And was then upset at around 10:30am. She’d special-ordered a birthday cake for me which was supposed to have been delivered at 10. It wasn’t. And then she discovered that the Hotel had no idea about the order. And the kitchen couldn’t do it. This was bad. After discussions with the front desk staff member (it was her last day, and she didn’t give a crap), the kitchen was tasked to either bake the cake or source one.The hotel went some way to redeem themselves by leaving a complimentary bottle of Bollinger and a fruit platter in our room. They also suggested that when the cake arrived (it did, eventually, in the late afternoon) they’d all get together and sing me “Happy Birthday”. As funny as it would have been, this suggestion was not taken up.Dinner service that evening was much better. The staff were definitely looking after us. It was interesting to see how unhappy they were with the total lack of preparedness for this weekend and how slack the management was. (on-call, but not answering their phone etc.). The meal was excellent. Coromandel Mussels (ordered 12, received 24), Eye Fillet Steak (cooked perfectly), Cheese platters and Port for afters.On checkout we got to talk to the woman who took the cake order. She was so nervous and upset. Apparently she had entered it into their systems and had discussed it prior to our arrival. Nothing had happened and she couldn’t understand what had gone wrong.I do have to say that we did get great service from Charlotte, Jay and Sanjeeta. They did their best for us despite not having much support from the Hotels' management and systems.So the Puka Park Resort really fell over. It is a lovely property, but it most certainly is not the four-star standard it purports to be. Surely, it is not representative of the standards that Mercure would like to associate with its brand.We did have a lot of fun exploring Pauanui. The beach is spectacular even in overcast conditions. I loved the walk to the Flat Rock. (We didn’t go to the cave this time around). We enjoyed the local cafes and shops.
This weekend I throughly enjoyed myself. It was a weekend filled with friends, love, and way too much food and alcohol. The perfect birthday.
Now, the next few days is all about the detox. *shudder*- Simon