I got some treats from Zumbo’s at the Star Casino for my birthday this year. Here’s what I thought about them!
We have eaten at Blu Water Grill before, but last night we decided to give their tapas a go for something different. One of the reasons we decided to give this a try is because we find that if we eat a main each here, we generally don’t have room for dessert, and today we wanted dessert.
The Rise Buffet Breakfast is Rydges’ new standardised healthy breakfast across their hotels and resorts. I’ve had it once before at Rydges Capital Hill in Canberra when it was fairly new. Coming to Jindabyne and staying at the Rydges Snowy Mountains Resort, I was not sure whether to expect it to be really matching a city buffet or whether it would be much simpler.
It is simpler, but I must say, I am very pleasantly surprised with how close it is. I should note though that we were there in Summer, and there is a large section of the restaurant that was closed off, so it may well be identical in Winter when the resort is busier.
I recently spent some time in Jindabyne and stayed at Rydges Horizons Snowy Mountains Resort. We were put in a lovely ground floor room with a gorgeous view of the lake, number 305. One thing I’ve noticed about Rydges previously is that their customer service is fantastic, and this stay was no different. Unfortunately, in the 9 days we were there, we had a number of issues, but a few staff did a great job at resolving them and making our stay as pleasant as possible regardless of the problems. If your bosses are reading this, Kyle, Danni and the night manager whose name I, unfortunately, can’t remember were all excellent!
We had dinner here last night. Unfortunately I was too hungry and completely forgot to take photos, but I thought I’d share our experience nevertheless. My in-laws and my wife are loyal locals and always like to visit the Horseshoe Bay Kiosk whenever they go to South West Rocks. Every time they have tried to … Read more
On our honeymoon we spent a few days at the Arrow Private Hotel in Arrowtown, New Zealand as a relaxing breather in between a couple of days of long driving. Arrowtown is only about 15-20 minutes from Queenstown, so it’s an easy drive for any Queenstown activities or for the Frankston New World Supermarket. We really enjoyed it there and decided to stay there again for our anniversary. We spent 4 nights here and once again loved the place. Tim, your host, is extremely friendly and helpful and goes out of his way to make your stay as comfortable and pleasant as it possibly can be.
We stayed in the Cherry Suite on our honeymoon and Tim booked us into this one again this time – I think he knew we liked it! From the looks of the photos on their website, most of the rooms are fairly similar anyway, but this one is right at the front, which we felt gave us a little bit more privacy because we only had another suite on one side (granted there are only 6 suites in the entire hotel just out of the centre of a quiet town, so it’s not like any of them would have a privacy issue really). This suite is named for the beautiful cherry blossoms that are planted around it. When we were here last time, they were out in flower and were stunning, we were a bit earlier this time though and they were just budding.
When you first enter, you can turn to the left where you have bag and clothes storage as well as the air conditioner, fridge and bathroom access.
Then off to the right is the bed, lounge, dining, kitchen and study with large windows for taking in the beautiful mountain view. The bed is a “super king” size bed. Unfortunately, it is not a single mattress, so there is a join in the middle, but of all the king size beds we got to try on our honeymoon that were joined together, this was one of the most comfortable. The join was almost unnoticeable and the sheets were beautifully soft. Both times we have been here it’s been some of the best sleep I’ve gotten!
On our way from Christchurch to Queenstown for our holiday we went through Lake Tekapo. Our plan had been to arrive here around sunset time so we could get a few nice photos at the Church of the Good Shepherd with the sun setting in the background over the lake. Then we would go get dinner at Mackenzie’s Bar and Grill looking over the water as the sun finishes setting. Unfortunately with our flight into Christchurch delayed we weren’t in time for sunset. We definitely didn’t miss out on Mackenzies Bar and Grill for dinner though! We tried this place out on our honeymoon because they accepted Bartercard which helped keep our costs down and we absolutely loved it, so since we were going through at a meal time we didn’t want to miss out.
I didn’t get any photos of outside unfortunately since it was dark, but it is just here:
Ignore where Google Maps actually places it further up the highway, it’s incorrect. If you use the above location and jump on Google Streetview, you will see the “Observatory Cafe”. That is where Mackenzie’s now is located.
We finally got to go on holidays at last!
We went to New Zealand’s South Island to do some of the things we did on our honeymoon that we really enjoyed, and to do some of the things we missed out on doing while we were on our honeymoon.
While we were at Rydges in Canberra, we also decided to splurge a little bit and try room service for once. We weren’t super hungry as we had a big lunch, so we decided to get an entree and dessert that had caught our attention.
We got the Lamb Noisette entree and Lemongrass and Guava Parfait dessert to share.
I have to say, I was both very impressed and a bit disappointed. There are a few reasons for both of these things!
I was very impressed because the food was amazingly delicious. I wasn’t as keen on the Lamb Noisette as Tammy, but she really loved it. The Lemongrass and Guava Parfait though was awesome! This was right up my alley. Check out the photos (I thought I’d try a slideshow for something different):
I thought I’d share some more of our experience at Rydges Capital Hill Canberra last weekend. This follows on from my post last weekend about the room we were in.
Our accommodation included breakfast at the Rydges buffet each morning, and I have to say, it was one of the best breakfast buffets I’ve been to, both in terms of food and in terms of how well presented it was! There were so many choices, and it was all delicious. I would recommend going before 8 though because the second morning we went later and certain things didn’t get replaced when they ran out (eg muffins – which were amazing).