Day 2 : Nanzhuang, Miaoli
At the Olive Tree Minsu, we had a quad room plus an additional bed for our family of 5 and a twin room for my parents. We were allocated the ground floor quad room and a third floor double room. The spiral staircase was inconvenient for my parents. I was scolding myself for not requesting for a ground floor room for my parents at booking. But luckily the minsu owner and my boys helped bring my parents’ bags up. So if you are travelling with young kids or old folks remember to tell them that you do not want the 3rd floor rooms that are just accessible by a spiral stairs.
I must say that though my parent’s room was inconvenient for old folks, it was pretty. It even came with a balcony and roof top terrace. Great for star gazing. Our ground floor room had 2 double beds and a single bed placed side by side. Both rooms had quaint country deco which I really like. Only complaint was that there was no hook in the bathroom for hanging our clothes, so very inconvenient. There was no housekeeping for our 2 nights stay. They just asked if we wanted them to take out our garbage and change our towels. We asked for it, but unfortunately, they gave us only 4 instead of 5 towels on our second night. We were too lazy to go get them to send another, so made do with the 4.
Anyway, we woke up to a beautiful morning at The Olive Tree. It was great to wake up to nothing but nature all around us.
Morning @ The Olive Tree
Breakfast was simple but healthy. We had a choice of different thick toast, eg garlic, chocolate, peanut butter. We all loved the garlic toast. Besides thick toast, each breakfast plate came with salad, eggs, sweet potato and chicken nuggets. We had a choice of hot or cold beverages too. Btw, they serve the same breakfast everyday. It was probably OK for most guests who only stay for a night. We only noticed it as we stayed 2 nights. 
Breakfast @ 南庄橄榄树 The Olive Tree
Penglaixi was closed after damage by the summer typhoon. So instead we visited xiangtianhu (Xiangtian Lake) and shenxiangu (Immortal Fairy Valley). Pretty ecological parks, not big but nice leisurely walks. 
Xiangtian Lake
Immortal Fairy Valley
Then we went to Nanzhuang old town. An interesting street to browse was the osmanthus lane which had interesting and quaint shops. This place was crowded with mainly locals. We were there on a Sunday. Bought the fermented bean paste bean curds, black sugar ginger tea, mei cai ( preserved vegetables) etc. cheap and good. 
Osmanthus Lane, Nanzhuang Old Town
After lunch at Nanzhuang, we went to Lavender Cottage at Mingde. We had originally wanted to visit Lavender Cottage at Sinshe but changed our plans as we decided not to detour to Sinshe and prefer to spend more time in Taichung, so we came here instead.
Lavender Cottage, Mingde had a large and beautiful garden with a lake. A peaceful day to spend some quiet time by the lake if you so desire. Unfortunately, the lavender were not in bloom when we visited. So we didn’ see much lavenders in bloom. There were some small pockets of flowers around, but nothing spectacular. The garden had many photo opportunities. A pretty place to take pictures.
We did not do any DIY. But for those interested, there were woodwork DIYs available. We had a light afternoon tea at the restaurant. We ordered some drinks and cakes and ice cream. The entry tickets could be used to offset the cost of food in the restaurant. It can also be offset against purchases from the gift shop.
Overall it was a pleasant park and a good venue for an afternoon tea, but nothing spectacular.
Lavender Cottage, Mingde (Miaoli)
We decided to go back to the Olive Tree for dinner. The Olive Tree operates a cafe during the day as well for day visitors, but they close early on weekends. So we called to order our food so that they will be ready when we get back. We had already made this arrangement with them in the morning before we came out.
They offered various meals sets, eg rosemary chicken, butter chicken, Thai style chicken, Korean pork, beef curry and a vegetarian option. We tried the butter chicken, Rosemary chicken, Thai chicken and Korean pork among the 7 of us. Only DH didn’t like his Korean pork. The rest of us enjoyed our dinner. Set dinner was about NTD380 per set. Expensive by Taiwanese standard but I thought it was still reasonable. Each dinner set came with a choice of cold or hot drinks. It was simple food enjoyed in a cosy family environment, like having dinner at home.
Dinner @ 南庄橄榄树 The Olive Tree
This minsu was lovely. You will like it if you like country style deco and style. It was really cozy and pretty. We enjoyed our stay and meals. I would recommend this as a base to explore Nanzhuang. 2 nights was ok for us because we arrived late on day one and wanted another day to enjoy the Minsu. Otherwise we noticed that most guests stay 1 night only.