Read about the first part of Jeremy’s recent trip through New Zealand
Jeremy has been travelling through New Zealand in preparation for our March 2027 tour there. Read the first part of his exciting adventure
My last visit to the home of the All Blacks however was in 1986, so there was much to discover when I hopped across the Tasman Sea after our Gran Reserva tour to Australia. A sophisticated, warm welcome uncovered many surprises.
New Zealand is my new favourite place for coffee, the prime benefactor of some barista wars with Melbourne a couple of decades back. While you need to order a Magic in Melbourne to get a double ristretto shot in your flat white, that’s a given in New Zealand, where obsession about beans, roasting and baristas guarantee a perfect cup almost all the time, enhanced by the creamy local milk. Last time I was here, it was Nescafe and a small spoon. The honey is a thing of equal beauty here too, the Manuka the best known of course but I tried some creamy and intense Pohutukawa local Christmas tree honey too, which will be in my mum’s Christmas stocking this year. New Zealanders eat and export more honey than anywhere else, it’s a superfood here.
Overall the ingredients are very fine indeed. The fish and seafood, especially the green lipped mussels, king salmon, oysters, prawns and the fine blue cod you’ll find in fish and chips are a serious match for world class grass fed beef and lamb. The key difference from my last visit is the east Asian influence is much stronger and integrated into the cuisine, making for a very happy marriage of delicate white wines with the seafood and your choice of Bordeaux, Burgundy or Rhone style reds with your beef and lamb. The vintners see France as a closer comparison to their wine styles than the warmer climate Aussie wines. The cultural fusion here has unexpected benefits too, I had a delicious Otago made sake with a Malaysian dish on a night out in Queenstown and some wonderful tapas style dishes in Martinborough at Palliser Estate, proud of their Chilean/New Zealand cuisine pioneered by ‘Chiwi” chef Norma Bella Munoz.
Wine country here has a rich and varied palette too, Waiheke island is a Mediterranean style island a half hour from Auckland, a gorgeous set of undulating hills, pristine beaches and glorious and varied wine country as far as the eye can roll and so much choice that it’s a crime to miss a day here when in Auckland, whether you’re after serious reds and generous whites or vibrant and creative small production wines from small operations, you’ll probably end up wanting to live here. Unless of course, your fancy takes you to Hawkes Bay, where Bordeaux blends and Syrahs dominate in the shadow of the Te Mata peak overlooking Hawkes Bay. Look a bit further and there are gentle chardonnays and an Art Deco gem in Napier. The road south from Hastings lands you in up and coming Martinborough, over the mountains from Wellington, home to some of the very best pinot noir, fabulous stargazing and a buzzing winemaker scene that houses 10% of Kiwi winemakers making 1% of the wine. Winemakers having fun makes for a good night out, trust me.
Of course, you take all this in, then you hop on a flight down to Otago and you realise you knew nothing before you got here. Lord of the Rings mountains across the road from Patagonian vistas, flanked by Alpine lakes and of course some very delectable vineyards planted in the middle. This is the home of wild west wine with the greatest finesse, birthplace of the bungee jump and the adrenalin injecting shotover boat rides. The ethereal red wines are some of the most under appreciated on the planet, the pinot noir planted originally by the Wild Irishman himself Alan Brady and served by travelling Burgundians impressed by their southernmost emulators. Goes pretty well with slow cooked lamb under crystal clear southern stars in the Gibbston Valley. Country and Western country took as my distant cousin Jeff Rea will champion under the Otago skies, full of surprises.
The best thing of all of course is the people (or maybe it’s the All Blacks). My travel buddy Allan is the son of one my dad’s great friends and he made sure I was well attuned to New Zealand ways. Perennially content and proud of their country, the locals are nevertheless hard to impress. Sumptuous wines and meals that would unleash a ‘fabulous’ in Florida do well to elicit a ‘not bad’ here. Don’t be fooled by the understatement though, this is seriously world class wine and food country and the locals are rightly proud of the vibrant, sophisticated yet down to earth country that New Zealand has become. That same understatement may keep the wines and travel experiences a little under the radar, the assumption being that New Zealand is a little less dynamic than its neighbour but don’t be fooled, this is a great time to say Kia Ora and discover the friendliness that shines throughout. Just don’t gush about it. Not bad, not bad at all!
