Black Water Rafting, Waitomo Caves

Local Knowledge

Get insider tips from experienced travellers, travel writers and local Kiwis.

Research South Island and North Island destinations and experiences, and get a taste for what New Zealand has to offer!

Local Knowledge

Get insider tips from experienced travellers and local Kiwis.

The Zest of Wellington

Travel writer Amelia Norman gets her fill on a fascinating food tour of central Wellington...

Warning: This article contains wheat, alcohol, dangerously moreish dairy products, fierce doses of caffeine, and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. Over indulgence in this article may cause extreme hunger. If symptoms persist, please see Zest Food Tours, Wellington. 

We start with the caffeine. It’s 10am on a windy Wednesday and Mojo Coffee Cartel is abuzz with a wonderful whooshing, chattering, spoon-clanging café clamour. Our group of five plus guide, Claire, are greeted by the thick, warm aroma of coffee and a smile from resident roaster Lambros Gianoutsos.

In the open coffee roasting area out back, Lambros is attending to an imposing black and chrome machine. Freshly roasted, cocoa coloured coffee beans spin slowly in a stainless steel tray as they cool. Above, a peep-hole shows raw beans roasting, turning slowly from their original light soapy green colour to their final deep russet hue. The revolving beans crackle and snap loudly, like hot oil spitting from a pan.

“We heat the machine to 225 degrees,” explains Lambros in his warm Greek accent. “At 140-160 we get the first crack. After the second crack, it’s ready.”  

Zest of Wellington Story »

Central Otago Wineries

Travel writer Amelia Norman sips her way around some of the wineries in the Gibbston Valley near Queenstown...

Mt Difficulty, Lindis River, Dry Gully…

The names of Central Otago’s wineries read like a description of the area’s inimitable landscape.

Chard Farm, Pisa Range, Rockburn, Two Paddocks…

Hidden on angular, north-facing hillsides beneath towering crags and above gaping canyons, the vineyards of Central Otago are the world’s most southern.  Like the names suggest, the vines are planted amidst golden-dry paddocks and snaking blue rivers; sunburnt gullies and stacks of crumbling schist.  

On a scorching November afternoon we cruise along the Kawarau Gorge road just north of Queenstown. Here, rough, chocolaty hills career upwards on either side.

At Kawarau Bridge, the famed bungy launch pad, we bypass the buses and campervans and creep off down a gravel path to The Winehouse & Kitchen.

Cellar-door-cum-restaurant, The Winehouse & Kitchen is an immaculately restored 1913 homestead with an endearing past and a bright future. Rescued from its fate as a local fire brigade training exercise in 2003, the then-dilapidated Winehouse & Kitchen was moved to its current site and reinvented as a base for van Asch, Rock Ferry and Freefall wines. In the three years since it opened its newly painted doors, The Winehouse & Kitchen has also scoured out a name as a top eatery, complete with accolades from Cuisine Magazine.

Central Otago Wineries Story »

 

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