There are two things you need if you’re planning to visit the Wairarapa – an empty belly and elasticated trousers. There’s no escaping the fact that this region, which gently reclines across the south-eastern tip of the North Island, is a mecca for the hungry and the greedy.
In fact, we’ve barely left State Highway 2, as it winds its way from Wellington over the Rimutaka Hill, and we’re pulling into The Country Cooking School. It’s here that chef Mary Biggs, who is Le Cordon Bleu trained, runs classes from the kitchen of Te Puhi, her 14-hectare farm on the fringes of Featherston.
After a delicious apple and quince cake, made with fruit grown on the property, we change into gumboots and wander around the farm, filling baskets with everything from fragrant fennel bulbs and fat leeks to colourful borage flowers destined for a salad.
And then we get stuck in, dicing and whisking, baking and poaching the fresh seasonal ingredients into a four-course meal that includes leek and potato soup with salted almonds, roast salmon with preserved lemon and sundried tomato pesto, and a light-as-air feijoa sorbet. It’s utterly delicious and I would probably still be sitting at Mary’s oversized dining table, stuffing my face, were it not for my second appointment of the day, at The Clareville Bakery in Carterton.
Top notch bakeries and hand made chocolate
There can’t be many New Zealand places of worship that are deemed dangerous, but the Clareville Bakery, housed in a decommissioned church, is indeed dangerous – to the hips and thighs, that is. Mike and Rose Kloeg have been turning out delicious bread, pastries, pies and desserts from the wooden chapel since 2013 and it’s easy to see why they won New Zealand’s Supreme Pie Award a year later (lamb cutlet with kumara mash), as well as recently picking up the gong for Best Rural Cafe. We nibble at calorific cronuts and stock up on Clareville Crackers, the lavash-style flatbread they’re famous for.
Soon it’s time to point the car in the direction of Greytown, which is a little like the love child of America’s Nantucket and The Hamptons. It’s all white picket fences and the kind of cute wooden cottages that make me wish I could move here.
But we’re not here for the real estate – we’ve come to sample more than 80 varieties of handmade chocolate at Schoc, where owner Murray Langham believes in the virtue of savoury, as well as sweet, chocolate. Which could explain the range of flavours that probably shouldn’t go together, but somehow do, such as curry and poppadom, carrot and coriander and strawberry and black pepper.
Schoc’s chocolates.
Even better, Murray is a former therapist who reckons he can decipher personality types from chocolate preference. So, for example, he deems me ‘quick of mind’ for my love of almond chocolate, while my second favourite, hazelnut, indicates that I’m a homebody (true). My third choice, peppermint, underlines my belief I can do anything. It’s all good fun and, just quietly, another excuse for scoffing more chocolate than is strictly necessary.
We move on to Saluté; a Greytown institution, where owners Travis and Eve Clive-Griffin have been feeding and watering guests since 2001. Travis is a chef who learned to cook from his Lebanese grandfather; which explains the delicious Middle Eastern-inspired chorizo and cabbage slaw with spiced almonds, currants and lashings of fresh herbs I’m feasting on.
Murray Langham is a chocologist.
Sadly, my timing is out for their At Home with Saluté cooking classes, which are held at Kentford, Travis and Eve’s rural Gladstone home. Usually run over winter, themed classes include ‘Balinese Inspiration’ and ‘Dessert Heaven’. Signing up is worth it just to hear Travis’ stories from his time at the two Michelin-starred Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons under chef Raymond Blanc.
World class wineries
The pickings haven’t always been this good ‘over the hill’. Roll back the clock 50 years or so, and the Wairarapa was a bit of a culinary and cultural wasteland. But then some bright spark had the idea of planting grapes, and so began the liquid dream which has since propelled this region onto the world stage.
Nowadays, the Wairarapa is like catnip for foodies who brave the Rimutaka Hill’s hairpin bends to be fed and watered.
One of the top spots is Martinborough, which has been producing award-winning pinot noir wines since the late 1970s, when an analysis of the soil and climate revealed conditions closely resemble those in Burgundy. Martinborough is one of the few places outside of France where it’s possible to grow the fickle pinot noir grape.
The Wairarapa is home to many bubbly characters including Travis Clive-Griffin (right).
We take our thirst to Coney Wines, where winemaker Tim Coney introduces us to his latest vintage. We sample pinot noir that tastes of cherry and toasted oak, as well as crisp rieslings that convert me to the dryer end of the wine spectrum. Tim, the brother of cricketer Jeremy Coney, is a silver-tongued devil who makes me laugh when he admits, “the point of wine is to allow people to dig themselves out from their mundane existences, talk nonsense and have a good time”. I couldn’t agree more.
By now I’m in need of food to soak up the alcohol, so we detour to Food Forest Organics, the plant-based store and eatery set up in 2015 by Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron and his wife Suzy.
Most of the fresh organic produce comes from the Cameron’s nearby farm, which the couple bought after spending time in the region when James was filming Avatar. Even better, the compact kitchen churns out such delights as miso broth dotted with rice and sunflower seed balls. I can’t look beyond the to-die-for raw tiramisu cheesecake.
Olive groves galore
The Wairarapa’s hot, dry summers, cool winter nights and rocky soil aren’t only kind to grapes; olives are also big in these parts. Around 36 olive groves, featuring some 40,000 trees, are tucked into pockets all over the region.
At Olivo, the oldest commercial olive grove in the region, owner Helen Meehan accompanies us around her sun-dappled grove. There are 1200 olive trees, which have kept Helen and her husband John busy since 2003. Helen shows us how she harvests and presses the black and green fruit, and at the cellar door we try olive oils infused with porcini, smoked chilli and orange, dunking chunks of fluffy focaccia into tiny saucers.
Greytown is a great place for both shopping and eating.
As the day slides into evening, we drive to Brodie Estate where we get the full Wairarapa experience – wine and oil. Artist Ann Brodie and her husband James planted half their 8ha in grapes and half in Italian and Greek olive trees back in 2001. We happily wash down their peppery, buttery oil with a delicious 2011 Brodie Estate pinot noi
The worst thing about our time in the Wairarapa is that it has to come to an end. But as we leave, our car laden with chocolate, wine, olive oil and bread, we’re happy to be taking a little piece of this green and pleasant land home with us.
Atutahi is just one of the stunning olive groves in the region.
5 other activities to try in the Wairarapa
The region might be a foodie’s paradise, but if you want a respite from all that eating, there are plenty of non-culinary activities in the area too.
1. Explore Castlepoint
Castlepoint has some of New Zealand’s most impressive natural scenery, including a limestone reef, and imposing Castle Rock. It’s a popular place to surf, fish and swim.
2. Get close to nature
Pukaha Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre is the home of rare wildlife including the infamous white kiwi Manukura. Visitors can also watch tuatara and kaka parrots being fed. www.pukaha.org.nz
3. Have a ride
If you want to burn off all that food, the Wairarapa has a growing reputation as a cycling destination. Keen riders could do a segment of the 115km Rimutaka Cycle Trail, or simply grab a wine map and cycle between Martinborough’s vineyards. www.wairarapanz.com
4. Head south for tractors and seals
Explore the quirky beachside settlement of Ngawi on your way to Cape Palliser, the southern-most point of the North Island and home to a huge fur seal colony.
5. Hit the shops
Greytown features many designer boutiques and unique specialist stores including Blackwell & Sons, who sell hand-built bicycles; HALL clothing; Nicola Screen fashion design; and Imperial Productions – for handcrafted toy soldiers.
Words by: Sharon Stephenson.
Photograph by: Martin Haughey and Destinantion Wairarapa.
This originally appeared in Food magazine.
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