Southland is awash in some of the best seafood in New Zealand, but it’s a small, sheepishly named seabird that got me on three aeroplanes in one day.
In a picturesque little dining room overlooking Paterson’s Inlet on Stewart Island, I get my first taste of fresh tītī, also called sooty shearwater, and popularly known as muttonbird. There is a long tradition of muttonbirding by the Rakiura (Stewart Island) Māori and it’s a rare and special Kiwi delicacy that foodies should try at least once, and then brag about often.
Lania Edwards, a third-generation islander has been going out on the harvests to Rukawahakura Island, east of Stewart Island, since she was a child. And it’s in her dining room where I’m enjoying what real-estate agents call a ‘million dollar view’ of the yachts moored in Thule Bay with the Ulva Island bird sanctuary in the distance,while five fresh muttonbirds roast in a cast iron dish. Lania has filled them with a stuffing of breadcrumbs, onion, garlic, lemon zest, smoked paprika, pine nuts and mixed herbs. The birds roast for around 1½ hours at 180°C.
As I tuck into my first mouthful, I decide it has the texture of roast duck with rich, slightly brown meat (the colour of mutton). The crispy skin carries a hint of anchovy, which comes from the krill that muttonbird feed on in the waters around the Tītī Islands.
I’d order a fresh, roasted muttonbird at a restaurant in a heartbeat, but the main issue is supply. They are wild-caught and in some years the supply is not great. The Rakiura manage the harvest sustainably, which is labour intensive and reflected in the price.
When it’s available, Church Hill Restaurant in Oban use salted and fresh muttonbird in a number of ways– as a ravioli filling, or boned and stuffed with chicken and tarragon mousse with a blackcurrant liquor sauce. And it pairs particularly well with oysters, of which the islanders are understandably proud.
Stewart Island vs Bluff
I’m admiring the size of the local oysters in the dining room of the South Sea Hotel with owner Helen Cave. She co-owns the fish-processing facilities on the island, too, so if she doesn’t have it – it’s not seafood.
Out in Big Glory Bay, south of the main settlement on Stewart Island, they’ve been farming Bluff oyster for years. While the Bluff oysters dredged out of Foveaux Strait are only available seasonally, the Stewart Island farmed oysters are grown in the mussel farms and are available all year round.
The islanders will tell you they’re larger, milder and creamier than the Bluff oyster – I think that was a polite way of saying they’re better. So are oysters the top seller with the day trippers, trampers, cruise boaters and locals who visit the hotel? Not even close, says Helen. She lists the top sellers in order of popularity: “Blue cod, blue cod and blue cod.”
The key to getting quality blue cod onto the plate, she explains, is to keep it very cold, around 0-1°C. Never break the cold chain and you’ll get cod at its very best. At South Sea they do it beer battered, and oven baked with a herb crust. They also feature the other stars of Stewart Island fisheries: salmon, paua, mussels, and crayfish. For those who have trouble choosing, chowder and fish pie are popular.
Southern extremes
Southland is the region of the ‘southernmost everything’. They had the ‘southernmost pumpkins’ at the Southern Farmers’ Market in Invercargill, and up Leonard Street on Stewart Island, Annett Eiselt takes me around the ‘southernmost glasshouse’ at Observation Rock Lodge, which she runs with husband Phil Dove. From the view at the top of Annett’s street you see what she means; looking south there’s nothing but wilderness. Stewart Island’s 400-odd permanent citizens inhabit a scant two per cent of an island twice the size of Singapore.
Annett is a former theatre director from Dresden, but is now happily settled on the island, and gives New Zealand ingredients a European twist in the kitchen. After feeding nuts to a wild Kaka that’s a damn sight friendlier and more appreciative than my pet cat, Annette heads indoors to prepare a four-course dinner.
Tomato and cucumber from the glasshouse are served simply with feta, basil leaves and pesto. Zucchini is blended into a curry and coconut soup, and blue cod is served with rosemary potatoes, honey carrots, caramelised onion and aioli. Annett’s German heritage comes to the fore with an apple cake served with caramel sauce and mascarpone for dessert.
Fully hosted accommodation is rare on the island, with the bulk of the accommodation self-catered, while South Sea hotel has nine motel units and 18 hotel rooms, and there are three lodgings for backpackers. Observation Rock Lodge is a bit special and great way to experience the island if you want a bit of luxury in between trekking out after dark to view the Stewart Island Brown Kiwi
or to walk the Rakiura track – one of New Zealand’s nine great walks.
From the wild
Flying into Stewart Island on the nine-seater Britten Norman Islander plane operated by Stewart Island Flights and ferrying out on Stewart Island Experience completes the land-sea-and-air sightseeing trifecta. The ferry returns to Bluff, and it’s a short trip to Invercargill from there.
It’s remarkably simple to navigate by car in Invercargill. If you’re on Dee Street, everything pretty much comes off that road. So, down Dee Street and right onto Herbert Street I find Safari Lodge, a delightful Edwardian pile built in 1902 and restored by current owners Ray and Trish Winter into a luxury B&B. Resplendent with wildlife photos and art from their five years living in Mozambique, it’s crammed with antiques and the four rooms all have four-poster beds. Safari Lodge is a great base from which to explore the city, but that night I’m due a short drive away to meet the effervescent Jane Stanton of The Seriously Good Chocolate Company for a meal at her Spey Street café and chocolate factory.
It’s not easy to get around all the good local food producers in a day or two. Handily, Jane gathers a bunch of them together in one place for dinner. We start out with a few Invercargill Brewery beers made by owner Steve Nally in the former engineering workshop he has spent two years converting. You can take a tour of his brewery and get a craft beer lesson from Steve, who has 16 years in the game, and check out the rack-and- cloth method he uses to make his cider. Steve offers me the best definition of craft beer that I’ve heard: “It’s a craft beer when you know the brewer’s name”.
My favourite of his beers were the Hop Goblet No.2, an IPA made with Centennial hops, and the Pitch Black stout, a black coffee-influenced beer that Steve made specifically to pair with oysters. He explains that the astringency of the beer intensifies the brininess of the oysters. I test his theory at Jane’s café with a plate of au naturel oysters from Barnes Wild Bluff Oysters – it works a charm.
Local butcher Shane Marino is a paua diver in his spare time and he turns up with his amazing paua pies. To make the filling, the paua is seared in butter and slow-cooked in cream for 40 minutes with caramelised onion, coriander, parsley and ginger and finished with watercress before being encased in pastry. He’s only making them for fun at the moment, but all in attendance agree he needs to get his hands on a quota and get them into some cafés – Jane is certainly keen to get a supply. Paua doesn’t make for pretty pie filling, but then, pies are for eating not decoration. It feels like the genesis of a new food business.
A slider with wild venison arrives at the table; it’s deliciously tender and that’s all down to the skills of Callum Hughes, owner of Fare Game. He has built a nationwide business from his passion for hunting deer, goat, rabbit and hare in the Fiordland mountains. I feel like I’m tasting the best of Southland in one meal, but the finale of chocolate mousse, sheep’s milk ice-cream and pineapple snow cake is really three desserts in one. The pineapple in the snow cake is made by Back Country Foods, who have been supplying hunters and trampers with decent freeze-dried nosh since 1998.
I’m fascinated to discover that they can freeze-dry beer, but disappointed to hear the process also removes the alcohol. I’m sure local search and rescue operators are delighted an epidemic of pissed, lost trampers has been narrowly avoided. Back Country also supplies the Volvo Ocean Race and keeps the bunkers of doomsday preppers well stocked. They also freeze-dry the wakame flakes for Rob Emett’s range of seaweed-based seasonings. Rob has turned seaweed into a successful export business Kiwi Wakame, and we snack on his kelp chips throughout the meal. The kelp is flash fried in coconut oil and topped with toasted sesame seeds. They give kale chips a run for their money.
I take a tour of Helen’s factory and check out the Anzac commemorative rocky road bars she’s made for the Auckland War Memorial Museum and Te Papa, as well as the new chocolate bombs; a tasty chocolate drink. You can take a tour of the factory or a chocolate-making course if you fancy yourself as a chocolatier.
Riverton and beyond
Sunday morning is pretty quiet in Invercargill, unless you visit the award-winning Batch Café – which I do. The line is snaking out the door when I arrive, but it’s a flying visit for me. With a bracing Hummingbird coffee and a slice of their ‘best-ever’ gingerbread, I’m off exploring. Out west at Riverton their annual harvest festival is in full swing and I’m there to meet local food-forest experts Robert and Robyn Guyton . Beyond Riverton, further west is one of the least-explored parts of Southland. Tuatapere is home to the Last Light Lodge & Café, which has a great retro dining room and fantastic outdoor space. They host live music and popular pizza and open-mic nights. It’s way south of Te Anau and the famed Kepler and Milford tracks, but they have their own charms like the Clifden Caves for all your spelunking needs and the Waiau River for trout fishing.
North of Invercargill is Province Restaurant run by chef Mat Jackson and his wife Linda. It’s part of a stunning wedding venue with extensive gardens near Winton. I assume blue cod is the most popular dish, but Mat puts me straight. Roast duck with gnocchi is tops, while Leelands lamb rump with pickled vegetables is second. Fare Game venison is on the menu and it’s one of the best places to try an award-winning Murray Grey steak from Ballyhooley Beef. You’ll find it well worth the drive for a superb meal and stroll in the gardens.
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