To enjoy the unique flavours of any country what better time is there to savour its foods and wines than the harvest season? Ripe to bursting, the Bay of Plenty offers up its orchard fruits, in Marlborough vintners are picking sun-warmed, mellow grapes off the vine, in Central Otago the sheep and cattle are brought down from their summer grazing. Round-up your appetite for this the most bounteous season.

New Zealanders enjoy their food. Perhaps our appreciation comes spontaneously from the abundance of fresh, natural foods that come from the fertile land, rivers and our island nation’s wealth of coast and ocean.

The Māori word for Autumn is ‘ngahuru’ and an old saying, "Ngahuru, kura kai, kura tangata" means ‘harvest-time, wealth of food, the wealth of people’ so we know that food has always been plentiful in New Zealand’s Autumn.

Even at humble cafes and side-of-the-road fish and chip shops the quality of fare tends towards the extraordinary. In Mangonui you can select the fish you want then watch it being prepared and cooked for you.

Traditional Māori and European-roots-inspired foods merge with Polynesian and Asian flavours and specialities to create an array of culinary delights that is quintessentially New Zealand.

Autumn favourites

Consider our unique rich pickings first - smoked eel is a perennial favourite, as is paua (abalone) and green-lipped mussels are a must. In Autumn, try pumpkin, tomatoes and aubergine, bursting with taste.

Some people visit New Zealand for foodie tours, and wine tours, aware that the standard is not only high but enlightening for such a small nation. Autumn with its rich harvest is a perfect time to savour our local produce from walnuts in March to mandarins in April.

Inspiration abounds in prime ingredients like free-roaming beef and organic lamb, fish from the purest waters and vegetables from fertile volcanic plateaus.

And there are many cooking schools with courses run for visitors in the Autumn season throughout the country.

Trails and upcoming events

In Autumn there is a crescendo in gourmet wonders. Food and wine trails are especially popular at this time of year. And, of course, in its finest season Tauranga hosts the Boutique Food and Wine Festival on 8 March. Leisurely make your way from there in time for the Gourmet Experience event in foodie paradise of everything that’s mouthwateringly wholesome yet cosmopolitan, from honey to fine wines, olive oils to artisan breads, handmade cheeses to iconic fruit: Hawkes Bay 22 - 27 April.

The fact is, no matter where you travel in New Zealand there is a gourmet odyssey awaiting you. And always the sea air to add an edge to your appetite and scenery and landscapes to dine with whether it’s a cup of bush tea from a flask in the bush with a Māori guide demonstrating the art of a traditional ‘hangi’ (burying meat with hot rocks in an underground oven) or in an international 5-star restaurant on the wooden-decking edge of an alpine lake, with the soft lapping of waves as your musical accompaniment.

World-standard dining establishments in the cities - particularly in Wellington and Auckland offer a sumptuous array of Pacific-rim cuisine. However, fresh seasonal delicacies are as easily found along a country road in the Wairarapa or from the gourmet food producers themselves in Hawkes Bay, Nelson or Kapiti, for example.

Not surprisingly, the seafood everywhere is sublime and if you’ve a desire to catch your own, opportunities abound around the coast from Bluff to Ninety Mile Beach in the far north for fishing including big game angling (New Zealand waters were described by Zane Grey as ‘Angler’s Eldorado’ in 1926).

Since the arrival of Māori but a few thousand years ago to Europeans two hundred years ago, this has long been the land of hunter-gatherers and remains so today. While now you might spend your hunting and gathering at something like the Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival on 15 March or choosing from the exciting wine list at one of Auckland’s finest restaurants, you can be assured the taste satisfaction from our bountiful land of fresh produce is unmatched.

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Article provided by Tourism New Zealand. Image: 'Autumn colours, Arrowtown' provided by Destination Queenstown.