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My last morning in Dunedin, and I am sad to leave it, I have really enjoyed my time here. I decided to delay hitting the road for one last museum visit - a completely original Jacobean house called olverston house. I'm so glad I did, it was entralling. The family built the house at the turn of the century from money made by importing musical instruments and other things into new zealand. The Englishman owner married a lass from Melbourne and they had two children when they settled in Dunedin. As neither of the children had children, the house was willed to dunedin and everything was kept in original working order. Back in the day it was an extremely modern house with an electric generator 5 years before houses got electricity, a state of the art communication system to summon servants using bells and central heating. The kitchen had the original stoves and fridge (one of the first in NZ and it still works) and I would kill for their pantry. It is rare for a collection to be so well preserved, and so personal - the rooms, clothing, collections all belonged to the occupants. There were rooms devoted to reading, music, games and socializing, it would have been a fun house to live in as it has a warm used feel to it, and was not so grand that it was ostentatious.
Leaving on a high note, I hit the road and stopped briefly at evansdale cheese factory and tried their rustic but delicious range, the standout being the manuka smoked Brie. Next stop was a detour at shag point, a local nature reserve where you can see seals in the wild, and yellow eyed penguins later on the day. Seals were everywhere, spralled on rocks and playing in seaweed rich water. I had this all to myself, it was beautiful.
By this stage I was hungry and only 10 km from my lunch destination. When acclaimed British chef Rick stein was offered the opportunity to eat at any restaurant in the world and write about it for Conde Nast magazine, he chose fleurs place at moeraki, middle of nowhere. I got the last table and can see why people travel all over the world to eat here. Fleur is a fisherwoman and this tiny town is where all the fishing boats pull in. The restaurant is in a tin shack (they do fish and chips from an old caravan at the front) - no fine dining here, just seriously good food and wine! I don't eat seafood, her specialty, but from all the fish carcasses on the tables people are enjoying the catch of the day. I order a smoked venison, pickled Ginger and cucumber salad and it is divine - fiery hot from the Ginger, and the venison is carved like braesola. This goes well with a glass of gerwutz as I sit by the ocean and enjoy the view. For dessert I have kaffir lime creme brûlée with roasted apricots and the biggest biscotti! I meet fleur the chef herself when I pay the bill (a measly NZD43) and get to thank her in person for an amazing experience.
I need to walk off lunch so it is good that to get to the moeraki boulders you have to walk along the beach for a while. They are an unusual geological phenomenom where they are formed the same way as pearls in the cliffs and erosion releases them onto the beach. They are perfectly round boulders, all different sizes strewn across the beach to the shore line, some almost buried again by time.
It is not long before I reach oamaru, my stop for the next 2 nights. The town was of great importance as a transfer point of grain and refridgerated meat and has the best preserved Victorian buildings in all of new Zealand. The historic quarter is like stepping back in time along the cobbled stone streets. Whether it's a sunday or at 5pm I had arrived too late, everything was shut and it was like a ghost town. I did a walking tour with a self guiding map from the I-site, then did a tiki tour around town to orientate myself and check out the penguin viewing stations. So far I have not seen one!
My motel is a disappointment, I think I got what I paid for. I am pretty certain it was part of an old hospital, and could even have been a psych unit, it is utterly devoid of charm and even has the chairs they have in hospitals in the corridors and the swing doors breaking up the corridors. It is surrounded by abandoned buildings on top of a hill - at least I have a good view. After the luxury and class and personal touches, not to mention sleeping on a $6000 mattress at the B & B this has been a bit of a comedown.
Believe it or not, fleurs didn't win the best regional restaurant awards recently announced by cuisine magazine, it came runner up to....... Riverstone kitchen 20km down the highway outside of oamaru, in the middle of nowhere! I begged for a table and they squeezed me in for a late sitting. I arrived early and they were running late so asked if I wanted to check out the chefs garden with a farmcat for company. Ginger and I walked around this massive garden, fruit orchard, chicken run, all things organically grown, and by the time I was seated all I wanted was a massive plate of all the vegetables I had just been wishing I could grow. Instead I ordered deep fried zucchini flowers stuffed with 4 cheeses, followed by slow cooked Asian pork, sprouting broccoli and rice. They order a whole animal carchess and use a different cut of the animal each night to highlight. Obviously they grow all their own fruit and vegetables. No wonder it has such an extraordinary reputation.
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