Food tourism is a growing trend, with new generations of travellers looking for unique and memorable food and beverage experiences. New Zealand’s primary sectors are diverse, innovative, and high-performing, not only in the range of food and beverage products we produce but also in how we produce them.
Plan Your Tour
New Zealand's cuisine has been described as Pacific Rim, drawing inspiration from Europe, Asia, and Polynesia. This blend of influences has created a mouth-watering range of flavours and food in cafes and restaurants nationwide.
For dishes that have a distinctly New Zealand style, there's lamb, pork, venison, salmon, crayfish (lobster), Bluff oysters, paua (abalone), mussels, scallops, pipis, and tuatua (both are types of New Zealand shellfish), kumara (sweet potato), kiwifruit, tamarillo and pavlova, the national dessert. Its distinctiveness is more in how New Zealanders eat, generally preferring to be as relaxed and unaffected as possible, keeping with the laidback Kiwi psyche.
The country's wine industry has increased in recent years and achieved remarkable success and a tremendous international reputation. As a result, most of New Zealand's over 600 wineries are accessible for tasting.
What we recommend while visiting New Zealand
- Savour a wine at one or two of the many world-renowned vineyards
Take a Masterclass and learn all about preparing delicious local oysters
- Taste our beer at a brewery and talk to some locals Kiwis
- Enjoy high tea and a tea ceremony while zipping on the purest tea in the world
- Hear the story of our pioneers in coffee growing and roasting in NZ
- Observe cheesemakers in their factory, and learn how to match your wine
- walk the central city and learn from a chef how to forage for food in your backyard
- Visit Orchards (kiwi fruit, stone fruit, olives, avocado, and more…)
- Truffle hunt at Waikato plantation, a trip into the unknown
- Suit up and head off to see the real thing, a watch a beekeeper at work in the field
- Watch a fisherman at work on a green-lipped mussel, and a pacific oyster farm
- Sleep at a sheep, deer, or beef farm and eat a home-cooked meal with the host
- Overnight at a romantic vineyard, and indulge in a farm-to-table menu
- Hold a picnic and stop at one of the many scenic lookouts
- Stay at lodges with world-class chefs and sample New Zealand's seasonal produce
- Savour meals at the many local gourmet restaurants in the main cities
- Experience a Hangi (native feast) with Maori Songs and dancing
- Connect with people and enjoy a big part of NZ culture - the barbecue
- Take a boat cruise, learn about our salmon farms and catch your fresh fish
- Discover the secrets to Cardrona's artisan spirits, starting with our water source
