1 day ago
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November 22, 2025 — 5:00am
What’s the big idea? In New Zealand, where innovation and imagination seems to run in veins as much as an abiding love or rugby, there are plenty to choose from, particularly when it comes to food.
Take Richard and Christine Didsbury. For years, they were drawn to Matakana, an hour north of Auckland, dreaming of “what if”. While the tiny town was surrounded by beautiful coastal farmland, it had no natural hub beyond a timber mill plonked in the best spot by a gurgling river.
So the Didsburys, like so many pioneering Kiwis, began to dream big. They imagined a market village where local producers could showcase everything from mushrooms to oysters, cheeses and gin; while the riverside could be used for picnics and dawdling over wine. There would be live music, artisan stores, perhaps a cinema, but one done differently. A bar seemed like a good idea. Maybe a brewery.
When the mill was put up for sale in the early 2000s, the couple snapped it up, fearing a fast-food outlet could beat them to that prized riverside. In 2002, their dream – Matakana Village – was born, with an outdoor market, cinemas, brewery and specialty shops that manage to all look like they grew alongside the rest of the town.
Fast-forward to 2025, and cherry blossoms are exploding their pinkness around stalls packed with visitors streaming in from Auckland, as they do every Saturday. A shaded dog-minding pavilion with water bowls and chew toys sits at the entry to this no-waste market, where products range from as-Kiwi-as-it-gets – whitebait fritter anyone? – to the more exotic, Laotian curries.
There are cured meats, cake confections, manuka honey of varying grades, gnarly oysters, exotic mushroom stands, a long line for apparently legendary pies, and chilli sauces of varying hotness. The stalls curve around to the river, where eels poke their noses above the water, children play and adults perch with piled plates and glasses of wine in the sun.
Across from the market are artisan shops such as Unity Collection, offering authentic Maori art and design. When we visit, one customer is so moved by a delicate carving that she’s reduced to tears. Then there’s Honest Chocolate where we try the Kawau Bay Macadamia (no food-mile worries here, macadamias are, surprisingly, grown on the North Island), followed by the aptly named Sawmill Brewery.
But for sheer appreciation that even the wildest ideas can work, a peek inside the dramatic theatres in the cinema complex is a must. Pick your jaw up from the floor as you see the Roxy, draped in silk from floor to ceiling, the Tivoli with its giant chandelier, and the show-stopping Paradiso with its 32,000 cloth roses. All three show blockbusters, classics and indie films seven days a week.
But wait, there’s more.
Visionaries like the Didsburys don’t do things by halves; they’re also behind nearby Brick Bay Wines and Sculpture Trail, our next stop in our bespoke TIME Unlimited tour. This open-air gallery houses 50 or so sculptures in native bush and lush pastures. Its on-site Glass House Kitchen is a destination in itself, while its vineyards and farm are hailed for being guided by kaitiakitanga (stewardship of the land).
And there are other must-visits before we return to Auckland. Charlie’s Gelato Garden offers a chance to pick one of 40 gelato flavours, then pick a box of take-home blooms from its garden for $5. Then there’s Omaha Bay Vineyard with its impressive terroir and spectacular view of Little Barrier Island. Orcas are spied the day we visit, and the owners have now proudly installed “Watch for kiwis” signs after breeding pairs were reintroduced nearby.
This bringing together of nature and excellent produce in not-so-obvious-at-first ways seems to be everywhere in Auckland, which is one reason why the Michelin Guide will be heading to New Zealand next year. But sadly, most visitors don’t tend to stay in the city long enough to taste its rare delights, due to its almost criminal appeal as a stop-off point for the always-hot Rotorua or the younger starlet, Hobbiton.
Elle Armon-Jones is on a mission to change this with her Big Foody Tour. She swapped London for Auckland when she arrived as a backpacker years ago, lured by local produce and a sense of possibility.
“I was just blown away by the food. This city is so refreshing – there’s such a willingness to try new things,” she says as we head to an Auckland institution, Cazador Restaurant & Delicatessen on Dominion Road. It has spawned generations of devotees through its signature game and sustainably sourced other meats.
Ten years ago, the owners’ son, acclaimed chef Dariush Lolaiy and his partner, Rebecca Smidt, took over the restaurant, opened in 1987 by Dariush’s Iranian father and Mexican mother. They continue to follow its top-to-toe eating principles, helped by the opening of their deli next door and startlingly exemplified by taxidermy – deer, red elk plus one stately tahr – on the restaurant walls. A game rifle held aloft by hooves completes the picture.
The deli is packed this Monday morning with mothers meeting over coffees, pastries and pâtés, and workers picking up early lunches of ragu pies, sandwiches and soup. We are served charcuterie surprises of smoked honeycomb, venison carpaccio, New Zealand blue cheese and mushroom pickle. The menu is constantly changing to make way for tasty discoveries, such as locally sourced, sustainable pea milk. The white liquid looks and tastes just like the real thing (though the fact it’s not green is strangely disappointing).
The restaurant mecca of Ponsonby is now also home to Rebecca and Dariush’s latest venture, San Rae All-Day Eatery. It offers nods to Lolaiy’s heritage (bistro classics with a Mexican twist); nods to inventiveness (pineapple coffee – a light brew, perfect for afternoons); and nods to, of course, Aotearoa (refreshing tea brewed with the native kawakawa leaf, said to aid digestion). Again for the food-mile watchers, pineapples are grown in Northland.
Finally, no Kiwi food tour is complete without a hangi. Sisters Ama Mosese and Louisa Tipene Opetaia run Glorious Tours, which showcases Maori and Pasifika food and culture in Auckland, the largest Polynesian city in the world. If you’re after spectacular, up-scale Pacific Island cuisine, the inner-city’s award-winning Metita is the go-to, but Glorious Tours offers an authentic taste of home. After I’m sung a soaring welcome by the Glorious Tours family, we sample lamb, chicken, yam, potatoes, pumpkin and greens, all infused with smoky goodness, courtesy of a hangi oven. That’s right – you no longer have to dig and wait for hours to achieve those miraculous flavours.
Then it’s a goodbye drink with a twist, as Ama introduces us to the Four Shells Kava Lounge, where I numb my lips with some of Vanuatu’s best.
As we head off into the night, I spy perhaps the ultimate in Kiwi big ideas: a kava-vending machine out the front.
THE DETAILS
TOUR
TIME Unlimited Tours offers bespoke tours in and around Auckland and Matakana in a luxury Mercedes. See newzealandtours.travel
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