Saturday March 15, 2025

 Saturday, March 15, 2025

Good morning Kaikoura! We had breakfast at the hotel and then we were off to our 9:00 AM cooking class. We didn’t know what to expect as the class is in a private home. I am hard pressed to tell you about the beautiful Kaikoura Kitchen. A woman with an apron on introduced herself as Rebecca and then directed us to the front door. 

There we were introduced to Fiona Read, the chef and owner of Hakupa Kitchen. She and her husband Chris have been in the tourism industry for many years.  

Their home is beautiful, tastefully decorated, with an open floor plan.

Fiona said her mom was a great cook and taught her a lot about cooking. She even had a try at reality TV and competed on Master Chef New Zealand. She made it to the top 6. Now she opens her home to private cooking classes. 

We started with tea and cookies in the sitting area overlooking the garden. They were Anzac cookies. These cookies were made during WW 1 and 2 by both Australians and New Zealanders with their rations then sold the cookies to fund raise for the troops. These delicious cookies contain no eggs as they were very scarce during the war. These cookies are delicious. The only different ingredient is golden syrup. We went to a local grocery story and bought some in addition to salt from the saltworks we stopped at in Lake Grassmere. 

After our tea and chat with both Fiona and Chris, we took our trugs (wooden basket for garden harvest) and went out to ‘forage’ for our lunch ingredients. 

They have about 50 chickens and 2 pigs on the farm.

Here is our harvest. The zucchini flowers were just screaming for filling. I asked if taking the flowers forfeited a zucchini, and she said the male flowers don’t bear fruit so those are good to pick for filling.

The gardens are simple yet beautifully maintained.

Bring on the cooking! I was working on making the fresh ricotta. Fiona made it seem so simple to make. It’s whole milk with the cream on top, salt and citric acid, slowly stirred until it reaches 75°. Scooped and strained, then cooled.

To the cooled ricotta, we added fresh herbs, Parmesan cheese spices and whipped it a good processor. Then Jeff loaded the filling into a pastry bag with a wide tip and filled the zucchini flowers.

Steve and Jeff blanched, then peeled the black peaches. Steve chopped rhubarb and herbs and then cooked them for our dessert. He then made the mascarpone filling with herbs.  

Finally, we were able to eat the fruits of our labor. Not only did it look beautiful with all the edible flowers we used in the plating, but it was equally delicious!

We said our goodbyes to Fiona and Rebecca and we are

Off to Christchurch. It was a 4 hour ride, still on Rte 1. The first part of the ride was coastal with several seal sittings. 

Then we switched into a mountainous terrain Lots of cattle and sheep! Still not seeing any barns. There are no predators in New Zealand. The sheep and cattle stay out all night. 

Finally we arrived in Christchurch. It is a city with lots of traffic. We found our hotel The Mayfair, checked in and after a quick safety nap,  we headed out to explore. We walked to the city center, where we saw Victoria Square. 

Bags in…bags out. They all fit like a puzzle.

We had dinner at an Irish Pub. We weren’t sure what would be available on St. Patrick’s Day ☘️ 

We stopped into the bar in our hotel for a nightcap. Steve and Jeff had a new recipe of the bartender. It was a Monkey Shoulder Scotch base with salted caramel malt!

Good night Christchurch! Tomorrow is an early start as we have  4.5 hour trip to Mount Cook. According to ChatGPT, it's a beautiful ride!

💤💤💤💤