Food and Wine Discovery Tours for Foodies

Welcome to Finding Flavour, Auckland's specialist foodie tour company

Come and join us on a food exploration tour in Auckland and beyond.  There are other foodies to meet, delicious cuisines to discover and markets to shop on a Finding Flavour tour.  We take you to meet the people passionate about their cuisine, and to markets and specialty food outlets which will enable you to recreate authentic dishes at home.

Get a behind the scenes look at some of the Auckland region's unique food and wine suppliers. We will enjoy some delicious food tastings and of course, time for shopping!  Pick up useful cooking tips and ideas to take home.  You will be taken on a tour of discovery by experienced guides who are also foodies.

The places that we take you are the places that we want to share with you.  We are totally independent and pay for all our tastings.  The only thing that we ask of the businesses is to give you a warm welcome!

Savour delicious cuisines at our special themed lunches or cooking classes. 

New!  Our Auckland Food Shopping Guide will become your indispensable resource to tracking down the many and varied specialist food shops in Auckland. Cost is only $11.90.  Purchase and download this PDF Guide for all the shopping secrets from the Finding Flavour team. Find out more here!

We have a foodie world to discover! 

Join us!

Praise from Nici Wickes, presenter of "World Kitchen " tv series and restaurant reviewer for Viva, NZ Herald, who joined our World in A Day: Eastern Suburbs Tour, 21 August, 2010:

"I loved the tour from start to finish! Lynn introduced us to places and products I never knew existed in my own city. It was fabulous to meet the people behind the businesses and to sample delicious food all day. A perfect day in my books!" Nici Wickes

Programme,  February-June, 2012

Sat 18 Feb           Mt Eden Foodie Discovery Walking Tour - Special Saturday tour!

Sat 10 March        World in a Day: South Auckland Foodie Discovery Tour

Sat 24 March         Italian Food Discovery Tour with Raffaela Delmonte

Sat/Sun 21-22 April  Hawkes Bay Food and Wine Weekend
                             Autumn bounty in the Bay!

May TBA               World in a Day: North Shore Foodie Discovery Tour

June  TBA             World in a Day: South Auckland Foodie Discovery Tour

Remember!  Our Mt Eden tour is available every Wednesday and other weekdays upon arrangement.

Recent Event:  Christmas Baking and Treats Tour, 10 December

"Wonderful relaxed atmosphere, with a delicious range of foodie treats.  A must for all foodies!" Louise Ralph

It doesn't feel like Christmas until we run this tour!  We enjoy the day as much as our lovely foodie shoppers do.  Every year the tour is a little different. This year we returned to Philippe's Chocolates to meet new owner Winnie and chocolate maker Oscar.  We also expanded our "treats" definition to include apertifs and advice on Christmas wines at French wine cellar Maison Vauron. 

Our small but hardy group took all the tempting tastings in their stride and did us proud! Temptation was no problem - we just gave in to it!  Lots of Christmas shopping was accomplished and there will be many friends who will be happy with their presents this year!

Enjoy our day with us...

 
Rocket Kitchen started us in style!     Chocolatier Oscar

Swiss Konditorei Bern is worth the (short) drive west

The moistest Christmas cake and
other treats at Heart of Flavour

 
Sante! Apertifs while Scott tells us about
French wine matches with Christmas lunch

 
Cheers to a delicious lunch at Molten

Time for a short break from food shopping at the House of Knives:

Avalon helps Marion with her knife skills

We can always use another kitchen gadget!

Sabato owner Phil Dixon with members of our group

Our grand finale shop was at Sabato - just brimming with treats for Christmas.  The coffee was needed and much appreciated!

Thank you to the wonderful businesses that we visited - they provided us with delicious and generous tastings that were truly in the Christmas spirit.

Thank you to the lovely group of foodies who joined me on my favourite annual tour.  In fact, one person in the group enjoyed the tour so much last year that she brought a friend along to do the tour again this year!  We love getting to know our clients so that we become an extended "foodie family".

I will let one of our "repeat" clients on the tour have the last word:

"As usual Lynn it was a great day, very relaxed and fun.  My wallet is a lot lighter but my friends and family will love the presents."

Recent Event:  World in a Day South Auckland
Foodie Discovery Tour, 12 November

We are so lucky to work in a business we love and to have the most friendly and interesting people as our fellow foodie adventurers!  This past Saturday's tour was no exception and we were overwhelmed with the outstanding feedback:

"When I received the [Finding Flavour] Gift Voucher I thought it was a "lovely" gift.  Now that I have done the tour I realise it was a "FANTASTIC" gift!!  High praise from participant Paula Laird

"Awesome tour.  Had a great time and saw amazing markets and shops that I haven't seen before.  Thank You."  Another happy participant

In fact, we had such a great time on this tour that my photo taking was decidedly lacking!  Here's a look at the morning....

   
Melissa guides us through the Otara market

 
Pacific Island coconut bread and arrowroot "slice"

 
Morning coffee and tastings at Fresh Gallery, Otara

 
Our next stop was Hungary - via Manurewa! The congenial Istvan Muik welcomed us with true European hospitality.

 
International foods were next on our agenda...a wonderful business started by Egyptian Adel Yousef.

We still managed to do our shared Vietnamese lunch proud and polish off most of the food.  Then we explored an Indian supermarket and tasted Indian sweets.  The wine tasting (or optional coffee/tea) at Villa Maria was a relaxing ending to a busy foodie day.

"Fabulous day.  Very worthwhile." L Hickling

Thanks to Melissa Cole for sharing her knowledge as our guide in the Otara market, to the passionate owners of the businesses that we visited and most of all to the wonderful foodies who spent the day with us!  Join us when we offer this tour again in the new year!