Food and Wine Discovery Tours for Foodies
Welcome to Finding Flavour, Auckland's specialist foodie
tour company
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
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.
We have a foodie world to discover!
Join us!
New!
Announcing our new
"Programmes for Special Groups, Conventions and
Incentives" - we have developed a range of
experiences just for these groups. If you would like a
copy of the PDF document detailing the programmes, email
lynn@findingflavour.co.nz
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!
Sat 26
May
World in a Day: North Shore Foodie Discovery Tour
Sat 16
June World
in a Day: Eastern Suburbs Foodie Discovery Tour
Remember! Our Mt Eden tour is available
Tuesday-Saturday with prior arrangement.
Recent Tour: Hawke's Bay Foodies Weekend, 21-22 April,
2012
What a deliciously fun weekend our group of foodies had together
in Hawke's Bay! The weather lived up to the Bay's sunny
reputation and the art deco team, food businesses and restaurants
could not have been more hospitable. We tried to give our
group a special experience with some behind-the-scenes insights and
lots of good food. I think we succeeded! Here are just
some of the photos from the weekend:
We just had to start our weekend with an art deco experience and we
did it in style! Thanks to Tony, our guide "par
excellence".

Tony with the
Packard
Our gorgeous morning tea
Then it was off to learn about an apple growing, packing and export
business from "grow to go". Taylorcorp is a family-owned and
run business that has operated in Hawke's Bay for many
decades. Director Kelvin Taylor took us on an "all access"
tour...

Kelvin Taylor talks
apples Apples
on the conveyor belt to be
checked
and packed

Quality control
supervisor
Boxed and ready for export
We were impressed with the sophisticated technology used in all
stages of the business - almost every apple could be tracked from
tree to box!
Time for lunch and we were looking forward to our visit to Elephant
Hill, where an episode of NZ Masterchef had been filmed.

Elephant statue in front of the
winery A
light(!) lunch
The afternoon was all about delicious desserts...
Trish Gibson came in especially to show us her immaculate
production facility for her "Country Culinaire" desserts and
premium ice cream. She gave us very generous tastings and who
were we to say no? They were just too delicious!

Dessert product
range
Trish serving us pavlova
passionfruit
roulade
Trish's story is inspiring and we wish her well in her new export
ventures.
Then it was off to another famous Hawke's Bay dessert/treat
business: Rush Munro's Ice Cream! Retail and events
Manager Liz Read came in to the historic ice cream gardens
(on her daughter's birthday) to tell us the Rush Munro story
and tempt us with ice cream tasting plates. We happily
succombed!

Liz Read tempts us with ice cream tasting plates
We managed to fit in a quick visit to the excellent Arataki Honey
Centre before returning to our motel in Havelock North to freshen
up before dinner. Yes, some of us did manage to fit in
another meal - we did not want to miss out on Terroir Restaurant at
Craggy Range.
Terroir Restaurant has a warm and rustic ambience enhanced by the
warm professionalism of the staff. The fire was crackling in
the huge fireplace and we had a nearby table. Chef Leyton came out
to say hello and sent us superb tasting treats throughout the
evening. The menu has a French influence and features fresh produce
from their own gardens.
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Fabulous food at Terroir Restaurant, Craggy Range
Our run of good weather continued into Sunday and our explorations
of the Hastings Farmers' Market. This market has been running
for 10 years and is one of the best in New Zealand. Almost
all of the specialist food makers and suppliers in the region have
a stall, which makes the browsing very interesting and
tempting! After a short time for orientation, we were joined
by Ian Thomas who gave us background on the market and
took us to meet several of the stall holders.
Autumn colours and abundance at the Hastings Farmers' Market

Origin Earth milk
producer
Village Press olive oil
A real highlight of the weekend was the degustation lunch prepared
for us by Kent Baddeley at his 1024 Pakowhai Road restaurant.
He uses fresh local products and works closely with his local
suppliers. Our 3-course lunch turned into a 4-course meal
courtesy of Kent and we relaxed in the sunny courtyard as we
enjoyed the beautiful food (served to us by Ian, our market
guide).

Two amazing but very different starters: fig with pancetta
and
carpaccio of alpaca
Chef Kent Baddeley and colleague Ian Thomas
Iconic Te Mata Vineyards
View from the top of Te Mata Peak
Special thanks to our inaugural tour participants Launa, Marie and
Martin who were a "dream team" of foodies. And of course, a
special thanks to the many friendly people of Hawke's Bay who made
the weekend such a special experience.
Have we tempted you to join us for another fantastic weekend in
Hawke's Bay? Springtime is a perfect time to visit, so let me
know if you would like to come along for a very special weekend of
Hawke's Bay hospitality. Email lynn@findingflavour.co.nz
for more information.
Special Look at a Private "Milestone" Birthday Tour, 25
February, 2012
We love having the opportunity to create special tours or
experiences to mark personal celebrations, for partner programmes
or corporate groups. I had such fun organising a variation on
our South Auckland Foodie Tour with Sarah Andrews to
celebrate a milestone birthday.
Our minibus was full as we took Sarah and 11 of her family and
friends on a magical mystery foodie tour for the day, complete with
surprises! Our momento of the day for the guests was an
Indian sari from an emporium in Otahuhu. The women had such
fun putting them on, with help from the friendly shop
assistants. They even wore them back to Sarah's home where
they enjoyed a well-deserved wine tasting and dinner.
Sarah has kindly allowed us to show you a couple of photos of
her special day:

Otara Market is a "must
visit" Adel
wishes Sarah a Happy Birthday

Sheron gives sweets for a
sweet
Gorgeous Girls!
Thank you to Sarah who put so much thought and effort into her
day. Thank you also to the businesses who made our birthday
girl - and the group - feel so special.
Sarah has this to say about her tour with Finding
Flavour:
"Lynn is a superb organiser and great fun to spend the
day with - we visited never heard of places and tasted different
foods and bought new and interesting food items to use at
home.
Thank you so much for facilitating such a wonderful day
for us all on Saturday - EVERYONE enjoyed themselves
immensely."
Xx Sarah
If you would like to organise a special tour or experience for a
celebration or if you are looking for something different for a
conference activity, we can help! Take a look at our
Special Groups and Conventions page or email lynn@findingflavour.co.nz
and I will be happy to email you our Programmes for
Special Groups, Conventions and Incentives. Or just give Lynn
a call at (021) 550-510 to discuss your upcoming event.
Recent Tour: Mt Eden Village Foodies Walking Tour, Saturday,
18 February, 2012
What luck that our first tour for the new year was Auckland's
perfect summer day! This special Saturday tour of Mt Eden
Village attracted four keen local foodies. Here are a few
photos of our day...
We set out from Fraser's Cafe to explore the Village.
Adrienne, the owner of our favourite deli, was able to take time to
tell us about her business (site of one of Auckland's original
delis) and her favourite products.
We are truly fortunate in Mt Eden Village to boast two artisan
bakeries and one boutique cake shop. At the first bakery we
indulged in their light-as-air mille fueilles:

After a reviving tea tasting, we visited the longest-running
business in the Village, K C Loo:

We couldn't resist showing you the new purple cauliflower!
We also tasted the new "baby" kiwifruit, minus the fuzz.
Perfect for snacks at home or at work.
Around the corner to the Village's newest business where owner Olaf
told us about the baking processes - no shortcuts here!

Then we learned about all the breads - with tastings!

We stopped in at the butchers (the site of a butchery for many
years) and then followed our noses to this gorgeous cake
shop. We were treated to a cupcake decorating demo and were
given a beautifully wrapped sample to take home:

City Cake Co. co-owner Maureen with our group
We love the treat of lunch at Molten Restaurant. Michael and
Belinda Van de Elzen have moved on, but the quality remains.

New on the lunch menu is this Chicken Caesar Salad. The
calamari and the gnocchi with fresh artichokes were also
outstanding!
Tour participant Marsha Fellett had this to say about
the day:
"Thanks so much for the delightful Mt Eden foodie
tour. I personally can't wait to go back and try more of the
items at the places we visited. You chose a lovely selection
of stores and highlighted the personality of each through the talks
and well as the taster biven by the owners."
Thank you to the specialist food businesses of Mt Eden Village for
hosting our foodies to a lovely day. Your passion for quality
products and personal service is outstanding!
Thank you to the foodies for joining us on this tour - we know you
will love shopping in the Village as much as we do!
You can enjoy this Mt Eden Village Foodies Walking Tour
any day from Tuesday-Saturday with prior arrangement. We only
require a minimum of two people to run the tour!