Eating in the Cloud

Rugby World Cup fever is alive and well in New Zealand and the country is taking the opportunity to showcase itself to the world. The volume of people in the Auckland central city rugby fan zone downtown is noticeable. (School holidays are also on at the moment, so the queues are something the average kiwi is surely not used to!) 

My parents are currently visiting from Canada, and I thought what better place than the fanzone at this point in time for overseas guests, so we decided to head down to the Cloud on Auckland's Queen's wharf for Lunch.  I was suitably impressed and can recommend it's worth heading down there before it wraps up. Actually, you don't need overseas guests to justify a visit - it's really good!

The cloud is packed full of Kiwiana and a showcase of New Zealand's innovations - everything from a mate of mine's Power by Proxi technology, linkless chainmetal (who would have thought this hadn't been done before?), Manuka Honey's many medical applications, and of course the million and one Beef and Lamb facts and claims we can make as a nation.

What we really enjoyed though was 'Taste at the Cloud' which is a showcase of some great New Zealand food and wine. Basically, there are four food zones with tapa size tastes of NZ classics, and each tapa is matched to a wine or beverage.  There is a Rural Zone, a Winery/Orchard Zone, an Urban Zone, and a Seaside Zone, each serving diffent types of tapa sized dishes. 

The hands down favourite was the Lamb on Garlic Mash with a green olive and mint tepenade at the Urban Zone.  The Kingfish Ceviche was a good second and the Venison with Kumera Chips at the Rural Zone was also way up there.  The best wine match was the Te Awa Hawke's Bay 09 Cabernet Merlot with the Venison.  We had 4 different dishes each and that was plently for lunch. 

It is times like this when I really appreciate New Zealand.  It is a proud nation, always punches above its weight and probably explains why we are passionately and rightfully angry with the captain and crew of the MV Rena which grounded on the Astrolabe reef last week.  All credit to the 4200 volunteers who are helping with the clean up at the moment.  It's a beautiful part of the world - we got married on the beach which is now full of oil and debris. It is well worth preserving and protecting for the future and who knows? Kiwi's are likely to come up with leading technology or innovation they can take to the world to make sure this doesn't happen again.   Go brand New Zealand.