Fresh Local Flavours

For a gourmet experience, the Karamea Village Hotel has earned a tightly-held reputation for serving up some of the best whitebait on the West Coast. Under current owner Diana Storer and her family, the historic hotel (dating back to 1876) has been recognised among New Zealand’s top country hotels — a classic West Coast pub serving food that’s anything but basic. The whitebait sandwich is a good place to start.   

Everything grows in luscious, sub-tropical Karamea so it’s no surprise that the little village boasts a cluster of fine little eateries and food outlets serving wholesome food: Vinnie’s for pies, sandwiches, great coffee, the Last Resort’s licensed bar, restaurant and cafe for casual meals and fine dining (including the Last Resort Whitebait Fritter). 

• Karamea Village Hotel @ 141 Waverley Street, Karamea
• Open daily from breakfast until late 
• Coffees to full a la carte

Someone once said that a standard three-course meal on the West Coast is ‘a pie and two beers’. It’s always hard to pass up a good crust, and it would be a tragedy to pass Westport without dropping in on the Coast’s very own ‘pie lady’. 

Auckland’s loss is Westport’s gain with pie-maker supreme Emily Lucas of West Coast Pies. In a past life Emily has owned restaurants and cooked up fine wedding feasts but now she’s on a mission to bake ‘a better pie’. And, her range of premium pies created with heavenly handmade pastry and brimming with divine, small batch wild game fillings are taking pie-making to a whole new level.

Better means great eating because wild game meat is tastier, leaner and better for you. It also means naturally better because by eating wild meat, you contribute to protecting the biodiversity of New Zealand’s native habitats. Stop in at the little Westport cafe and you’ll likely find Emily behind the counter.

• West Coast Pies @ 58 Palmerston Street, Westport
• Open 7 days 
• Serving gourmet pies, fresh baked patisseries, coffee

A legend in their own lunchtime … back in the day, the 1908 strike by Blackball’s coal miners reclaiming a decent lunch break, became New Zealand’s first-ever strike action. They won their longer lunch break and launched the New Zealand Labour movement.

So, it seems appropriate that the little town of Blackball remains a lunchtime favourite with the tasty small deli goods that originate from Blackball Salami. Established 30 years ago (long after the miners left) and now in the capable hands of Phil and Debbie Russ, this artisan butchery produces 40-something variations of handcrafted salami and sausages. Find them right opposite the Blackball Inn & 08 Cafe.

If you’re planning to walk or bike the nearby Paparoa Track, stop in to sample the naturally cured and smoked salamis, cooked sausages and their famous black pudding. There’s even a white pudding made with pork and leeks. 

• Blackball Salami @ 11 Hilton Street, Blackball
• Open: Monday to Friday (8 am - 4 pm), Saturday (9 am - 2 pm)
• Salami, sausages and other small goods

If you’re in Karamea, watch out for Diane Anderson’s award-winning cheeses. Dairy farmer Diane is only just working towards opening her commercial cheesemaking facility but, as an amateur cheesemaker, she’s already scooped some national prizes for her ‘Pine Ash Bloomy rind’ and halloumi. The cheeses come out for various local fundraising events including the annual Karamea Cheese Night (held in March) which also features other cheeses, breads, crackers and condiments made by locals.

Classic. A couple of mates from Blackball (Sam and Wayne) had a good idea over a couple of beers … the result is the West Coast’s latest gourmet experience: Blackball Black Garlic — a delicious, natural superfood, sometimes described as ‘a umami tsunami’. It takes 5 weeks to turn fresh garlic into black garlic, slow cooked at a super low heat in a special oven that Sam and Wayne built. Well worth getting your hands on a couple of pots to take home.

Meanwhile, Kevin and Kate Buckley of Westland Cranberries, near Hokitika, are the only cranberry growers in New Zealand — a boutique business growing and producing delicious artisan-made relish, sauce, compote and traditional cranberry jelly. Cranberries are a superfood so keep an eye out for these products (in local establishments like Monteith’s Brewery, Greymouth) and nationwide in a handful of speciality food outlets (e.g. Farro in Auckland, and Moore Wilson’s in Wellington).