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Stone fruit and pinot noir

Food, shopping & the everyday

Central Otago Guide · Chapter 8 of 9

A semi-arid valley with hot days, cold nights and irrigation turns out to be very good at growing two things: stone fruit and pinot noir. Both are as good as anywhere, both are grown within half an hour of each other, and both are cheaper here than anywhere else on earth.

What the region grows

Cherries and apricots from Cromwell and Roxburgh in December and January, sold from roadside stalls and orchard gates at prices that make no sense to anyone who has bought them in a European supermarket. Then peaches, nectarines, plums, berries and apples through to autumn. The Clutha valley is one of the great fruit-growing districts.

And the wine. Central Otago is the southernmost wine region in the world and one of the finest pinot noir districts anywhere — Bannockburn, Gibbston, Bendigo, Pisa, Alexandra. Cellar doors are twenty minutes from most of the region, and Saturday lunch at a vineyard becomes an ordinary thing rather than an occasion.

Markets round it out: the Cromwell and Alexandra farmers’ markets for produce, the Queenstown and Wānaka markets for a mix of food and craft. Between the stalls, the orchards and the cellar doors you can eat extremely well from within forty kilometres.

Eating out

Queenstown
A restaurant scene far beyond the town’s size, because it is feeding several million visitor nights a year. Excellent at the top end, and priced for people on holiday.
Wānaka
Smaller, more relaxed and increasingly good. Fewer tourists, more locals, better value.
Arrowtown & Clyde
Gold-era villages with a handful of very good places each. Worth the drive, and the kind of thing you show visiting family.
Coffee
Excellent everywhere, as across New Zealand. A flat white in a Cromwell café will beat the best in most British cities.

Groceries and the practical stuff

The large supermarkets are at Frankton, Wānaka, Cromwell and Alexandra, and that is where locals shop. Prices carry a resort premium in the lakes towns — noticeably higher than a main centre — and food in New Zealand is already expensive by British or Australian standards.

Specialist and imported ingredients are the weak point. The range here is narrower than in any city in this collection, and if a particular cuisine is central to how your family eats you should check before committing. Queenstown’s international workforce means more than you might expect — the national chapter Finding your feet & your people covers where to look and which communities are established here.

The rhythm of the year

Two peaks, two lulls
Ski winter and high summer are full and fast. April–May and October–November are quiet, cheaper and, most locals will tell you, the best of it.
Your social circle turns over
Seasonal workers arrive and leave. It makes the towns easy to join and hard to settle in. Inland Central is the opposite — slower to break into, and then permanent.
Everything is outdoors
Social life here is a trail, a lake, a mountain or a vineyard. Joining a club — cycling, tramping, ski, netball, rugby — is the fastest route to knowing people properly.
Culture means travelling
There is a real festival and event calendar, but for major touring acts, galleries and theatre you are looking at Dunedin or Christchurch.
Limitations
  • Retail is tourist-facing. Serious shopping means Dunedin, Christchurch or online, and online delivery to inland addresses can be slow.
  • Specialist groceries are limited compared with any city.
  • Eating out regularly at resort prices is how budgets quietly fail here. Almost everyone who stays learns to cook more.

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