South Island, New Zealand

Well, it has been a little while since I last reviewed the wonders of the suburbs south of the Yarra, but there has been some travelling keeping me from my blog!

And in keeping with the theme of this blog I thought it fitting to mention my recent visit to the South island of New Zealand.

Having never been to NZ before, I was very excited.  And I was even more so when it was realised just how close this wonderful country was (why have we been globe trotting all these years when we could have travelled only 3 hours abroad??)  So, remembering to pack the passport (it seemed like we were going interstate to me!) off we went for 10 days in the south island of NZ.

I could spend a lot of time describing the awesome landscape and the many many outdoorsy things to do in NZ but, seeing this is a blog mainly about food, let's stick to that.

But for those who haven't been to NZ, here's a taste of the scenery.  This was taken from our hotel window in Queenstown.













I didn't really know what to expect from the food in NZ.  I had heard they were very generous with their servings, but did that mean they were compensating for quality?  And being a person that needs their morning coffee and needs it to be good, was I going to struggle to find a good coffee shop?

Do not despair!  Not a bad meal or bad coffee in sight in Queenstown or Wanaka.

One of the highlights of our trip was Vudu Cafe on Rees Street Queenstown, overlooking the water.  This clean open space, with outdoor seating also, was decked out in a clean, industrial style with polished concrete floors, bare light bulbs and old school room chairs.


A small but modest menu offered the regular day to day dishes, with the fridge cabinet offering the daily changing specials.  It was very difficult to look past the Breakfast Burrito on the menu.  Chilli beans, avocado and tomato all wrapped in a lightly toasted tortilla and topped with cheese.  Yummy!
Our second breakfast there revealed the delicious Bacon and Egg butty (lot's of English references around NZ!).

We soon discovered in NZ that all their coffees are served as double shots as standard.  Not a bad thing when you have a day of exploring ahead of you.  And there was a need to specify "small" coffee in the tulip glass.  As people used to smaller Melbourne coffees, the standard large cup in NZ was just not drinkable.

The coffee at Vudu was standout.  Just as I have mentioned in earlier blogs (Mr Burch, McKinnon) a good, traditional Italian cappuccino is quite hard to come by outside of Italy.  Vudu served their cappucinos in slightly smaller "tulip"glasses (traditional) and used freshly grated chocolate for their topping (ok, that bit is not so Italian).  Although we had other great coffees in NZ, this cafe was definately the whole package.  Food, coffee and ambience.... now if only they had wine.

www.vudo.co.nz