OTAGO - Otago & Southland including Stewart Island

This moist, cool southern region is noted for high quality pastoralism and a rich seafood resource. Stewart Island and the south-eastern coastal fringe were originally clothed in softwood-hardwood forest, while inland it was mostly tall lowland tussock.

Large areas of down and terrace lands interspersed with high country dominate the pastoral farming mix on a range of soils.

Contemporary, distinctive regional foods include: red deer in Southland and white tail on Stewart Island, mutton birds, Bluff oysters, paua, squid, blue cod, sole, deep water Dory, orange roughy, Stewart Island sea cage salmon, lamb, swedes, parsnips, Brussels sprouts, Jersey Benne potatoes, blackcurrants, gooseberries, oats, milk, cream and cheese.

Two fine expressions of the South

Near the southeast coast in Southland is Blue River Dairy, and there is also a dairy farmer in Southland. Nothing unusual except this one is milking sheep, 15,000 of them. No stranger to innovation Keith Neylan was one of New Zealand’s early helicopter pilots before moving into deer recovery, then taking on mussel and salmon farming, and now he’s left dairy cows behind to farm and milk sheep. These sheep are the foundation of the wonderful Blue River Sheep Dairy cheeses and ice cream.

Expressions of Otago/Southland

alt A visit to Bluff during the oyster season will not necessarily deliver oysters such as dreams are made of, but they can be had if you know where to look. Neither Bluff nor neighbouring Invercargill are strong in restaurants which deliver local flavours, rather these places are an extension of the generally culinary desert of the West Coast. Dunedin and North Otago are another matter, however, for there are restaurants here, cafes that care and a couple of regional stand outs that are of a cross-the-world-to eat-here quality.

Impressions of Otago/Southland

There is no obvious line where you notice you are leaving Central for the Otago-Southland region, except to know when you are well inside because the country, while still big, has shifted from being one of alpine perspectives to a rolling hill country aspect that is distinctly pastoral. Geographically, this region fills the area from Sand Hill Point around the southern coast to the Waitaki Valley, bounded inland by the Kakanui, Rock and Pillar, Lammerlaw, Umbrella, Garvey and Eyre ranges.