if your plans for your next trip to new zealand do not include a one-night stop in moeraki, "a sleepy fishing village on the coast of otago", you must scrap those plans and start all over.

moeraki is the home of fleurs place, an amazing and funky restaurant run by fleur sullivan who is so in tune with fresh food that she obtained her own fishing quota so that she could serve local fish and seafood that are literally "fresh off the boat".

at fleurs, the food is prepared in the slowest tradition of the slow food movement. in fact, she claims that she was embracing the slow food attitude even before slow food started a while ago in italy.

all ingredients are fresh and sourced locally and their passion for authentic food and natural flavours can be tasted at every single spoonful.

take the seafood chowder we had on the night of our stay. simply stunning. the broth was so tick that my bread crumbs did not even sink in it. the taste so intense and complex that even as i write this, 3 weeks after that fateful dinner, i can still taste it on my palate. unlike anything i have had before...

another speciality, the blue cod wrapped in bacon was incredible. juicy, tasty, sweet, smoky, fishy in a very delicate and savoury way. every bite was better than the previous one and in fact, maria told me to slow down a few times so fast i was eating my dish...

a memorable dinner, probably one of my best ever and i will be forever indebted to jenny hawker of pisa range estate in central otago who suggested we go there.

you should book well ahead and make plans to stay the night in a very acceptable, if a little simple, little motel called the moeraki beach motels. there is much nature to see in moeraki in particular the beach boulders and a colony of rare yellow eye and blue penguins.

fleurs place: at the old jetty, moeraki, otago, new zealand, tel: +64 3 439 4480