Columbia Hillen
Watching the proprietor of Blue Duck Station deftly throw a big axe at a goal and hit a bullseye was my first expertise at this rustic vacation resort on North Island, New Zealand.
Dan Steele, proprietor. Photograph by Columbia Hillen
It wasn’t to be my final style of the huge expanse of the Kiwi outdoor at this transformed farmstead named after a uncommon and endangered chicken residing right here on the northern border of Whanganui Nationwide Park. Earlier than the sultry afternoon was over, my companion and I had loved an exhilarating trip on an all-terrain automobile alongside steep riverside ravines deep within the luscious bush and had gone for a canoe trip by a deep gorge under a speeding waterfall.
Columbia Hillen
Reward for our sporting endeavors was an in a single day keep overlooking the graceful forested slopes of Ngauruhoe, the triangular-shaped volcanic mountain made well-known as Mordor within the ‘Lord Of The Rings’ trilogy and the jagged, snow-covered peaks of Tongariro. To not point out the un-disputable spotlight of our journey, a beautiful eating expertise comprising a 12-course tasting menu ready by gifted British chef Jack Cashmore (33) at Blue Duck’s ‘high of the world’ restaurant, The Chef’s Desk.
Columbia Hillen
Dan and Sandy Steele launched Blue Duck Station a number of years again on land beside the Whanganui River that they leased from his dad and mom, then prolonged it to its current measurement, round 7,200 acres the place they’ve develop into protectors of the blue duck (or whio within the native Maori language). Discovered solely in New Zealand and as soon as plentiful, now just one,500 pairs stay, with 15 pair right here alongside the fast-flowing rivers on the farmstead.
Columbia Hillen
The Kiwi couple nonetheless rear livestock right here together with Hereford-Angus and Scottish Highland cattle, sheep and deer, in addition to internet hosting round 1,500 bee-hives, with tens of millions of bees producing greater than fifty tonnes of honey in an excellent 12 months.
Columbia Hillen
Tourism was all the time a key think about Dan and Sandy’s technique, with Blue Duck Station now catering for about 110 visitors in lodges that includes decks and deerskin rugs and towel rails created out of polished manuka branches beside a restaurant, in addition to six visitors hosted in three stand-alone lodges on the mountain high. The cafe options lengthy picket tables on the terrace and delicate sofas inside with timber partitions stuffed with memorabilia together with work and pictures reflecting the station’s historical past.
Columbia Hillen
Visitors can get pleasure from all kinds of actions at Blue Duck Station together with fishing, biking, four-wheel-drive bus safaris, clay-bird taking pictures, horse trekking, jet-boat rides, canoeing, looking and bird-watching, to call however a number of.
Columbia Hillen
Our lodging on high of the mountain was in one of many three Alpine-like picket eco-lodges with all of the mod-cons and floor-to-ceiling home windows granting panoramic views over the encircling countryside, memorable photos enhanced by picture-postcard sunsets and sunrises.
Chef Jack Cashmore. Photograph by Columbia Hillen
That is the place we loved a luxurious dinner ready by Cashmore from Staffordshire in a 12-seat restaurant. With New Zealand sitting plum in the midst of an energetic earthquake zone, maybe it was applicable that our amuse-bouche, served by pleasant Clover Sykes from London, resembled a multi-colored, mini-tectonic plate, comprising skinny layers of black radish, apple, nasturtium leaves and kombu seaweed, embellished with delicate white flower.
Columbia Hillen
The subsequent culinary providing was served in an inverted bowler hat, a mix of horseradish custard and salmon roe. My companion and I totally loved the tactile distinction between the nice and cozy creamy texture of the underlying base custard with the crackling really feel of the roe from South Island which burst like bubbles inside our mouths as they launched their dense taste, all topped off with Japanese dashi poured gently from a fragile porcelain flask.
Columbia Hillen
Jack’s worldwide culinary expertise ranges from England to Belgium and for him high-quality eating places are people who “mirror the perfect of produce of their native areas.” A category instance of his philosophy in motion was considered one of his dishes centered round considered one of New Zealand’s ferns, also referred to as mamaku. We handed a whole bunch of them on the steep trip up the mountainside however by no means thought they could possibly be eaten nor style so fantastic. Jack reduce the tender stems, poached them slowly then scooped out the jelly from inside and served it with caramelized whey, caviar and thyme flowers. Scrumptious silver pearls on a plate.
Columbia Hillen
Our veritable feast additionally featured a sequence of inventive dishes, together with a black waffle coloured with squid ink stuffed with broad beans, cured egg and caviar flavored with elderflower vinegar; recent cheese and seaweed jam, fennel tops, lemon verbena and lavender, smoked tomato coulis and cherry tomatoes; slow-roasted onion broth with bone marrow and fennel coronary heart; lamb loin with black garlic, purple cabbage and pickled rose petals; and venison with beetroot, cherries and chocolate sauce emulsion.
Columbia Hillen
For example his culinary abilities additional, Jack even launched native spruce pine right into a pre-dessert he created, granita with strawberries, meringue which reminded my companion of a marvellously re-interpreted pavlova, a well-liked dessert in New Zealand. A second pre-dessert merely named ‘milk and honey’ held its personal surprises of rice pudding, caramelized white chocolate, olive oil gelee and milk zabaione. His dessert creations included a scrumptious spiced chocolate tart, lemon meringue and raspberry with kafir lime and pâte de fruit.
Columbia Hillen
Drink pairings started with biodynamic farmed artisan cider by Eric Bordelet earlier than extending to quite a lot of wines resembling Grgich fumé blanc from California’s Napa Valley and grand reserve pinot noir from the Calrossie Winery in Marlborough, our dinner ending with a dry white Portuguese port from Niepoort and a candy wine from Chateau Barouillet Monbazar.
Columbia Hillen
For each a gourmand food-tasting expertise and a style of New Zealand’s attractive countryside, Blue Duck Station needs to be excessive in your record and finest loved at 500 meters altitude surrounded by bush.
