The Bay of Plenty is a region with incredible variety.

There's everything here from lush, native forests and beautiful lakes to the geothermal region of Rotorua with its hot pools and strong Maori identity. On the coast are the beautiful sweeping beaches and wonderful climate of Mt Maunganui and Tauranga.

Traditional food

	Fresh from the hangi
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A hangi is created by digging a large hole in the ground, lining it with hot rocks and then layering in large pieces of meat and fish followed by vegetables and finally shellfish. The whole lot is then covered by cabbage leaves or flax, with soil covering the top. You need to be an expert to cook like this, to get the timing just right, but after hours of cooking the most delicious, succulent, juicy food is taken out and you can feed a lot of people with very little effort. Maori also boiled food in the hot pools.

Puha boilup can be made at home by combining fresh green puha, which is similar to watercress, with pork bones and potato. It's a hearty, flavoursome winter dish, best mopped up with Maori rewena bread.

Culinary experiences

Visitors can experience this kind of traditional food at the many Maori concert evenings held in the area, such as the Tamaki Maori Village.

Trout fishing - catch of the day!
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Produce

This truly is the Bay of Plenty with a rich, bountiful soil which produces excellent fruit and vegetables. The aromatic and sweet feijoa is plentiful here. You can cut them open and eat them straight from their green skin with a spoon or add it to a fruit salad. Its even more delicious, peeled and baked with the native Manuka honey.

Avocado oil

Jamie Oliver raved that New Zealand avocado oil is one of the grooviest new ingredients to emerge in recent years. The Bay of Plenty is one of the areas where avocado oil is produced. I also love it, and use it for salad dressings, to sauté fish or sprinkle over a roast chicken. It's a great new product because it can be heated to a very high temperature which makes it excellent for wok cooking and frying.