Our Food Story
The hands, the land and the sea behind everything we serve
Where It All Begins
Kaikōura’s wild, natural environment shapes everything we do — it feeds our creativity, our resourcefulness and our appreciation for what's right on our doorstep.
We're lucky to grow such a wide variety of plants here, thanks to Kaikōura's temperate climate. Sea air keeps our winter frosts light and takes the edge off the heat in summer.
Over many years, we've created a vegetable garden, herb garden, growing tunnel, mixed orchard and a nuttery, with other edible plants interspersed across the whole property. Our gardens are also home to a wide variety of native plants, which has created a haven for wildlife, as well as a source of edible plants for the kitchen.
We focus on raising rare breed animals and their welfare and quality of life is of the utmost importance to us. Our menagerie includes Wessex Saddleback pigs, Belted and White Galloway cattle, Silver Appleyard ducks, Magpie ducks and a mixed flock of heritage hens.
Every plant and animal introduced to our property is carefully considered. Each has a role to play — whether that's produce for the dinner table, plants to improve soil health, natural bug control, manure for compost, pollination, shade, or shelter.
Our Local Producers, Fishers & Farmers
We gather produce from across the Kaikōura region and neighbouring Canterbury and Marlborough, blessed with abundance from mountains to sea. Our coastal waters yield blue cod, hapuku, crayfish and pāua, while local producers supply outstanding organic honey, olive oil, wine, beer, gin, beef and lamb, fresh vegetables and herbs, avocado, citrus, stonefruit, berries and grains.
Moana
from the sea
Straight from the sounds
Our Greenshell™ mussels come from Mills Bay Mussels, family-grown in the pristine waters of the Marlborough Sounds
113 km
Mills Bay Mussels
As fresh and local as kaimoana gets
A family business fishing the Kaikōura coast for over 40 years, bringing the freshest crayfish (spiny rock lobster) straight from sea to plate
18 km
Karaka Lobster
Catch your own, cook with us
Small-group charters out of South Bay with skipper Malcolm — 35+ years reading Kaikōura's waters for the best of the day's catch
11 km
Top Catch Charters
A Christchurch Institution
A family business now in its fourth generation, bringing the same commitment to quality and freshness since 1950
161 km
Theo’s Fisheries
Sustainably caught to order
A family-run spear-fishing business with a genuine zero-bycatch commitment - kahawai, snapper, flounder, pāua, kingfish…
150 km
Ocean Speared
Whenua
from the land
Fresh as, collected daily
Heritage poultry raised right here at Hapuku Kitchen, free-range, they play an essential part of the regenerative farming process
0 km
Our Free-Range Eggs
Cold-pressed, small-batch production
Proctor’s grow and press their olives entirely on-site in a coastal microclimate yielding a premium single-estate product
2 km
Proctor’s Olive Oil
Seasonality at its best
We grow a wide variety of herbs, berries, citrus, vegetables and native ingredients across our kitchen gardens
0 km
Our Kitchen Gardens
Home-grown, on our doorstep
Our orchard yields plums, quince, apples, pears, apricots, nectarines and black peaches — picked at their peak and straight onto the menu
0 km
Our Orchard
Small-batch honey from the mountains
Produced by our friends Neroli & John from Manuka trees and native bush florals inland of Kaikōura
30 km
Spey Creek Honey
Local brews, local roots
Award-winning craft beer, brewed just down the road - proof you don't have to look far for something good
8 km
Emporium Brewing
Awarding-winning sparkling wines
A family-owned, boutique vineyard at the base of Mt Fyffe, crafting Méthode Traditionnnelle sparking wine - the same labour-intensive menthod used in Champagne
6 km
Esses Wine Company
Much-loved productive home garden
Rebecca has a green thumb and loves growing vegetables, berries and fruit in particular but she is starting to enjoy mixing flowers in amongst her thriving vegetable patches
9 km
Rebecca’s Garden
Locally raised, locally butchered
Raised on the wild high country of the Awatere Valley, for a depth of flavour only true free-range grazing can give
8 km
Middlehurst Station Merino Lamb
Award-winning gin and liqueurs
Local legend Justine is behind locally distilled gins and liqueurs made with ingredients she forages from the her farm and the wider Kaikōura district
7 km
Mt Fyffe Distillery
Wild by nature
Wild-harvested venison and game meat from Marlborough's high country, sourced from Premium Game — 100% natural, "peak to plate," and family run
93 km
Premium Game
High country pinot noir
We pour Mt Beautiful's Pinot Noir, hand-tended on the elevated, cool-climate slopes of Cheviot Hills — with the Seaward Kaikōura mountain range just to the north
60 km
Mt Beautiful Wines
