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Late in the afternoon after our surf in Sumner we left<br />
Christchurch for the small port city of Timaru where we<br />
stayed the night, which coincidentally meant ‘Place of<br />
Shelter’ in Maori. We rose early and got underway on our<br />
journey to Dunedin. There was damn cold water to face<br />
and surf to be had.<br />
When we started scouring our route for a spot to grab<br />
some breakfast we hadn’t figured on stumbling on a<br />
town so remarkable as Oamaru. Imposing 19th century<br />
limestone buildings lined narrow streets around the<br />
harbour. These beautifully preserved historic commercial<br />
buildings are remnants of a formerly prosperous<br />
refrigerated-meat shipping industry.<br />
This fascinating precinct is now home to a variety of<br />
bookshops, antique galleries, cafes, restaurants and a very<br />
enticing specialist whisky bar, The NZ Malt Whiskey Co.<br />
Further along there’s Steampunk HQ, a kind of way-out gallery<br />
come something-or-the-other that transports visitors to a<br />
parallel universe where electricity was never invented and<br />
steam powers futuristic technological marvels.<br />
Oamaru’s also renown for its yellow-eyed penguin colony<br />
at Bushy Beach. Not stopping long enough to see those,<br />
we left, still famished, and set off on the road again. Along<br />
the way we stumbled on the tiny fishing village of Moeraki<br />
and a restaurant called ‘Fleurs Place’, which we later<br />
read was established on an early whaling station site and<br />
had been built from gathered collectables and demolition<br />
materials from all over New Zealand.<br />
We had no idea where we were and hungrily asked<br />
about breakfast. The place didn’t do breakfasts we were<br />
told apologetically, but the smiling waitress offered to<br />
find out if the chef would be able to whip something up<br />
for us anyway...<br />
The more we thought about this being a little odd, we<br />
realised that ‘Fleur’, was one and the same as the Fleur<br />
Sullivan who had made her reputation as a top foodie in<br />
the Central Otago region, receiving numerous awards in<br />
her time. British television chef and restauranteur Rick<br />
Stein chose Fleurs Place when he was asked to choose<br />
anywhere in the world to write a travel article for English<br />
newspaper the Daily Mail.<br />
The waitress returned with the offer of bacon and eggs,<br />
which was music to our ears and our rumbling stomachs.<br />
We grabbed a table where we were served the best<br />
breakfast we have ever had in our entire lives.<br />
100 may/jun <strong>2012</strong>
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