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Lush land where produce is king

Local produce on a Wellington Zest tour / Picture: Stephen Scourfield

New Zealand is welcoming Australians - but not necessarily us. From Sydney, it's a popular "long weekender". For us, I'd suggest it is at least a 10-day proposition.

If I had to sum up New Zealand tourism in one word, it would be "quality".

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The New Zealand experience begins when you get on an Air New Zealand flight - staff are helpful but not fawning, dry humour, chatty, easy to be with.

Not many airports feel as welcoming as New Zealand's - there's an element of feeling like you're coming home, wherever you're coming from.

There's still what we might think of as a "small town feel" to it all, and wherever you are, you are quite likely to easily strike up conversation with locals - on the InterIslander ferries between the two islands, just sitting next to someone, waiting somewhere-or- other, and certainly when you check in and out of accommodation.

While the range is there (from backpacker to luxury lodges), the "quality" really applies here. My experience is that Kiwis are attentive to detail and do whatever they do well. They're innovative and practical - come up with an idea and then make it work.

The landscape is dramatically different to that of Western Australia, of course - the spine of the Southern Alps, those high, jagged peaks, the lush slopes and agricultural lands which simply seem to burst with chlorophyll.

All that leads me to food and wine.

All through my travels in New Zealand I ate food that was fresh, often simply but elegantly prepared, and close to its source.

There are many producers of beef, venison, lamb and pork - Harris Meats Angus beef, Canter Valley duck, North Canterbury Venison. Many producers have high environmental values and accreditation and no genetically modified crops are grown in the country.

There's Nelson paddle crab, New Zealand salmon (farmed and wild) and green-lipped mussels from Marlborough Sound.

Marlborough is, of course, probably New Zealand's best- known wine region. It was from here that sauvignon blanc took over the white world (but look out for pinot noir, which winemakers here consistently tell me is "their next big thing" and even tempranillo).

As she shows me around the region, Jo May, of Destination Marlborough, tells me there are some 110 wineries in Marlborough. "On any day there are about 45 open for tastings." Many have restaurants, the fare ranging from NZ$9.90 ($8.60) platters for two people to mid-range and Michelin- standard degustation.

You'll hear people in New Zealand talking about "happy eggs" and "happy pigs" (Kunekune and Wessex Saddlebacks) that wander around in a field rather than being held indoors in a pen.

Vegetables were fresh and newly harvested. Look out for any dishes with the prized kumara in it. This is a sweet potato (red, orange and gold kumara mostly grown in the Kaipara region), and New Zealanders love it. (So do I.)

Look out too for Ruth Pretty preserves and chutneys - particularly quince jelly, feijoa chutney and blackcurrant jelly, as introduced to me when I took a Zest Tour in Wellington. Kapiti cheeses, including the superb, soft Kikorangi blue. Zany Zeus zingy chilli feta and smoked yoghurt. Meyer gouda. Linkwater cheddar, aged to a minimum of three years, fruit salami like prunes and port (great with cheese).

Aroha sparkling drinks - particularly rhubarb or feijoa. They use stevia to sweeten it.

For shopping, anything in merino wool.

The exchange rate gives us a slight advantage - at the time of writing, an Australian dollar is worth NZ$1.13. And prices are lower than Perth's so, overall, I felt I ended up something like 25 per cent ahead. But price and value are two different measures, anyway.

And because of the consistent high quality on top of this, a holiday in New Zealand feels like good value.