The MÄori call New Zealand Aotearoa. The land of the long white cloud. Lush green hills, hissing geysers, snow-capped volcanoes, and deep blue fjords. It is a special honour to be initiated into the secrets of MÄori culinary art by one of the country’s top chefs in this paradise. It’s a journey into the wild heart of New Zealand, into the jungle and forest of the South Island. To the fresh food counter and right into the gourmet section of the MÄori.
Sometimes you just have to dive in to catch your breath. I am in a place of complete silence, without a phone, without a laptop, without batteries, without electricity. A place where only the pulsating blood in the veins makes sounds. At this place on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island, I wander through the bush until I can shed my restlessness like a snake skin among the ferns on the dark forest floor. I place my hiking bundle on the warm earth and lie down on the lush greenery between the lichen-covered Tuatara trees, dreamily watching the aerial roots. My gaze can hardly penetrate through this chaotic moist green tangle, always getting caught on one of the vines or on a garland whipped into the
