We spent around 12 days on the South Island of New Zealand, and very beautiful ones they were too.

Our limited budget forced us to view things a little differently, and during this early period of our holiday, we were still railing against it quite frequently. It was a sharp change from our usual vacation spending excesses, and I must confess to twinges of sadness when we had to bypass a vast array of gourmet restaurants in favour of cooking in our motel room or a pizza.

It was quite a salutary lesson though as to how frivolously we spend money on food when at home. Having to write down every day where the money was going really hammered home how stopping for a coffee and a hot chocolate consumed one eighth of our budget for the day, and drinks with dinner torpedoed it.

We got used to drinking the free water every restaurant provides, and to make the most of the limited cooking facilities our motels offered. I know it sounds like a big fuss over nothing – it’s not like we were starving or eating beans on toast 3 times a day, but as the title of the blog hopefully conveys, for me, food is about going beyond sustenance into the realm of pleasure.

So bearing all this in mind, I wanted to document some of the places where we really enjoyed eating. None of them were too pricey, and although many (to my chagrin – what a waste of research!) were listed in the Lonely Planet guidebook we acquired before departing, some will hopefully augment your own lists.

Continue reading New Zealand Food Exploration: South Island Recommendations →