Why Chch people should visit Kaikoura
Iwent to Kaikoura this week. I’m embarrassed to say it’s the first time I’ve visited the place since its earthquake. I went for the cheese – I stayed for the museum. You’ve really got to get up there, Christchurch.
A friend tipped me off about a goats milk cheese that Kaikoura Cheese is selling on the main street.
Now believe me, I’ve eaten some cheese in my time – on crackers, bread, in fondue, with my hands, mixed through almost any cooking. It’s gotta be close to a full-blown cheese problem.
I swear I’d give up meat before I’d give up cheese – not ham, of course, but all non-ham meats. How could I give up ham when it goes so well with cheese?
I’m getting distracted with ham when I was wanting to talk about cheese.
The cheese in Kaikoura is so damn good that it may be the best in the country.
As I’m getting older, I’m starting to think that stinkier cheeses are the way of the future. I grew up a Tasty sort of a guy, spent a bit of time with smoked cheddar on the way through and now if it’s blue and smelly, you can’t drag me away from it.
I like something that smells like old gym socks when you open the fridge.
Without further ado I’d like to announce Johnny Moore’s Cheese of the Year 2017: Kaikoura Cheese’s tenara – a softly stinky goatsmilk cheese that’s rolled in ash, of all things. And not just any ash, but special French ash (ash that smokes), imported due to the fact that nobody in New Zealand is making foodgrade ash, I’d imagine.
Something I hadn’t considered was the fact that getting to Kaikoura is now part of the charm.
The road’s always been a driver’s road; now there’s far less traffic, the trucks are gone and it’s like driving in New Zealand in the good old days – getting cheese has never been so much fun.
Up through the Hundalee Hills and you can really have some fun, and without even breaking the speed limit much – and all the while dreaming of the ham and cheese.
But enough about cheese. Have you seen the new museum? It’s really unexpected. Among all the booming and crashing up there I didn’t even know it had opened. Now I’m struggling to remember the old one.
The new museum is in the Craypot building on the main street, which seems to have held up just fine.
Small-town enthusiasm and a few lotto dollars makes for a place that’ll be a great place for tourists to visit after they’ve watched the whales, which are still there in all their tail-showing glory. We even saw a whale from the road, if you’d believe it.
There’s a real sense that people are doing it tough but are fighting hard as a town. Hard luck with a smile on your face sort of a thing. And they’re about to head into a hard-slog winter.
I remember this time in our rebuild when it felt like the rest of the country had moved on when I couldn’t.
The people remaining in Kaikoura are the ones who really care about the place; they’re the locals and they’re working hard for their town.
I think the waitress who brought our lunch said it best when she found out we were up from Christchurch: ‘‘We really appreciate you guys coming up and supporting our businesses. It means a lot.’’
Now where will you find genuine service like that in this tired old tourist economy? Go up for a look over the weekend and remember to check out the cheese.