The west coast of New Zealand and their love affair with whitebait is pretty amazing. Where else would the lateness of their run would make front page news? Where else would a town dedicate an entire festival to these tiny fish – with shops showing kids paintings of white bait. Where else would every restaurant have a white bait speciality? Where else would a hotel lift have whitebait artwork? Where else would you be able to get a glass of wine with the name whitebait (p.s. It goes well with whitebait).

Luckily we love a bit of whitebait. So far we’ve tested..

Whitebait pancakes

Whitebait fritters on toast

Whitebait pizza

Sauvignon Blanc in hand, Marlborough mussel chowder on it’s way. Doesn’t get much better than this.

I was excited by seeing trolley bus infrastructure in Wellington. This was only to be met by sadness on finding the news that Wellington Council plans to shutdown the entire network by 2017. I can tell you that diesel buses impose negatively both in terms of noise and particulate pollution on downtown Wllington. Here is to hoping that the proposed diesel electric buses are run in electric mode in the downturn area. Perhaps, they are better, only time will tell.