New Zealand and Australia

My dear father is about to go on a 5 week trip to New Zealand and Australia...and has assigned me the duty of asking my foodie contacts for recommendations...SO...anyone out there have any great places to eat?

In Australia he must try a meat pie at Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Sydney. Its a very popular lunch spot. Takeaway only. Tell your father to get the works (a pie topped with mashed potatoes and mushy peas and smothered with brown gravy). Whether its chicken, beef or lamb that he likes, he'll find something he likes on Harry's menu. Its known worldwide and many celebrities have been here. Its located on the waterfront in Sydney near the W Hotel. Tell him to have a great trip. Btw, City Extra is a good spot for late night breakfasts...its at the Circular Quay near the Opera House.

I was in Oz and NZ in May and while I don't have any specific restaurant recommendations, I highly advise sticking to the seafood, especially the green lip mussles, in NZ over the lamb. Apparently they export all of their best quality lamb. And I take back not having any specific recommendations, I loved Blenheim on the South Island. It's a wonderful wine town. In particular, I had a fabulous lunch at Highfield Estate, http://www.highfield.co.nz/ . My favorite small production wine was Mudhouse, http://www.mudhouse.co.nz/ . Definitely tell him to follow his nose in Sydney's chinatown. I had wonderful dining experiences there from morning dim sum to having seafood in a restaurant where you approve of your live fish as it flops on your table.

Cheers,

Emily

ps - how do I post links so that they show up with the http://... hidden?

The sandwich and pie shops both places are usually good. Sydney has a bunch of trendy restaurants; the tourist magazines in the hotels will list them. The New Zealand beer is great, some of the best in the world, I think. Just too small for an export operation to the US, so you never see it here. Steinlager is not the best; try Mac's Gold and some of the other beers from the west coast of the south island. The Malthouse in Wellington is really cool -- a bunch of local beers and ales on tap. Same with NZ wine -- spend a few bucks and get some of the finest whites there are to be had, I think. But the lamb is English style, always well done.

My menu would include:
Mel Gibson,Bryan Brown(he played Luke in the Thorn Birds Miniseries, also he was in Cocktail),Russell Crowe, and Adam Garcia

Ooh, Gordon reminded me of the NZ beer. Monteiths, http://www.monteiths.co.nz/ , was my favorite. They've recently been bought by one of the bigger companies and as such we noticed a distinguishable difference in the Monteiths beers on the south island versus the norht. The south island ones were incredible, the north less memorable. We did a tour of the brewery on the west coast of the south island and it was quite fun. It ends in the brewery's tap room where they let you pull your own beer.

Emily

OK,
So you want to see REAL NZ food and beverages?.
Now, I'm from the South Island of New Zealand, I don't mean to sound biased but, you would be best off avoiding most of the eateries in the North Island.
I've lived/worked up there before and the quality of fare is not as good as the stuff we have down here and the service is better.
I've waited for up to an hour to get a Medium/Rare steak.
If you want to get a real feel for NZ food, get to the West Coast of the South Island.
I don't come from there, I come from the East Coast.
The food over there is made with real passion.
Around about now is the run of the Whitebait season, expect high prices (sort of) but once you have tried Whitebait, there is no going back.
BTW, anyone that asks for any accessories to Whitebait (like Ketchup) should expect to wake up on the next day, clothes missing and sitting in the riverbed.

I've been to New Zealand about three times, having friends there.

I can't remember places so much but the pastry there, even in the greasy spoons, was great.

Echo another poster who wrote about mussels. You don't have to go to cafes for them. In Rotorua, I went into a standard supermarket and found 4 types, smoked, bbq'd, lemoned and dilled and plain just waiting in the deli to be bought by the weight.

The tropical fruit there is great too. Try the tamarillo preps. I had a tamarillo milkshake.

Also, for a souvenir, ask Dad to get you some tamarillo soap - a gorgeous glycerine soap like pears made with tamarillo and its' seeds.

The city of Melbourne, Australia features many neighborhoods. Each one is populated with a variety of small, Mom & Pop, restaurants that serve anything from fish&chips to pizza. Just about any kind of ethnic food is offered. Most of these establishments are open only during select hours -- some are open only on certain days. The food can run from fair to outstanding. You have to know the neighborhood.

Along with that myriad, I would like to recommend two stops in Melbourne that shouldn’t be missed:

The first is a very old and famous pub – the Young & Jackson.-- http://www.youngandjackson.com.au/
Check their menus and enjoy the pictures. You can dine on anything from “PUB GRUB” to full dinners. It is located right in the heart of Melbourne, directly across from the equally famous Flinders Street Station -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flinders_Street_Station.

The second is a beautiful vegetarian restaurant -- SOULMAMA. It is located on the water in the St. Kilder section.
Googol SOULMAMA for pictures, menus and reviews.
By the way, I am very far from being a vegetarian yet I found the food to be excellent!

Bill