New Zealand, Lyttleton

Lyttleton, a quiet, lovely town

Nobody really knows about Lyttleton, it is just a sleepy little town that suffered like the rest of the region from the devastating earth quake last year. But maybe you know better where I am when I tell you for which city this town is the main port.....Christchurch. Now everybody knows where I am, we sailed up the coast of New Zealand and are now in Christchurch....sorry Lyttleton. Christchurch is actually just on the other side of the mountain, 20 minutes drive from here.

Being a turn around day, we had of course loading. So for a couple of hours everybody helps with carrying the boxes, loads of them as after Antarctica the ship is pretty empty in the stores. Even so we have now only a 8 day golf cruises ahead, there is still a lot to be loaded. Being on such a small ship, everything is done by hand, there are no folk lifts putting whole pallets in the ship like on the big ones I was on before, no, here the chef stands outside and we inspect the quality and then the boxes get handed over in a long line all the way to the stores,

Winsome and me, she is my favorite supplier

One of our best suppliers, and by far my favorite one, is based here in Lyttleton. It is Winsome Dormer from Independent Providores. I have never seen someone more dedicated and really going out of the way to find the best products for us, looking after us and being there basically 24/7. Winsome has a fantastic team and we all went out for dinner that night, something I have rarely time, but as the guest only embarked the next day, we took the time and were treated royally

Winsome is our supplier since many years and I have never seen anybody working so hard to make sure we get exactly what we need. Her and her team have sourced organic edible flowers, Kiwi Berries, even Ice Carvings for us. It has been such a pleasure to have her and her team making sure that we only got the best quality ingredients

We went to a restaurant called Freeman's. It has just been re opened after the earth quake and has been beautifully decorated. The food was up to par with the rest of the restaurant, it was beautifully presented and tasted fantastic. We had some Antipasti for the table, one of them was stuffed and deep fried Zucchini Flowers filled with Ratatouille and Ricotta.

Then the main course was either the slow braised pork cheeks with creamed potatoes or roasted Akaroa Salmon with Tortellini, both dishes were delicious.

 We had a fantastic evening, it is just great to get to meet your supplier, as the whole office team came as well, so now there is not just a cold email, but there is a face and a voice behind it. We visited the offices too, so now I even know where the email comes from, it makes the purchasing so much easier, to know the person and to have a real personal contact, something that is very difficult to have on ships