At most dinner parties, an unspoken but well-practiced choreography begins. A visitor crosses the threshold, takes a drink, nibbles an hors d’oeuvre and, if they’re following traditional etiquette, hands their host a gift – possibly a bottle of bubbly picked up on the way. 

But at Velskov Forest Farm, just outside Auckland on Aotearoa New Zealand’s North Island, dinner party rituals take a different form. 

I arrived to meet my host, a forest farmer named Mamakan, not at her front door but at a forested trailhead. Our appetizer wasn’t finger food but “tumm,” her homemade tea-based smoothie bowl that incorporates more than 30 endemic herbs, seeds and plant proteins. And in lieu of wine or Champagne, I offered the gift of a helping hand, heading into the forest to collect garnishes — including spicy horopito, fern shoots and a sprig of manuka — before helping prepare and cook dinner.

“If you ever get invited to a New Zealand party, it’s not like there’s a five-course dinner set up for you; everyone helps out,” Mamakan told our group, a mix of North American and Australian-based travel professionals on a 10-day culinary fam tour of the North Island. “We have community — and that is the New Zealand way.”

New Zealand as a foodie destination?

My foraging experience at Velskov came toward the end of my visit to New Zealand, which began in the country’s capital, Wellington, and moved through Rotorua, Hawke’s Bay and Auckland. 

The trip, organized through Tourism New Zealand, was aptly timed: Not only was it aligned with the July 1 release of Tourism New Zealand’s latest marketing campaign, “Invitation to Dinner,” it also coincided with the arrival of New Zealand’s first Michelin Guide. 

According to Rene de Monchy, chief executive for Tourism New Zealand, culinary experiences are now the No. 1 activity for potential visitors. These foodie travelers are also high spenders, shelling out nearly $800 more per trip than the average visitor, according to the country’s 2026 International Visitor Survey. 

And while the culinary travel trend is certainly not new, its growth is forecasted to continue impacting the tourism industry on a worldwide scale. The total global culinary-tourism market was valued at $16.1 billion in 2025, a number that is projected to grow to $76.4 billion by 2033, according to a recent Culinary Tourism Market Summary by Grand View Research. Its value, the report says, is driven by increased consumer spending, coupled with tourists’ desire to try locally sourced food products.

The report lists the European market as dominating revenue share at 32.2%, but if New Zealand’s International Visitor Survey is any indication, smaller markets are poised to benefit, too.

Before visiting New Zealand, my knowledge of the country’s food scene was, admittedly, limited. Like many, I associate the island nation with its adventure offerings and indigenous Maori cultural experiences (and its ties to pop culture; a high school-era poster of Kiwi musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords still hangs on the door of my childhood bedroom). 

But for de Monchy, the link between food and New Zealand is an obvious one, with the Invitation to Dinner campaign designed as an amplifier for a robust food and beverage scene that’s been “quietly building for decades.” 

“Our food story is very much connected with the landscapes and scenery; that’s where all of our beautiful ingredients come from,” he said. “Also, Maori culture really influences the way you dine here. People talk about manaakitanga, which is the welcome and embrace that you feel from a place, and I think that really comes to life.”

Of the land …

Theresa Chu-Bermudez, owner of Tampa-based Get Out! Custom Travels, has visited New Zealand four times over the last 12 years. Past trips incorporated adventure activities like bungee jumping and skydiving, along with a visit timed to the 2023 opening of Bagshot Row at Hobbiton (which, for an avid “The Lord of the Rings” fan like Chu-Bermudez, was a true highlight).

But last June’s Tourism New Zealand-sponsored trip was the first time she found the country’s food to be the star of the show. 

“One thing that really stands out is the respect [New Zealanders] have for their country in terms of nature,” she said. “And when it comes to their dishes, you can see how they utilize ingredients with that same level of respect. They want to showcase what New Zealand has that is unique and not available anywhere else in the world.”

Due to the country’s biodiversity and high level of endemism, many ingredients are difficult or impossible to find elsewhere. Forty percent of plants, 90% of fungi, 70% of animals and 80% of freshwater fish are found nowhere else in the world, according to a 2019 article from the Victoria University of Wellington.

Take the horopito, a plant that grows in the forest surrounding Velskov; its spicy, peppery-tasting red-and-green leaves are often used to flavor dishes. Or look to the native kawakawa plant: Used medicinally by the indigenous Maori people for generations, kawakawa is found on restaurant menus across the country. It made an appearance on my plates in various forms: baked into sourdough bread, infused into chocolate, brewed into tea and used as a garnish. 

“It really clicked for me with kawakawa,” Chu-Bermudez said. “It’s not that you take plants and you synthesize them in a lab and process them; you actually use the ingredient itself. And a lot of times, you’re hearing that these ingredients come from within an hour of a restaurant, or within 100 kilometers. That’s when you know it’s super local.”

Other uniquely New Zealand ingredients can be found off the islands’ coasts and inland waterways, including the endemic whitebait (a small freshwater fish), paua (abalone) and pipi (saltwater clam), according to Paul Froggatt, director of culinary at Roki Collection and executive chef of Essence, New Zealand’s only two-starred Michelin restaurant.

Froggatt regularly rotates his menu at Essence to promote local ingredients. He has an affinity for the sweet, delicate New Zealand langoustine, sourced from the South Island’s Waikawa Fishing Company, and utilizes a local network of vendors for fresh produce.

Some of New Zealand’s ingredients may be new to U.S.-based foodies, but others have already left their mark on the world. 

Clients may be familiar with manuka honey, which is produced from the nectar of the flowering manuka shrub. Its unique characteristics include strong antibacterial properties, but it can be tricky to produce, due to its short annual bloom period each summer.

Although not strictly endemic to New Zealand — manuka is also found naturally in Australia — its worldwide demand has helped make the New Zealand honey industry thrive. According to beekeeper Karly Polaschek, owner of Greytown Honey in Wairarapa, New Zealand is one of the world’s smallest producers of the sweet stuff, yet it earns more income from honey exports than any other country.

Located just outside Wellington, Greytown is Polaschek’s fifth-generation, family-owned beekeeping farm. Travelers can book Greytown’s 75-minute Beekeeper Experience, which is also offered through local DMC Kaewa Tours’ full-day Martinborough Foodie Delights itinerary. After suiting up in beekeeping suits, we spent time at the hives before making our own jar of honey at Polaschek’s on-site factory. The visit concluded with a tasting of the farm’s many creamed varieties, including rewarewa, rata and kanuka. 

... and its wine ...

And then there’s New Zealand’s wine. The first bottle of New Zealand-produced wine had already been recorded by the time of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi (New Zealand’s founding document, signed by the British Crown and more than 500 Maori chiefs), but its vineyards have stepped onto the world’s stage just in the past 40 years, with the price of wine exports skyrocketing as New Zealand began shipping such varietals as sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot gris and pinot noir, which together now “dominate the industry’s output,” according to New Zealand Winegrowers. 

I’ve long been a fan of New Zealand’s vibrant sauvignon blancs, grown in the South Island’s Marlborough region. However, I quickly learned that the North Island has no shortage of excellent wines to choose from, with my favorites including the bright rosé at Poppies winery in the Martinborough region and the rich, jammy syrahs grown in Gimblett Gravels Vineyard in Hawke’s Bay and on offer at Craggy Range Winery’s Giants Estate. 

Pro tip: If clients are looking for more education on New Zealand’s wine-growing regions, suggest that they try Craggy Range’s Giants Estate Experience, an 11-pour wine tasting complete with food pairings and educational commentary on the country’s wine-growing regions.

... and its people

But as any foodie knows, New Zealand’s ingredients only provide half the story. To truly understand a country’s culinary identity, travelers need to look to the folks who grow, produce, cook and share them.

At Queenstown’s Essence, the restaurant works with a local network of growers and producers, Froggatt said. For example, Essence partners with the family-run Red Bridge Strawberries in Wanaka on the South Island; Froggatt’s contact, Ben, is attempting to grow a new species of strawberry for use in the restaurant. 

“For me, this makes our food scene amazing, as we are a small country [and] every chef has similar produce but a different way and approach to how they use it,” he said.

Our group dined at several Michelin-recognized restaurants on the North Island, including Kingi and Highwater and the one-starred Ahi, Mudbrick and Ortega Fish Shack. And as a whole, we were delightfully surprised at how accommodating restaurants were to various dietary restrictions (one member of our group, who is vegan, described each plant-based dish served as the “best I’ve ever had”).

If fine dining isn’t a top preference for clients, they can take a more literal farm-to-table approach.  

In Hawke’s Bay, a local farmers’ market at Clive Square in Napier is one of New Zealand’s largest and longest-running markets. Every Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., local vendors offer everything from fresh-picked figs from nearby Te Mata figgery to plant-based pastries from the Link Cafe and bottled Erik the Red: Ragnarok hot sauce (which came home for my spice-loving husband).

Travelers visiting Wellington also have boutique spots to pick up local goods. At Forage Merchants of Wellington, a specialty grocer and live music venue, they’ll find an array of ingredients and items local to the region, along with baked goods and straight-from-the-source ingredients (sheep’s milk hot chocolate, anyone?). I picked up a jar of kawakawa and feijoa za’atar from local brand Apostle. 

Within an hour’s drive from there, visitors can participate in a cheese tasting at C’est Cheese, home to one of New Zealand’s 45 cheesemakers. Here, owner Paul Broughton sources the dairy milk used to make his award-winning brie and his aged truffle havarti cheeses, among other varieties, from a family farm down the road. Drive a little farther and you’ll hit an olive grove and vineyard, Blue Earth Estate, located behind owners Margaret and Mike Hanson’s home. The couple creates award-winning extra virgin olive oil blends and an array of cool-climate wines and offers tastings in their home kitchen. 

Back to its roots

Maori cooking traditions, passed down through generations, preserved and proudly shown off, remain an important part of the country’s culinary culture and should be on every traveler’s itinerary. 

On several occasions, I ate food cooked in an in-ground, earthen oven called a hangi. Often, these meals were served with a side of cultural education. In Rotorua, the hangi made an appearance at Te Puia, a geothermal park and cultural tourist attraction. After a walk among sputtering geothermal geysers, our group sat down to a lunch of mussels, shrimp, dumplings, potatoes and fish, all cooked in the hangi. And during a dinner experience at cultural attraction Te Pa Tu, also in Rotorua, a family-style hakari (feast) included food and drinks sourced from Maori producers and makers, including truffle oil, honey, wine — and food cooked in the hangi. Ahead of dinner, our group tried our hand at several traditional Maori games, learning about what life was like in the mid-1800s in postcolonial New Zealand while snacking on canapes. 

After dinner at Te Pa Tu, Maori performer Rangimaewa walked to each table in the massive dining room, asking the  guests which country they were from. There were several nationalities present: Guests hailed from the U.S., Canada, Australia, South Korea, Thailand and the Netherlands, among others. For each country represented, Rangimaewa and her fellow performers offered a special poroporoaki (farewell), performing a song or dance sung in the guest’s native language. 

As the scene played out in front of me, I thought back to de Monchy’s definition of manaakitanga: what he called “the welcome and embrace that you feel from a place.” 

Regardless of our country of origin, in that moment, we were united as one community. 

It is, as Mamakan said, the New Zealand way.