Book dishes up gourmet delights for trampers

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Book dishes up gourmet delights for New Zealand’s trampers

Imagine tramping through some of New Zealand’s most spectacular wilderness and celebrating the first leg of the journey with a delicious gourmet meal accompanied by a well-matched wine.

Well, imagine no longer. With the help of Gourmet Tramping in New Zealand, the latest release from Canterbury University Press, gourmet meals can easily become part of the New Zealand tramping experience. So, throw away those energy bars and bags of scroggin, tramping can now be done in style.

Gourmet Tramping is the inspired work of keen outdoor enthusiasts and food lovers John Sawyer and Liz Baker, who have never been fans of the boil-in-the-bag, just-add-hot-water meals carried by most trampers. So the pair has designed some easy-to-make but delicious tramping meals matched with New Zealand wines, and teamed them with 14 of this country’s most spectacular two-day walks.

Trampers can now tuck into Louisiana jambalaya and sip a glass of Carrick Pinot Noir at the Siberia Hut in Mt Aspiring National Park, or feast on spiced salmon fillet with sweet corn and couscous cakes with a bottle of Stonecroft Gewurztraminer after reaching Pinnacles Hut in the Coromandel Forest Park.

Mr Sawyer, a plant ecologist with the Department of Conservation in Wellington, said inspiration for the book first came while he was walking the Heaphy Track in 1998.

“In one of the huts I came across a couple having this delicious-looking brunch of avocados, bagels, eggs and bacon and I just thought ‘that’s fantastic’. I decided then and there that that’s what I would do from then on.”

However, it was not until New Year’s Eve 1999, while Mr Sawyer and friends were in the Mt Arthur Hut, in the Kahurangi National Park, that he decided New Zealand’s trampers were desperately in need of some food help.

“I watched other people in the hut eat porridge for their last dinner of the millennium. I felt really upset for them because it was New Year’s Eve and we were having a three course meal with wine. I just thought I’ve got to do something about this. People can’t just keep eating such horrible food.”

Ms Baker, a Central Otago-based caterer, said most of the meals in the book were dishes she had designed and eaten on her own outdoor experiences.

“I also wanted to create meals that would fit in with the region of each walk,” she said.

Gourmet Tramping provides a description of each two-day tramp along with information on where to buy ingredients for the accompanying gourmet meal, how to get to the start of the track, what to do nearby, facts about the facilities, instructions on how to cook your gastronomical feast and which wine to take.

Ideas for gourmet breakfasts, lunches, snacks and desserts are also provided and there is a section on tramping and cooking equipment needed plus safety tips.

The tramps chosen cater for a range of experience and are all across relatively flat terrain. Packs may be a little bit heavier but the delicious reward at the end of the day was worth the extra effort said Mr Sawyer.

“It’s all about indulging your senses in the spectacular surroundings of the back country,” said Mr Sawyer.

“There’s nothing like having a delicious meal in a DOC hut surrounded by fantastic scenery. It’s an amazing experience.”

Gourmet Tramping in New Zealand by John Sawyer and Liz Baker, published by Canterbury University Press, April 2007, RRP NZ$29.50, Paperback, 240 x 170 mm, 120 pp, colour throughout, ISBN 978-877257-50-6.

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