I have spent the past month in New Zealand at the beach, cycling, rafting over the world’s highest commercially rafted waterfall at Rotorua, walking on the beach, seeing friends and family – and eating some great food, not necessarily all healthy. We discovered arguably the best croissants in New Zealand at Oliver’s bakery in Whangamata. Each morning we cycled down to buy these buttery treats, eating them at the nearby wharf with a take-out coffee or carrying them home for a leisurely breakfast. Not exactly healthy but oh so delicious! And our weight didn’t sky-rocket because the rest of our meals included lots of fish, vegetables and fruit.

We had fresh silver beet, kamokamo (a type of marrow), tomatoes, corn and basil which I layered in a dish with canned tuna, then grated a little cheese on top and baked. We had freshly dug new potatoes boiled and served with mint from the garden, or par-boiled and then crisped on the BBQ. A few times I used the silver beet in lasagna. This low fat version has extra vegetables

Hi, this week I am away in Nelson situated at the very top of the south island of New Zealand. I’m a guest speaker at an Aquaculture conference and my presentation will be about the benefits of Omega 3 in one’s diet, and ways to promote it’s health benefits. It’s been wonderful here so far, am thoroughly enjoying being back in the heartland of New Zealand, even if it is only for a week. I thought I’d post a few of my powerpoint slides here to give you a little taste of what it is I am going to be talking about.

By the way, if ever there was an idyllic place to grow up as a kid, two of the pics here show that place: Matauri Bay in another (northern) part of New Zealand, sometimes called “The Winterless North”, with views out over the Cavalli Islands … my husbands home for the first six years of his life!

A spectacular day here today, you couldn’t ask for better!