Relax, relax. Isn’t that what we are meant to be trying to do in this hectic world we live in? I was doing exactly that a few weekends ago at the NZ Food Writers conference. After a hard morning of visiting food and wine producers, and having to choose between blue cheese wontons with pear and rocket salad or grilled mackerel on toast with harissa at Clearview Estate Winery, we were now at Millar Road – seriously stylish accommodation – tasting yet more wine and food. Oh well, someone has to do it!

Relaxing by the pool in the afternoon sun, lapping up the Hawkes Bay countryside and Pacific Ocean spread out below us, I summoned up just enough energy to ask antioxidant expert, Dr Carolyn Lister, “Do organic vegetables have any more antioxidants than others?” She replied, “It depends how stressed they are. The more stress, the more antioxidants.”

“The food and wine here is as good as you’ll find anywhere in the world,” announced the Mayor of Hastings, Lawrence Yule, as he welcomed New Zealand’s food writers to his region. Three days of tasting and three kilos later, I think I agree! My pantry is now over-flowing with yummy Hawkes Bay food with not an added colour or preservative in sight. On my bench sits Damson Plum jam, paste and liqueur. The paste goes really well with blue cheese and the liqueur is the best product I came across during the three days. It brings back delicious memories of sipping walnut aperitif each night before dinner at the French farmhouse we rented at Mercadiol, a hamlet just south east of St-Julien-de-Lampon, in the Dordogne region. (If you want to see a picture look at Stephanie Alexander’s book “Cooking and Travelling in South-West France. She stayed there too! ) I can’t wait to re-create the memories on a warm, sunny Kiwi evening – if one ever happens!

I’m on my way to the opening cocktail evening for the Food Writers Conference in Napier. The hotel lift opens at my floor and I stop, speechless, as Richie McCaw [current All Black captain] and a couple of his Canterbury Crusaders teammates smile nonchalantly out. No room for me – these boys are big! What am I doing wobbling off to eat and drink tonight? I should be in the gym chiselling my body like these amazing specimens. The momentary motivation passes as we enter the whitewashed historic Hawkes Bay Club, just a stone’s throw from our hotel.

“I’ve just walked into Brad Thorn’s stomach!” my friend Jenny from Beef and Lamb New Zealand says as we munch on large green Orcona jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and sprinkled with smoked paprika. “Those boys are big!”