Dinner at Fleur’s Place

Fleur's Place Dinner after 18 month wait!

We are on our way to a B and B near the Moeraki Boulders so that we can enjoy a meal at Fleur’s Place. This is a very special restaurant we discovered in 2010. We had to be content with a herb scone from the little caravan at the harbour because we hadn’t reserved, and it was a busy Sunday lunchtime. I took LOTS of photos there but had to wait one and one-half years to return for a meal.

We chose our B & B because it is where the famous English restauranteur, Rick Stein, from The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, UK, stayed when he went to Fleur’s so we knew it had to be fairly close. Duncan and I went to the Cornwall restaurant in the early eighties before it became so famous, and we still remember the meal, particularly the dessert – it was the first time we ever eaten crème brulee.  I remember how satisfying it was to crack the surface of the dessert with a sharp snap of my spoon before eating it. We just stumbled upon it much like we had Fleur’s Place. Sometimes we’re lucky that way, it has something to do with our emphasis on habitually foraging quite seriously for most meals.

The B and B owners, Barbara and John Morgan, live on a deer farm up an unsealed road in the countryside. When we arrive there is a mob of six or seven children enjoying tennis lessons. The place is all go with several dogs running about crazily. John greets us and Barbara arrives to show us our room in an adjacent frame building. She encourages us to go early to Moeraki and enjoy a walk along the beach, and we follow this suggestion. We want to see the boulders again in the sunshine because it was a dull day on our last visit; we are not disappointed, we’ve been so lucky with the weather on this trip. We take several photos including some panoramic ones.



View from our "best table in the house"

The evening couldn’t be more beautiful, the sun is shining and the sea air is bracing. Our table is upstairs looking out on the sea, and our server smiles and tells us we have the best seat in the house. Fleurs, is an old frame building that reminds me of an eccentric establishment one might find in a village in Ireland. It’s famous for miles around with its homely eclectic atmosphere. There are photos, paintings and sculptures around that enhance the seaside atmosphere. Fleur is world famous for her seafood. She buys most fish off the boat from local fishermen. We order the fish special after the female server describes the choices. We choose greenbone which is a fleshy white fish a bit like our pickerel. It comes with lots of steamed vegetables, and a choice of sauces. Mine is caperbutter with lime and Duncan chooses a spinach sauce. While we are waiting we enjoy watching a seagull perched outside our window. New Zealand seagulls are smaller and far more attractive than their North American cousins.  They’re smaller for one thing, have red beaks and legs and this one has gray wing feathers. The food arrives quickly, and we savour every bite washing it down with two glasses of two different types NZ sauvignon blanc. For dessert I opt for rice pudding flavoured with star anise and Duncan goes for the crème brulee with roasted plums. Fleur’s food is what I’d call “down- home gourmet”. The food is fresh, local, generous and unpretentious. The evening was absolutely perfect and worth waiting for all those months.

Lesson on Deer Antlers at the Farm

The next morning we chat to John and Barbara about New Zealand politics, their children and grandchildren and our travels. John pulls his old flat bed truck around to take us on a quick tour of his deer farm. We sit on an old sofa in the open flat bed of the truck, covered with an old rug and bundled in our warmest gear as it has begun to rain. We see newly born fawns hidden by  hinds (does) in the paddocks in addition to stags and hinds. John raises the stags for the “velvet” on their antlers which is bottled and sold to Asians who take it as a health booster. He races us back to the farmhouse as it is raining rather hard and after saying our goodbyes, we are on our way to Invercargill.
Click Below to See Map:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=Moeraki+Boulders,+Oamaru,+New+Zealand&hl=en&ll=-45.336702,170.859375&spn=25.528027,56.513672&sll=-45.77374,169.094368&sspn=3.164932,7.064209&vpsrc=6&hq=Moeraki+Boulders,+Oamaru,+New+Zealand&t=m&z=4