Chelsea Winter's big move to Tauranga

Celebrity chef Chelsea Winter has moved to Mount Maunganui.

Celebrity chef Chelsea Winter is trading in the big smoke for beach bonfires and backyard barbecues.

The MasterChef golden girl has moved from Auckland to set up home in Mount Maunganui, calling her new home, "a dream come true".

Winter and her husband of four years, businessman and yachtie Mark Bullot, have moved from their Auckland townhouse to one of the Mount's most prestigious streets, near one of the most desirable strips of Mount beach, where houses boast multimillion-dollar price tags.

Winter, 33, said recently in Next Magazine that they would like to start a family.

Winter, winner of MasterChef New Zealand's third season, posted the news on her Instagram page to her 51,000 followers, with a photo of the beach and the words: "Feeling incredibly grateful to finally call this magical place my home.
"My dream has come true, good and proper."

View this post on Instagram

Feeling incredibly grateful to finally call this magical place my home. My dream has come true, good and proper.

A post shared by Chelsea Winter (@chelseawinter) on Feb 14, 2018 at 2:14pm PST

Residents and local businesses replied welcoming the kitchen star to the Bay, with many extolling the virtues of the region saying "welcome to paradise" ; "best place to live".

Winter already has Bay connections, with her father Mark Winter living on Marine Parade in the Mount.

Her brother Simon and sister Dana and their families also live in the Bay.

Back in 2014 when Winter launched her second book of recipes, Everyday Delicious, she told the Bay of Plenty Times she had dreams of opening a restaurant here one day saying then, "Since most of my family is down here, it would definitely be the place where I would do it."

Winter grew up a farm girl in both Hamilton and Kumeu, but said recently when she launched her fifth book Eat, that she was the "ultimate beach baby, having spent her childhood summers between Great Barrier Island, Raglan and Mount Maunganui".

Since MasterChef New Zealand in June 2012, Winter has won the hearts of thousands of fans, many of them following her on social media, with 370,000 Facebook followers.