Coromandel's Pohutukawa Festival something different

Hamish Pilkington cooks up a feed of macadamia scallops on the beach. Picture / Jim Eagles

Read this and eat your heart out. I spent last Saturday sitting on the white sands of Cathedral Cove under a big old pohutukawa tree, eating Whitianga scallops, crumbed with macadamia nuts, and sipping a glass of Crimson, the new pinot noir produced by Ata Rangi as a tribute to the pohutukawa and rata trees.

It's hard to imagine anything more idyllic.

You could possibly do the same if you dived for scallops out in Mercury Bay, crushed a few macadamia nuts into crumbs, picked up a bottle of Crimson from Ata Rangi's winery in the Wairarapa, lugged a heap of cooking gear over the track from Hahei to Cathedral Cove and found yourself a chef to saute the scallops.

Or you could go to this year's Pohutukawa Festival on the Coromandel which begins this Friday.

My visit there last week was sort of a test run of some of the festival highlights.

The walk to Cathedral Cove, for instance, was a taste of the new Coromandel Crimson Trail which will be launched on Sunday.

Project Crimson's and Coromandel Tourism's pamphlet lists 23 of the peninsula's most spectacular stands of pohutukawa and rata and to mark the launch they've organised an official bus tour of the trees.

These are wonderful, gnarly, character-filled old trees, well worth visiting at any time. A week ago their crimson blossoms were emerging, so by festival time they should be a magnificent sight.

As for the scallops, the chef for our gourmet beach meal was Hamish Pilkington, whose real job is marketing manager for Cathedral Cove Macadamias, a role in which he constantly develops new ways of using the nuts, including crumbs for coating fish and scallops.

A member of the worldwide Slow Food organisation, Hamish was keen on hauling a frypan, gas burner and all the fixings over to Cathedral Cove - just the right setting for the food.

We sat on the sand and admired the glorious views of the magnificent stone cathedral and Mercury Bay beyond while sipping a cool TaaKawa beer - brewed in the Rangitikei using kawakawa leaves - as he prepared the ingredients and explained what we would be tasting.

The result was fantastic. The flavour of the macadamia crumbs, some with a hint of chilli, others a touch of lemon, set off the scallops to perfection.

And the Crimson pinot noir was an ideal accompaniment. Ata Rangi is giving part of the proceeds to Project Crimson to use in its work of protecting pohutukawa and rata.

Hamish won't be cooking macadamia scallops at Cathedral Cove during the festival, but he will be in action at the three Saturday concerts: Greg Johnson's at Onemana Reserve this Saturday, the Black Seeds' at Waiomu Reserve on December 3, and Goldenhorse play at the Marina Reserve in Whitianga on December 10.

You can also taste a variation on his macadamia seafood recipes at the Eggscentric Cafe, in Flaxmill Bay, run by musician and former poultry farmer Dave Fowell.

If you'd like to buy some Crimson to go with the seafood it will be on sale at festival events at $28 a bottle.

And, if you're looking for the ideal read between festival events, Philip Simpson's marvellous new book, Pohutukawa & Rata (reviewed on D7), will also be available, and there will be a chance to meet the author.

The pohutukawa will also feature in the arts part of the programmes which ranges from a sculpture symposium in the Eggcentric Cafe to an art garden party at Tararu Cultural centre. Paintings by one of the featured artists, Rachel Olsen from Cooks Beach, appear on the brochures for both the festival and the new Crimson Trail.

A new activity this year will be the Tairua Arts Trail which will feature the work of eight of the Coromandel's top artists on display in three beautiful local houses: Dell Cote, an earthbrick homestay in Tairua, the McCall home, surrounded by pohutukawa trees above Sailor's Grave, and the Fowler home, set in an apple orchard at Hikuai.

Trish Oldham, who came up with the idea of the arts trail, said the aim was to provide an opportunity to see works of art and meet the artists in the informal setting of a home.

"We hope that will allow people to chat more easily than they might on a more formal occasion and it will also allow them to see how the artworks look when displayed in a house rather than a gallery."

The festival also offers the chance to get up close and personal with another national icon, the kiwi.

There will be night safaris at Moehau Kiwi Sanctuary on December 6 and Kuaotunu Kiwi Sanctuary on December 8.

I went for a daytime walk through the Kuaotunu Peninsula where, since 1996, Project Kiwi, the country's first community-based protection programme, has had tremendous success in building up the population of kiwi.

They've got about 300 kiwi able to thrive in their 4100ha sanctuary - most of it private land - thanks to some 800 traps which take out around 60 stoats and weasels and a dozen cats each year.

We saw how well the trapping works when we found a stoat in one trap and a weasel in another ... until the trust's trapping contractor, Vic McLean, admitted with a grin that they came from his deepfreeze.

On a night walk in the sanctuary you'll almost certainly hear several pairs of kiwi calling but you'll be lucky to see one.

However, we were fortunate because the trust's kiwi-monitoring contractor, Nick Gillingham, wanted to check on one of the males to see if he had a new girlfriend.

Half an hour of crashing through thick bush, guided by signals from the kiwi's radio tag and the trained nose of Nick's dog, there he was, a big strong male, but sadly no sign of a girlfriend.

It's quite moving to see or hear kiwis in the wild like this - something impossible in most of the country - because it's a sign that the future is looking brighter for our endangered national symbol.

* Jim Eagles' visit was organised by Tourism Coromandel.


What's where
The Mercury Energy Pohutukawa Festival programme is on the web at www.pohutukawafestival.co.nz. Further information about the Coromandel Peninsula is at www.thecoromandel.com (links to these and all other websites mentioned are provided below).

Events
Information about Project Crimson is at www.projectcrimson.org.nz.
Cathedral Cove Macadamias have an internet shop - including recipe details - at www.cathedralcovemacadamias.co.nz.
You can find out about Project Kiwi on their new website at www.projectkiwi.co.nz or the organisation will have a stall at the big festival day in Whitianga on December 10.
Details of festival diving events are at www.divefestival.co.nz.

Accommodation
Blue Penguin Holiday Homes organises the letting of around 300 holiday homes on the Coromandel, (07) 866 222 or www.bluepenguin.co.nz
Dell Cote Homestay in Tairua is at www.dellcote.com or (07) 864 8142.

Food
There are plenty of good cafes all over the Coromandel Peninsula these days. Try the mussel fritters at Punters Bar and Grill in Tairua or the chicken stuffed with scallops at Omara's in Matarangi.