Nelson shares its best soul food

It's a tranquil Sunday afternoon down a side road in rural Takaka, where a handful of tourists and locals are snagging lunch from a pond at Anatoki Salmon Farm.

Next to the café, a bloke in gumboots is gutting fish for a local supermarket order, while fragrant smoke billows from a couple of metal boxes. Sheep nibble grass at the pond's edge and two fat kereru squat in a tree next to the carpark.

Girlfriend Jackie and I merrily fling lines toward the water, pretending we are not clueless North Islanders in unsuitable city footwear. But when the salmon bites, we flap harder than the fish and become a shrieking, cliché tangle of line, net, camera and escaping fish until the quick-thinking 11-year-old girl next to us comes to our rescue.

It's entirely thanks to the schoolgirl we are able to leave with our very own, just-caught, incredibly succulent, freshly-smoked salmon.

We take no credit for our other culinary discoveries in the Nelson area, either. Nelsonians in the know generously share their favourite tucked-away foodie finds.

Mapua Boatshed Café (33 Toru St, Mapua) is a case in point. Well off the highway, at the end of a back road and through a campground, finding the café requires both local knowledge and a decent map. This simple eatery sits so close to the water's edge that during spring tides diners have water sloshing over their feet.

Orca whales sometimes play out front and boaties often drop anchor and wade ashore for a meal. We tuck into immaculately fresh polenta- dusted turbot, seared scallops and calamari, washed down with a wonderful Nelson riesling.

"It's like something out of Greece," tipster Woodi Moore tells me. "But beware of the bollocks." English-born Woodi and husband Johnny own Wakefield Quay House, a bed and breakfast specialising in the kind of hospitality that can stretch a stomach and leave guests with a slightly sore head in the morning. It's Woodi who laughingly explains the Mapua café is surrounded by a campground that is "clothing optional" for one month a year.

The Moores are also big on food, from chocolate on the tea tray and fresh asparagus on the breakfast table to marinated salmon with relaxed evening drinks on a deck across the road from Tasman Bay.

Our hosts obligingly deliver us to The Free House, a former church building poked back from the road in a city side street. This fiercely independent establishment takes its name from the fact it has shunned all ties to big-name breweries, focusing on a changing array of craft-brewed beer served from candy-coloured taps.

"Set the beer free" is the motto here. They also offer locally-made cider, wine and spirits and a few bar snacks, while encouraging drinkers to bring their own food or grab a curry from the Indian restaurant across the road. There are takeaway menus in the lobby, along with stacks of old National Geographic magazines and an array of board games.

We also discover the joys of Gianni Pizza, around the corner from the Buddhist retreat centre. The man behind the tiny pizzeria is a former spray painter and farmer who emigrated from the north coast of Italy after visiting New Zealand on holiday. Italy's loss is definitely Nelson's gain.

"You like pecorino? Try this," he says, offering tastes of his favourite Invercargill-made sheep's milk cheese.

Gianni opens for five hours on weekdays, less on weekends and serves only made-from-scratch vegetarian pizza with optional gluten-free bases. On Saturdays, he shops at Nelson's spectacular morning market for the sauce ingredients.

While drizzling Nelson-made extra virgin olive oil over our pizza, Gianni explains Italian food means using the best local ingredients.

Nelson, then, is definitely part-Italian.

DON'T MISS

* The duck entrée at Hopgood's Restaurant, a deserved local favourite and winner of Cuisine magazine's best regional casual dining restaurant award.

* Nelson's Saturday morning market is a must. Find proper potato chips "cooked last week" and freshly ground peanut butter, sample everything from goat cheese to Irish soda bread. Hint: beware of the Schnapp Dragon distillery stall and his generous sample shots.

* The seafood sashimi platter at Sachi Sushi, 19 New St, ph (03) 546 6277. Generous and mouth-meltingly fresh.

* Chocolatiers Kerstiens' boysenberry fudge or boysenberry "divine swirl". Utterly addictive.

Sue flew to Nelson courtesy of Air New Zealand.