The Cook. The Reef. His Wine and his Mother

EWAN MCDONALD gets a taste for the good life, just an hour from the Sky Tower.

Thank heavens for daylight saving. Now, when the 027's wheezed, burped and coughed its way up Queen St, across K'Rd and down Ponsonby Rd toward home, there's still some time left to enjoy an evening before night comes in. Weekends are for escaping John Banks' domain and heading for the hills. Or the beaches. Or, in this case, both, and a bit more besides.

The cook

Chef. Say the word and you think of starched whites, flashing knives, clattering pots and an upmarket restaurant like, oh, Varicks in Herne Bay or perhaps an inner-city hotel such as the Centra (or whatever it's called now). You could also think of Huw Thomas, who's cooked there, done that, and now enjoys the quieter lifestyle of Puhoi with his growing family.

Except for the several nights a week when he drives out to Sandpiper Lodge, on the tidal estuary of the Takatu Peninsula just past Warkworth, to cook for diners and guests. Or the half-dozen Saturday nights each year when Huw and lodge owners Robin and Louise Fischer present a five- or six-course gourmet evening for guests who might be appreciative locals - or who might have driven from Herne Bay or the city.

Taste this: fish consomme, scallop and coriander wonton; smoked chicken, baby leaves, cashews, orange segments, mango dressing and lavash wafer; Moroccan lamb, spinach, feta and cumin seed parcel, oven-dried tomatoes, roast aubergines and hummus, mint yoghurt dressing ... with the waters of the Hauraki Gulf just across the road, this is right on the Pacific rim in more ways than one.

"I like simple, plain, clear flavours," says this hearty Welshman who came to New Zealand in 1984, has worked in some of our leading kitchens and trained more of our young chefs at the Manukau Institute of Technology.

"No more than four or five tastes on the plate. Why play around with the food when the basic ingredients are so good?"

Growing up in the Brecon Beacons, Huw always wanted to be a chef, even when his mother threw him out of the kitchen with a "Go and help your father." New Zealand has been the perfect place to rattle his pots and pans ("I wonder if people don't appreciate just what they have here, the fresh, real quality produce all year round?") and the lodge where he and the relaxed, urbane Fischers aim to provide "the sort of place where people feel at home".

Wish, though, that home could always be this tranquil, this peaceful, the food as good as at the retreat that has been the Fischers' life for the past four years. Attuned to their guests' need to escape the bustle, with a talent for putting strangers at their ease, the lodge is set up for weekend getaways, residential and one-day conferences or just casual dining. Its two luxury chalets and main home with nine guest rooms nestles in 2 1/2ha of garden, stream and walks just after the sealed road runs out on the way past vineyards, farms and coastal vistas on the way to one of our least-known regional parks.

The reef

It's the sand. White against the dark-denim sea and the bleached-jeans sky, it scrunches under bare feet in the way that sand hasn't done since you were a kid on those endless summer holidays.

In late winter, the trilogy of reef-rimmed beaches on the northern side of the little peninsula that is Tawharanui, smallest and most northerly of Auckland's regional parks is all but deserted. A couple of surfers walk back over the dunes to their car. Four more strollers, maybe, and us.

Sea breaking over the rocks, the view to the islands (the park is just north of Kawau, the views run to Little Barrier), that sand and the quiet are almost all ours. Auckland, the Sky Tower, the bustle, the motorways are, almost unbelievably, fewer than 60km away. Or, if you prefer, 45 minutes.

This won't change too much in highest summer. Surfers, if the waves are up. Families, perhaps even a wedding. No one fishing: this is a marine sanctuary.

Perhaps it's a shame to mention Tawharanui, to draw attention to it, risk an invasion. But the regional council has made sure that this slice of heaven, and its bird and marine life, is protected.

From Warkworth, drive north along the Leigh road through Matakana, turning off to the Takatu Peninsula and following the signposts. The last 8km is unsealed. The northern side is more popular; the southern is rocky, cliffs falling down to the sea.

Inside the farm park, the road ambles past pasture, native bush, a glassy lagoon. Closer to the beaches are several walking tracks, a discreetly tucked-away track for mountain bikes, an ecology trail that runs along both sides of the peninsula. The campground will take up to 260 people, no caravans or backpacker sites, only 10 campervans are allowed.

Little wonder that as the former regional parks head, Rob Small, left Auckland last year, he named Tawharanui his favourite. "You have always got that sense of getting away from it all. Even with peak crowds you do not get a sense of being in a crowded park. An outstanding landscape, fabulous beaches, a tremendous walk, interesting botany, and it's got a good mix of recreation there as well ... "

The council hopes to turn the cliffs and coast into a "mainland island," taking out rats, stoats and other vermin, running a 3km predator-proof fence across the peninsula, then introducing kiwi, white teal, weka, robins and bellbirds, perhaps even native reptiles.

That's longer term. For this, and many summers to come, it's just us and a few other people on the beach. On the sand.

His wine and his mother

Between courses at the previous night's dinner, Peter Vegar entertained guests with the story - no, this was at the very least, and the way he told it, a saga - of how his great-grandfather Luka Lunjevich was trapped in, then escaped, the wreck of the Elingamite on the Three Kings Islands in his underpants, to plant a vineyard in Kaitaia. And how well it didn't grow.

Five years ago the family swallowed hard and tilled 16.3ha of farmland alongside the main Matakana Valley road into a vineyard. Peter's mum, Pat, is the winemaker - and, four generations on, a row of vines from cuttings from Lunjevich's vineyard is growing in the Matakana Estate.

Swallowed hard because experts insist no one will grow good grapes in the area because it's too humid, too wet, there's not enough sun and, even if you overcame those problems, the soil is wrong.

Uncorking bottles at the tasting room, all terracotta and tiles, polished wooden floors, a cool breeze whispering over the deck high on the hill above the vines, Peter Vegar counters those arguments.

Certainly, his family is doing things right, to judge from the wine columnists, who've used phrases like "creamy-coloured taste sensation" in their less-than-sober descriptions. Varieties include semillon, pinot gris, chardonnay, a cabernet merlot malbec franc blend and, if you're lucky and get there at the right time, a rather remarkable syrah.

The wines range from $22 to $30 and are available only from the cellar or by mail order.

In the past 15 years this area that's not supposed to be able to produce decent wines has become home to 10 vineyards, six offering cellar-door tastings and sales, and more are being established. Some of the better-known labels include Ascension Winery, Heron's Flight, Hyperion Wines and The Antipodean Vineyard, Brick Bay and Mahurangi Estate.

And you needn't drink on an empty stomach. The valley has sprouted a menu of gourmet food producers in the past few years, many exporting. For starters, there's Bio-Marine, at nearby Snells Beach, for an oyster entree before a main course of Southern Paprika's capsicums, grown in computer-controlled greenhouses; Alison Vanherle and Maurice Scown's fancy lettuces; and ostrich or free-range chickens, geese or ducks.

Naturally, you'd serve it on Ant Morris' platters from the long-established Morris and James Tileworks.

Some of Matakana's goodies are so special that New Zealanders can't buy them unless they're visiting Europe or New York, like those capsicums. James Vuletic's Providence wines start at $200 a bottle; the'93 vintage of his special blend of merlot, cabernet franc and malbec has sold for $600 a bottle in Germany. Leigh Fisheries buys fish from 71 independent long-line fishermen, quickly kills them, and flies them to merchants in Europe, California and Japan within 36 hours.

Back home, there's always Huw Thomas' dishes.

Sandpiper Lodge

ARC Parks

Rodney District