We had a great tour with a lovely group in Vietnam and even though Vietnam is changing fast, it IS still what it was in lots of ways. The pho beef noodle soup bursting with fresh herbs and sprouts is still eaten everywhere in Hanoi – in the street, at home, in restaurants and it is still one of the best dishes in the world... heaven in a spoon, culture in a sip. We LOVED the wild night time honda street food tour in Hué – holding on for dear life as we raced from munching on the famous ‘banh khoai’ happy crepes to tasting the sweetest pork in Vietnam.

The Tamil Nadu tour in South India in January was fabulous and full of the usual India contrasts – lots of sunshine, amazing 3rd century temples and spicy unique food. Most guests on the tour were returnees and our two newbies were so adorable, it seemed like we had known them forever.

The new Rajasthan tour in November was truly, deeply, madly breath-taking thanks to my fabulous manager Diggi, regular guests who have joined me on previous tours and new ones ready to open their hearts and minds to ten riotous days in my life. We enjoyed wonderful cooking classes full of stunning dishes like spicy peanut chat; okra stuffed with garlic and deep fried sweet rice infused with saffron, rosewater, raisins, pistachios and almonds. All washed down with (drinkable) Indian wine.

I've just completed two slightly fabulous tours in North India ... twenty-two lovely guests, one perfect manager otherwise known as Darling Diggi and three thousand smiles, head shakes, joined hands and namastes from the Indian people. We drove and flew from block printed fabrics and farm visits in Jaipur to beach parties and cooking classes in Goa to mustard fish curry and floating along the Hooghly river in Kolkata to tea leaf pakoras, dancing and fireworks in Darjeeling.  

The Puglia tour was nothing short of stupendous – we sang, we danced, we ate, we drank lots of Susumaniello, we sailed, we swam and we cooked wonderful food. My big discovery on this trip was the mountain sausage from Matera called Pezzente. It is a sausage made from pork, fat, wild fennel, sweet Senese peppers and garlic and is part of the Slow Food Presidium.

The Basque Country seems to have exploded. When I first added this destination to my offerings, no-one had heard of this remarkable land, half in northern Spain, half in south-western France. Now people the world over are flocking there, mostly for the best food in Europe but also for the beauty of the mountains and the sea, the surfing and the unique Basque culture. This year I hosted two Basque Country tours and it seems this destination just makes everyone happy.

The May Marrakech culinary adventure felt extra special for me as it marked 10 years of my Marrakech tour. A decade ago I would never have dreamed my tour company would become what it is today. It started off as a bit of fun and a way to share my love and knowledge of food and travel with others. It was never meant to be a real business, or a proper job... and I feel very fortunate that it almost never feels like one.  

I know it's boring to always be banging on about how sterling my gastronomads are but once again, on my Vietnam tour, they were sterling to a person. Obedience levels were very high, interest in selflessly tasting their way through Hanoi, Hué, Hoi An and Saigon was exemplary and everyone was at one with the universe regarding the heat. They just carried on regardless. We ate fresh spring rolls, happy crepes (banh xeo), bun cha (grilled pork & noodles), pho (beef noodle soup) and lots of nuoc cham (fish sauce dip).

For those of you who follow my Facebook page you'll know this Summer I've been going through my garden shed, trying to thin it out, make it look like less stuff, asking myself if I didn’t remember what was in it, did I really need it? The answer is yes! I did throw some things out but the deeper I delved into the shed, dragging out sealed plastic boxes and looking through them, the more I realised I had a shed full of valuable beautiful clothes, long forgotten.... and too lovely not to share.

Back home in Auckland again and full of the joys of temples in trees, children on knees, flowers with bees and lunch on leaves. It's been hotter here than it was in South India! This year we had no acts of God in the guise of storms, strikes, deaths (not a guest I should add) and bans, mainly because I spent a lot more time praying in the temples. The gastronomads totally got what Tamil Nadu is about and were paragons of time keeping and openness to new experiences.

I've recently returned to New Zealand from India where 14 lovely gastronomads helped me access my inner spice goddess on my tour of Jaipur, Goa, Kolkata and Darjeeling. We block printed our own scarves, received blessings in temples, bejewelled ourselves and gathered vegetables on a farm before learning how to combine them with pomegranates, pistachios and coconut into fabulous Rajasthani batis (deepfried unleaven bread balls). 

Kiwis – this is the time to get on a plane and go down to a river on the Westcoast, make friends with someone up north who has a launch and reacquaint yourself with your Maori cuzzies. Westcoast rivers like the Waiau, in late September when the water is warm and the moon is full, mean whitebait. These heavenly mini-fish spend part of their life cycle in fresh water and part in the sea. Tiny fish hatch in late autumn and are carried along rivers out to sea where they live and grow over the winter. In the late winter and early spring whitebait migrate back up rivers and streams, finally settling and growing in bush covered streams and swamps. 

Honey is an elixir of sex. Flowers use bees in their surreptitious sex dance. They can’t get together and hold hands themselves and sometimes the wind doesn’t prove a very good carrier of pollen so bees do the job. Flowers produce nectar to attract the bees who, while diving into the flower to suck up the sugar, get pollen stuck on their hairy bodies and transfer it to the next flower, thus fertilising it to reproduce. The reason flowers are colourful and beautiful in shape and form is not for your dining-room table, it’s all for the bees – to attract them. Just as in a café, a woman will wear a pretty dress and lipstick to attract the male, flowers do the same thing.

Another Puglia tour has sadly come to an end. The gastronomads started weeping and gnashing their teeth from day two at the terrible thought of leaving Puglia. As soon as they saw Lecce they said, but surely we are in Baroque heaven? Our fabulous manager Ali directed us through sunshine, ancient olive groves, Susumaniello vineyards, sailing on the high seas to Monopoli and wandering around the cave dwellings in Matera. 

‘Chez Bob’ is a very famous restaurant in the Camargue – land of marshes, mosquitoes, pink flamingoes, bulls and white horses. This area is rather romantic and steeped in staunch fusion gypsy/Spanish culture. They have a particular style of cooking which is simple but strong, colourful and uncompromising in its nature. You’re not going to get anything subtle or sophisticated – you’re going to be drinking Pastis and sucking on dark salty/sweet olives. The restaurant was created in 1971 by Bob whose two passions in life were friendship and partying. When he died, Jean-Guy (pictured with Peta) and his wife Josianne from Arles took it over...

Snarlers. They are just one of life’s basic, non-negotiables like lipstick, sex and shelter. The secret to making a good sausage, like a good terrine, is in the perfect combination of meat, fat and salt. I like bangers coarsely not finely minced, they should have a bit of fat, some onions or shallots, maybe some spices and herbs if you want and crispy skins made from gut.

When I’m in France I drive a Peugeot which I lease from Peugeot EuroLease in Auckland.  I have been doing this for years so this is a shameless plug for EuroLease and the lovely Delwyn who is the person you call in Auckland, should you fancy zipping round Europe in a Peugeot of your own. If you're going to be in Europe for any length of time, I honestly can't see why you wouldn't lease – so much more convenient than public transport and so much cheaper than hiring a car, the cars are practically brand new and most of all the service is so fabulous, should you need it.  Think seaside, sunshine, oysters and fast cars!

Keeping in mind that travel doesn’t merely broaden the mind, it makes the mind, my friend Petra and I jumped on the train to see what we could see and eat what we could eat in Barcelona, capitol of Catalonia. We went mad and strolled (dripping with sweat in the heat wave right now) to cooking classes, food tours, fashion tours, cheap tapas bars and expensive starred restaurants.

It’s hard these days to actually know what a vegetable’s true season is, as lots of our food is imported. The best way to find out which vegetables are in season in New Zealand is to go to a farmer’s market because they only sell what they are growing or making themselves. Why bother to eat seasonal food? Because it tastes better if it is eaten in its true season e.g. carrots taste best in autumn, tomatoes taste best in late summer, strawberries taste best at Christmas and all the great vegetables like pumpkin, Brussels sprouts, potatoes, silver beet, swedes, cabbages and onions taste best in winter.