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When the phone rings a few days before Christmas, with a British television crew asking if you can take them out on the water to help them snorkel for crayfish and kina for a new TV series to be shown in April….what do you do?  It’s the busiest time of the year at the Deli, we are flat out with weddings and Christmas catering, wondering how we are going to accomplish all the things we had already agreed to do.

Oh, and then they happened to mention that the programme is called ‘Extreme Fishing’ and is hosted by a certain Robson Green, star of ‘Soldier, Soldier’ and ‘Wire in the Blood’.  Well, I guess I might find a spare minute or two in my hectic schedule…..!

And so, on the last Saturday before Christmas I found myself at the Sebel Trinity Wharf, along with three boats with skippers and crew, three cameras (including an underwater one) and associated cameramen, sound equipment and soundman, the director, two safety divers, a paramedic and a chef. Oh yes, and Robson Green – in the flesh – a really great guy.

As our little flotilla headed out through the entrance we realised that there was going to be another star of this show, the Bay of Plenty in all its glory. The weather Gods gave us 35 knots from the northwest and a couple of metres of swell just to add a bit of realism to the ‘extreme’ side of the title.

After an hour or so we anchored around the back side of Motiti (I’d tell you the exact spot if Tony Burt of ‘The Hobbit Fishing Charters’ hadn’t sworn me to secrecy!) The idea was for Robson to catch a crayfish with his bare hands and so, with some trepidation, he zipped up his wetsuit and the snorkelling got underway.  Everyone was tense, if Robson didn’t catch a cray himself the day would be a bust. Not to worry, the combination of Robson’s enthusiasm and the Bay of Plenty’s abundance saved the day. A couple of hours later, with 5 crays in the bag, the day was already a huge success.

Just time for one last dive and a chance to put Robson well out of his comfort zone, this time snorkelling for Kina and then eating them fresh out of the water and raw…not something that an actor from the north of England will ever have done before, as you can tell from the look on his face!

With the wet side of the filming complete we were ready to do the good stuff and fire up the barbeque on the second boat. When a product is as fresh as this, there’s not much a chef needs to do to make it taste any better. I had brought along with me an easy Hollandaise sauce, made earlier in the food processor at the Deli, as well as my own Asian spice infused avocado oil and some Horopito to sprinkle on top to give it some ethnicity.  Although I wanted to keep the dish as simple as possible, I also wanted to create a ‘Kiwi’ difference from the other programmes the crew had filmed in Canada and the USA.  So I simply cut the crayfish in half, drizzled the Asian inspired oil into the half shell and seared them on a hot barbeque with the shell protecting the flesh from the aggressive flame. Served on a bed of rocket, picked fresh from my garden that morning, and a bowl of Pikopiko Hollandaise – fantastic!

Now the moment of truth, the camera rolls capturing the enjoyment of every mouthful, what can be better than fresh crayfish eaten with your fingers in a secluded anchorage accompanied by two wonderful local wines: Emeny Road Chardonnay and Steve Bird’s Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc – matchless combinations, enhancing the delicacy and quality of the seafood.  As we sit licking our fingers, protected by Motiti from the increasing wind and warmed by the late afternoon sun, there was no other place on earth any of us would rather be.

Before hauling the anchors and braving the wind we toasted the day with some ice cold Deinlein Lemon-cello, another fantastic Bay product produced locally up in the Minden Hills in Te Puna, and some of my renowned ‘Avocado Chocolate Truffles, made with 70% cocoa solids chocolate, locally grown avocados and a little Grove Avocado Oil.

With just enough light left for our bouncy trip home, our day was done.  The British star and his television crew came to the Bay to do a job but leave with the knowledge that they have only scratched the surface of the most perfect place on earth. So who was the star of this day?  Was it Robson Green the actor and celebrity?  Tony Burt the skipper, diver and all round good Kiwi bloke?  Or Peter Blakeway, the opinionated, award-winning chef?  Well actually the real star of this show was The Bay of Plenty who showed her beauty, her bounty and a little bit of attitude!