Normally, the thought of leaving the house on a Sunday morning is hideous to me. I prefer to make a big pot of coffee, flip through the newspapers and lay around in my pajamas as long as possible. But during my vacation in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand last year, staying in would have meant missing one of my favorite parts of the region, the Sunday Farmers Market at the Hawkes Bay Showgrounds in Hastings.  And that is not something you want to miss whether you are a foodie, a foodie wannabe or just someone who gets hungry from time to time.

First off, they’ve got you covered on the caffeine and breakfast front. Sprinkled in with the vendors are coffee stalls and folks cooking up egg and cheese paninis or other breakfast goodies.  A great way to start is to get yourself some sustenance, park yourself at one of the chairs in the middle of the huge oval of vendors and take it all in –smell the aroma of what’s cooking around you and the fresh ingredients for sale, listen to the busker playing his favorite song,  feel the warmth of the dappled sunshine coming through the surrounding trees, watch the little kids running back and forth during their family’s Sunday morning ritual.  Just be sure to leave room for a vendor’s sample or two or three.

Stomach and senses satiated, go shopping!  Vendors sell everything from local, in-season fruits and veggies, to handmade jams (my mom wishes I had brought her more plum mousse), locally pressed olive and avocado oils (the latter makes the best salad dressing, fyi), cheeses, fresh bread, meats, pasta sauce, you name it.  One purchase of a jar of marinara sauce got me detailed information about which vendor to buy arugula from to have with it (go see that guy over there, not the one over there) and exactly which bread would taste best dipped into it. The woman selling avocados had them arranged in three bowls: ripe to eat today, ripe to eat tomorrow, save until later in the week.  Everything’s local and everything’s fresh. 

We went twice while in Hastings, and I found myself loitering around the smoothie seller for longer than necessary at the end of our second trip. Yes, the smoothies were delicious, but the truth was, I didn’t want to leave. Writing this more than a year later, I still don’t want to leave. You won’t either.

Most important: Be sure to pick up a reusable shopping bag with the Farmers Market logo on it.  It’s a fantastic souvenir (cheap, useful and easy to pack) and you can show it off at your hometown farmers market. Because if you can’t be smug about your travels, why bother going?

Barbara Govednik is a writer, writing coach and communication strategist  who lives in Chicago, but secretly wishes she were a New Zealander. Down Under Endeavours has sent her there twice.