Mizone's 'Wild Places Challenge'

As part of the Bluff to Cape Reinga multi sport event we served a full dinner for 90 competitors at the head of Lake Sumner. We traveled by Unimog for 40 minutes to Lake Shepherd.. We fed 60 horse riders for a week while they traveled from the Kekerengu to the Clarence Reserve. We traveled up the Clarence River, some 50 kilometers west of the seaward Kaikoura ranges. We have catered for seven other remote horse treks but this was the most challenging and beautiful.

Gavin has led the catering team at the Convergence festival at Loburn for the last 6 years. This event is not a commercial event but it is notable for the fact that all food is vegetarian and is 90 % organic. On average it lasts for 7 days and has 350 to 400 guests. 

We catered for 160 Ngai Tahu guests in a marquee which we supplied and erected in a valley 3 kilometers back down the road from Mt Cook Village

Lovely Grub Teams with High Profile Car Maker - Hyundai

Lovely Grub has paired with Hyundai over the last three years to provide their corporate catering at the South Island Field Days. It has provided food, expresso coffee and other drinks at their VIP area.

In 2015 we were with them at the new Kirwee site and the following year we went to Waimumu, just out of Gore. The last SIFD field days were again at Kirwee and were notable for the mud the enveloped the site after the recent heavy rain. It was a major trial even getting to the site let alone service it. Our kitchen truck and trailer had to be towed 400 meters in to site from the main road by the green tally loader.

It’s so much fun working for Hyundai when the sell yet another car. The customer gets to ring the bell and everyone in the site cheers.  Then we have some more entertaining to do.

Other Field Day Work for 2017

Apart from Hyundai we had Dow Agro Science, GEA Farm Technology, Fonterra and Balance Agri Nutrients to cater for in the mud. Travel inside the ground was either by 4 x 4 or walking - which was gumboots only.

Other Catering at the Same Time

During this busy period Lovely Grub had another team up at Cambridge in the North Island catering for 200 rowers attending the Maadi Cup. It was a busy week for all the staff but they coped extremely well with all clients being very happy with their service. Thanks guys.

Maadi Cup Parade 2014

MAADI CUP was once again held in Twizel at Lake Ruatanawha, stunning weather blessed the event with keen and hungry competitors fronting at the buffet with stories of the days racing and the rivalry from battling teams kept us on our toes for the week.

The procession marched past the High Country Lodge with much merriment and chanting by competing teams keen to outdo each other both on and off the water. Finals day arrived and extra food in hand the teams battled for the beloved Maadi Cup with Hamilton Boys being the victor.

Moral to the story eat your greens all week and be a winner at the end.

Saturday 15th March saw the competitors in the amazing and challenging Godzone multisport adventure race come together in Kaikoura for the awards dinner. They had just completed a gruelling week of sleepless nights battling weather and winds in the mountain ranges and on the sea around Kaikoura. The coastline is spectacular, rugged and very unforgiving

Each team must comprise of one woman and three men, who, with tired bodies, blistered feet and screaming muscles crossed the finish line to enjoy hot food, a cold Moa beer and a welcome rest and leg rub.

The prize giving dinner and award ceremony were held at the memorial hall in Kaikoura. Lovely Grub provided a carb packed, tasty and very substantial dinner buffet for hungry weary competitors. Our theme was kiwiana. For dessert we decided on a small tub of Deep South ice cream, a different flavoured baby lamington, shortcake in miniature form, kiwi fruit puffs and our beloved and tricky-to-catch chocolate fish - also in miniature form.

There were smiles all around as people took this treasure trove to devour, many coming back for seconds. as if back to their naughty days of years gone by.

The winning team of Seagate was replicated this year, so our congratulations go to them for all the dedication and hard work that goes into competing in a prestigious event attracting 30% overseas entries.

Once again we have shown our true dedication to location catering by providing nutritious and fuelling food for competitors in this specialist adventure racing situation. Special thanks go to Anna Bastion and her team for working with us on this occasion.

During February 2014 Lovely Grub had the pleasure of working with Todd Blackadder, Angus Gardiner and all of the staff that go together to make our mighty Canterbury Crusaders Rugby team that we are all so proud of. We had special dietary requirements that we had to work with to produce meals that were punchy with flavours and kept these players in top condition for the battles that were to face them in this coming season.

We also had fun times with the team where we taught them how to make Pavlova’s then they had to replicate them for a team challenge. This ended with a dinner for all the team's families and a judging of pavlovas took place with our function coordinator announcing the winners and the pavlovas being eaten and enjoyed by one and all. This was a productive and enjoyable week.

Read on about the stories behind some of our major catering events this spring:

• Alliance shareholders at the Christchurch Show served 200 lunches per day at the Christchurch Show
• Despite an extreme spring storm, 400 Air New Zealand guests were catered for at two different sites at Christchurch Airport
• Breakfast, lunch and dinner served to 250 French Fest Akaroa participants
• A different birthday party at Steam Scene
• Running a shop for 13 days during the  Canterbury Clay Target Championships
• Location catering in Moores Valley for Wellyfest – the 4 day Wellington Folk Festival

Recently Lovely Grub received an inquiry and subsequently confirmed a function from Denmark. It came through email via our website asking to set up a skype phone meeting. It turns out that the client had eaten with Lovely Grub some 10 years ago and still vividly remembers both the taste and friendly staff at that function. She is bringing some 30 Danes and additional kiwi friends to sample some of New Zealand's best food in a lovely location on Banks Peninsula. MORAL- Good food,nice people leave a long lasting impression.

The Green Party is currently showing up well in the polls. They also choose their caterers well. Lovely Grub completed their second annual Christchurch conference. We did 88 special diets each day plus 2 lunches for 190 guests and 3 dinners for 170 guests. This conference show cases Lovely Grubs ability to cover special dietry requirements with ease.

New Zealand's Governor General, Jerry Mateparae, presents Woman's Premier Single Scull cup to Emma Twigg. Fiona Bourke 2nd Place ( subsequently Woman's World Double Scull gold medalist in Sydney 2013) is the Lovely Grub connection.