You may recollect from my post about feijoas that I mentioned an ice cream platter I had enjoyed following a depressing morning in Nelson.

During the course of our trip we had numerous scoops of gelato at all hours of the day. Some memorable, some not so much. Being uncertain exactly what the difference was between gelato and ice cream, I visited Wikipedia, and learned that it relates to ratios of fats and sugars (I suggest having a read if you want the full story).

Most of the ice cream we ate in New Zealand was gelato, or at least was sold as such. It was definitely smoother and softer than the ice cream I was used to in the UK, and extremely delicious for someone who isn’t too fussed about ice cream compared to other desserts.

In case you find yourself in New Zealand craving gelato, therefore, below I’ve listed some info on a few of the outlets we visited.

Option 1
Penguino Gelato Café, Nelson
Home of the infamous platter, where we had nine wonderful scoops of gelato to spoon our way through (pictured above). The flavours on offer were far beyond the mundane, and we chose: feijoa, blackcurrant, raspberry, olive, moccachino, white chocolate and coffee bean, lavender and honey, pumpkinseed and honey, and the flavour that won our vote, mango lassi. Most of these were excellent, with only the raspberry disappointing me as I found it lacking intensity. The olive was bizarre but not unpleasant, and the pumpkinseed and honey had a pleasant nutty taste.

Option 2
Kaffee Eis, Wellington
After blowing most of our money on dinner, we only had a few dollars left – enough to buy a single scoop of ice cream here. The lady behind the counter took pity on our indecision and said we could have two different flavours (same volume, just less of each). We opted for raspberry and ginger nut, with the former tasting strongly of fruit and the latter spookily reminding one of eating a packet of ginger biscuits.

Option 3
Gelato 2U, Napier
I can’t recollect much about here except they had Milo gelato. Given my love of all milky malty things such as Ovaltine, Horlicks and Maltesers, I fell upon it as if it were a long-lost rich relative close to death, and it did not disappoint.

Option 4
Gelatopia, Mount Maunganui (Bayfair Shopping Centre, Cnr Maunganui & Girven Roads)
Unappealingly situated in a shopping centre food court, the lurid pink bubblegum flavour caught my eye, and it tasted as artificial and sickly as any ardent bubblegum fan could desire. That may sound bad, but I quite liked it!