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The food stalls opened at 11am and across the road at the Port FitzRoy Landing Reserve there were craft stalls, local produce stalls and children’s activities.  Great Barrier Island is renowned for it’s mouthwatering mussels farmed in the clean, clear waters of Port FitzRoy and they were freshly harvested for the Mussel Fest where visitors sampled them au naturel, smoked or as the special ingredient in chowder, kebabs, fritters and other yummy cuisine. 

Port FitzRoy, with a resident population of about 20, is one of the best natural deep water harbours in New Zealand.  The population swells dramatically in summer when up to 900 boats anchor in the many sheltered bays and coves around its edge.

Photography Tessa Blackett - Photography / Video Production - 021 047 5132 - Reproduced with permission.  COPYRIGHT

Some things maybe you wanted to know about mussels and some things maybe you didn't.

"Hail, happy shell! from heart-ache ever free!"   

So did l8th century poet George Farewell rhapsodize about the mussel.