\u201cWe used to play rugby together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy cousin worked with his sister.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been eating his pies for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of my favourite Kiwi traits.<\/p>\n
We can find that one-degree of separation to just about anyone who\u2019s had a bit of success.<\/p>\n
And pie success? That\u2019s worth signing up to Ancestry.com just to see if there\u2019s a family link somewhere.<\/p>\n
And maybe it\u2019s that pie prestige that\u2019s always made me think of the Pie Awards as New Zealand\u2019s version of the Oscars.<\/p>\n
For one night, the spotlight shines on the stars of the baking industry. <\/p>\n
Bakers arrive trying not to look nervous, despite secretly having an acceptance speech tucked away just in case.<\/p>\n
Friends and family gather hoping their local bakery gets a mention. <\/p>\n
There are favourites, there are dark horses and, just like every great awards night, there are always a few surprises.<\/p>\n
Somewhere in that room is a baker who\u2019s spent years getting up at ridiculous o\u2019clock every morning, obsessing over pastry, perfecting fillings and wondering if anyone notices the little things.<\/p>\n
Then they hear their bakery called out … and we discover this year\u2019s Peter Jackson of pastry.<\/p>\n
But unlike Hollywood, where the excitement fades almost as quickly as the after-party hangover, the Pie Awards are just the beginning.<\/p>\n
The first bite at pie fame.<\/p>\n
The winners are announced, social media fills with congratulations and pie pics, every town insists its local bakery was robbed, and before long someone says those nine dangerous words.<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently the best pie in New Zealand is in …\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
The plans for your weekend have just changed.<\/p>\n
Suddenly you\u2019re heading off on a road trip because if a group of judges reckon a bakery in the middle of nowhere has produced the best pie in the country, then surely it\u2019s worth finding out whether it\u2019s really pastry perfection … or whether Nana\u2019s bacon and egg pie is still the undisputed champion.<\/p>\n
And I love that about us.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll happily take the long way home for a pie.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll drive past three perfectly good bakeries because someone we trust reckons there\u2019s a better one just up the road.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll stand in a queue for 20 minutes, finally take that first bite, nod knowingly and say something completely ridiculous like, \u201cThe pastry\u2019s excellent, but I reckon it could\u2019ve handled another touch of pepper\u201d.<\/p>\n
For a few minutes we all become the pie version of wine critics.<\/p>\n
But instead of discussing notes of blackcurrant and hints of oak, we\u2019re analysing gravy consistency and whether the cheese has achieved the perfect level of melt.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, nobody has to swirl a mouthful of mince around before spitting it into a silver tasting bucket.<\/p>\n
This got me thinking.<\/p>\n
France has wine trails.<\/p>\n
Scotland has whisky trails.<\/p>\n
America has Route 66.<\/p>\n
Maybe we\u2019ve been underselling one of New Zealand\u2019s greatest tourism opportunities.<\/p>\n
New Zealand should have a Pie Trail. (Working title. I\u2019m open to suggestions.)<\/p>\n
The funny thing is, I don\u2019t think anyone would have to convince us.<\/p>\n
We already do it.<\/p>\n
Every Kiwi has that bakery they\u2019d tell you to stop at.<\/p>\n
Every family have a favourite pie that somehow tastes even better because you had to drive an extra half hour to get it.<\/p>\n
All we\u2019d really be doing is joining the dots.<\/p>\n
But the idea can be bigger. I remember back in the 1990s every town seemed desperate to have a slogan.<\/p>\n
Absolutely Positively Wellington.<\/p>\n
Hamilton. More Than You Expect.<\/p>\n
Somewhere, a creative wearing black-rimmed glasses still considers that the best day\u2019s work of their career.<\/p>\n
There were dozens of them.<\/p>\n
It was all about local pride.<\/p>\n
Maybe it\u2019s time we reheated that local pride and wrapped it in pastry instead of words.<\/p>\n
Every town has its own pie.<\/p>\n
The Invercargill \u201cCheese Roll\u201d Pie.<\/p>\n
Everyone will be rolling into town for one.<\/p>\n
The Hamilton \u201cFog\u201d Pie.<\/p>\n
Its contents would be a myst-ery, but you know there\u2019s a splash of Waikato Draught in there.<\/p>\n
The Auckland \u201cHousing Market\u201d Pie.<\/p>\n
Packed with in-fill and the price has skyrocketed to $18 since you ordered it.<\/p>\n
The Wellington \u201cBureaucrat\u201d Pie.<\/p>\n
Seventeen layers of pastry, very little meat, and you\u2019ll need approval from three different departments before you can eat it.<\/p>\n
And Central Otago would undoubtedly produce a slow-cooked lamb and pinot noir pie that costs more than you\u2019d planned on spending but somehow still feels worth every dollar.<\/p>\n
Before long, every road trip would become a quest worthy of Middle Earth.<\/p>\n
Not for the One Ring … but for the one pie to rule them all.<\/p>\n
Motorhomes of tourists and motor home association members would crawl around the country like giant road slugs, ticking off pies instead of wineries.<\/p>\n
Families would argue over which pie, I mean town, would be the next stop.<\/p>\n
Which brings me to this.<\/p>\n
Some young tech genius sitting in a co-working space somewhere, wearing a black T-shirt and building the next billion-dollar app, needs to forget dating apps for five minutes and invent Pie Maps.<\/p>\n
It would become the Kiwi version of Google Maps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 500 metres, continue straight for New Zealand\u2019s best steak and cheese.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that is the end of the road for this article, so finally, congratulations to this year\u2019s winners of the Bakels Supreme Pie Awards.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve reminded us that the humble pie is more than something we grab on the way to work.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s part of every road trip, every smoko break and every small town worth pulling over for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe used to play rugby together.\u201d \u201cMy cousin worked with his sister.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve been eating his pies for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563061,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8831,10779,276883,21935,21934,305,5511,9812,117,111,43,139,69,5908,70012,30246,4129,4276,33447,80],"class_list":["post-563060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-an","tag-awards","tag-bakels","tag-dwight","tag-glenn","tag-have","tag-just","tag-needs","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-official","tag-pie","tag-supreme","tag-trail","tag-why","tag-wrapped","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}