• Auckland, New Zealand.

We came to Waiheke to eat seafood for two months. So we were stunned when we got here and found none. Oh sure, a restaurant will have an occasional fish special. And the supermarket has live greenlip mussels—but it´s on the other side of the island.

When we politely decry the situation to locals, we´re fed the same phrases that keep getting repeated around the world: “It´s fished out / fishermen can´t make it anymore / you have to go to______.” Fortunately, that wasn´t the case in Auckland, where we enjoyed several seaworthy meals. And on our way out of town, we headed to the place everyone told us we had to go to: SeaMart, where we scored prawns, a 2-pound crayfish tail, sushi-fresh red-eye tuna, and a big snapper steak. Then we ferried home, fired up the barby, and ate up for lost time.