September 1, 2025 • 12 mins
A Kiwi chef is demonstrating that success can be found even in a tough industry.
Ben Bayly owns six restaurants around New Zealand, including Ahi and Aosta, and is set to open a seventh.
Wellington will be getting its first dining experience helmed by Bayly, located in the infamous Wellington Pavillion.
Between his six restaurants and his TV show ‘A New Zealand Food Story’, which has just finished up its fourth season, Bayly lives a busy life. Despite this, the work isn’t wearing him thin.
“I have this sense of enthusiasm that I can’t extinguish,” he told Mike Hosking.
For Bayly, working in hospitality is less of a job and more of a lifestyle, answering calls, emails, and setting up bookings even on the weekends.
“I love that stuff.”
“There’s nothing better than putting a smile on someone’s face,” Bayly said.
“What other job do you walk out at the end of the day and every single customer said, ‘wow, that was amazing, thank you so much.’”
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time for catch up with one of the country's best
hospital operators and all around food hero. Ben Bailey owned
six restaurants these days. A seventh is a great story
and we'll come to that. Also as television show, if
you've been watching it in New Zealand, Food Stories just
wrapped its fourth season. So but to cover and Ben
baders back.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's good to see you, same here, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
The food story was the stone Fruit in Central Otago.
We like that, isn't it amazing? It's just it's well class.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You know. Did you see the Forest Lodge orchard. The
Elecgend cherry is a very first electric farm in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, Mike, He's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Mike hates me. Mike, Mike loves me and he hates
me well because we've got this electricity thing going on.
I'm a sort of a I'm not as enamored with
evs as he is. And he wants to the whole
world electric and so he writes to me on a
regular basis. But when it comes to cherries, nobody does
it better than he does.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
That's right. And you know the cool thing about this
is that I've never seen a cherry chair and that
actually give birth cherries. It was my first time plucking
it cherry off the tree and that sounds weird because
New Zealand grows the best cherries in the world and
when you see the cherries you can purchase from Forest
Ladge orchard or electric cherries. They want a big balanced
farm environment awards as well, they won every Bloody award.
(01:13):
You actually get export cherries in your home, so if
you buy cherries from a supermarket, they're the tiny, little
kind of B grade ones and so ordering from him.
That was really my first experience as a New Zealander
in New Zealand eating an export cherry and this big
you can't really see, but they're like thirty two to
thirty six centimeters millimeters.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
The the interesting about you see. High Peak Station was
one of my favorites as well, because I can't work
out whether it's just the high station where I'm from
Canderbur anyway. I find looking at those sort of places
actually quite emotional.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, and do you absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Because there's something it's so big. What they do at
a place like that is it's a significant business, isn't
It's not just some sheep running away? You know, hundreds
of hectares away.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
It's a story about farmers diversifying. And if you look
at that family, who are just wonderful human beings. To
be honest, how do you Especially when farms pass on
through the generations, they often get divided up or sold.
And so the father who sadly passed away wanted the
whole family to live there together and to work it out.
(02:21):
So you've got one person running the farming element, then
you've got the terrorism element, and then you've got the
honey element. So so much land, ten thousand acres, you know,
and right at the foothills of Mount Hart and so
I mean you're just as a New Zealander getting access
to that high country is phenomenal and in fact it's
sort of like if I wasn't a chef, that's what
(02:42):
I'd like to do. So for me, that's emotional.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Do you has this worked for you? What was your
purpose of because I think I'm correct and saying tell
me if I'm telling tales here, But this was self funded,
wasn't it. This was sort of a gift from you
to the country.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
To Yeah, we're fully self funded and we do sponsors
like Balanced Farm Environment Awards. Without those guys, we wouldn't
be able to make the show, So we don't get
any money from New Zealand on air or anything like that.
For me, it's a couple of things, like as a chef,
it's my responsibility to get out there and make sure
I know what the farmers having for breakfast, let alone
how they've grown the animals. And you've got to find
(03:19):
out like what's good out there. There's you know, you
go to the supermarket and you kind of don't know
the story of food. And when you go on the
farm where you go out on a boat and you
hear the stories and you hear how hard it is,
you have a new respect. That is the beginning of
the creative process for coming up with a dish. Like
(03:40):
there's just this natural process that goes on in my brain,
like you know, I want to create a dish from
these ingredients and I want to buy direct from these people.
So there's that process, and then there's a whole New
Zealand ink story where if we tell our food story better,
we can sell our products for more, especially when it
comes to export. I think we're hiding this story too
(04:01):
much in New Zealand. And we want to uncover and
see the soldier of the earth. Kiwis who are doing just.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Doing phenomenal autistic stories? Are you running yourself too thin
at the moment? Six restaurants? And when I happened to
be an h couple of months ago, you were there
and you look like you were doing something. That's like
you weren't wandering around am So how do you do that?
Plus your television? Plus the seventh restaurant?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It's like for me, I feel like I've just started
out in my career and I just feel like I'm
a commie chef, just started out from culinary school or so.
I have the sense of enthusiasm that I that I
can't can't extinguish. I get a lot of I get
a lot of pride and value out of seeing other
(04:46):
people sort of rise up, employees or staff members rise
up through the ranks, and I'm constantly replacing myself and
giving a pathway to those staff members to be able
to level up. I mean, I'm just a stepping stone
for everyone that works out there restaurants. So my job
is to make sure that they go on to do.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So quick health check on the hospital industry, which has
so many headlines. If you want to in this current
environment in New Zealand, and can you do well if
you want to?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Absolutely? I mean you've got to love what you do, right,
And I don't have a job. Hospitality is a lifestyle business.
I work on the weekends. I answer emails and take calls.
Someone will text me, I'll make a booking and I
love that stuff. You know, it's really it's a noble
thing to serve someone. Someone walks in the restaurant, you
look at them and you go, I wonder what you need.
(05:35):
And there's nothing better than putting a smile on someone's face,
you know, when people leave, like say, ah, we will
do one hundred covers a night. I get one hundred
thank you. Like what other job do you walk out
at the end of the day and every single customer said, Wow,
that was amazing, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That's so true and it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Industry A it's hard. Yeah, sure, every job's hard, but
that for me is it really fills my carp And
so you talk about big spread and people go, oh,
you can't be every at once. Well, I don't need
to be real ever at once. I want to do
it like this. I mean, I could stay at one
restaurant and just cook every day, but I love the
(06:12):
sense of adventure, and that's there's nothing better than cruising
around and pretend you're working.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
That's the truth. I've made a living out of it.
Is there another series in the New Zealand story?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Do we know? Yeah? We started already there. Yes, so
we're going to go. We're doing a pop up up
in China, so I sort of want to see in
Shanghai for the CIOE, the big International Import Expo in
Shanghai November, and you know, it's just sort of seeing
where our food goes past New Zealand. I find that
fascinating as well, and seeing who's exporting, what they're doing,
how the story has been told to the world. So
(06:46):
that's going to be fun. We're doing a week in
Shanghai at w Hotel fourth to the eighth of November,
so that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Brilliant stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
The seventh restaurant is at the What I would know
is the Rotunda, Yes, Wellington, Yes, Oriental Parade, Yes, prime
real estate, waterfront on the waterfront. Yeah, it's called the Pavilion.
It has been empty for twelve years. That's a disgrace
in itself, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah? And so how's this come together?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, I mean, twelve years empty of waterfront building like that,
it's kind of a symbol of Wellington. I mean I
love Wellington for a start. I've always loved going down there,
had family down there, and so when the opportunity came up,
I just flew down and checked out the building and
just fell in love with it and met the developer,
David love Bridge from Watson Group and then Rod Drew's
one of the investors who as zero as in zero yes.
(07:38):
So these guys are essentially doing a service to community.
They're spending the money, their own money to fix this building,
to get it ready to have a venue in it,
which in itself is millions of dollars.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So right, so that's what it needed. Because my understanding
is that you guys aren't the first to have a
look at it or a crack at it. But the
problem was the dosh.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah exactly. I mean, one thing's for sure in the
next sort of well, you know, there's going to be
more earthquakes in New Zealand, right and Wellington's due. So
that's a big thing. Getting at earthquake strengthen is a
big Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So they've got the money, you've got the expertise. How
did you get roped into it? They just said do
you want to?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah? I guess once a week someone calls me up
and asks me to buy their restaurant and they think
it's a brilliant idea. And so that's what happened in
this in this case. And but I went down there
and found in love of the building and then got
along really great with David and the team down there,
and and so that was sort of the process. And
you've got to be super careful getting into business with people,
(08:33):
and you know you sometimes you just click and you've
got to go with your gut. And all these things
sort of sort of played out over the last sort
of since the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And then that I, without getting too political, did you
deal with the council? And how was it?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Poor David had two Yes, but they've been good and
they just don't have the money to fix it. So
it's got to come, you know, from.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
From So there's a mix of business and philanthropy in
that sense.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
So my view is one hundred percent that's the case.
I don't think it's a good business. Is a decision
to fix this building. I mean they're doing it for
the community, I believe.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So you're in that windoes all this happen.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
By the way, I reckon it will open sort of.
We're hoping for October each year. Okay, yeah, and I'm excited.
You know, we've got Garage Project involved and they're part
of the sort of cultural fabric of Wellington. So it's
been amazing working with with that team. That one of
the most amazing beverage companies in New Zealand. Seeing the
alchemy they make one hundred new beers a year, so
that's really cool. So there's some really good centergies there
(09:30):
between food and.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
In some trouble the other day, I see I've not
tasted as zero alcohol beer that I can. I just
don't like it. There's something about it's just have you
got one? Have you tasted one? Is out there?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah? Not zero zero tiny percent? So their Garage Project.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Five or six percent something like that, just a little yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I think it's point five tiny is really good from
Garage Project beer beer from Sawmal.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So you you argue they're good beers and you can.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, I mean the drinkable.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You go.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I mean, I mean those beers are good. Yeah, I
mean you drink them. And I think when you drink
zero beers or lower it, very very low alcohol beers
and you're at a party or whatever, there's some sort
of sort of placebo effect.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Where you're just happy.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
And you kind of I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
What I like about you is that because we talk
about the economy a lot in this program and it
affects everybody, is that you don't seem affected by the
economy and you just do what you do. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Well, I'm kind of nonchalant about it because you can't
change it, and we are. Restaurants are a great barometer
of the economy. Just christ why spin right? So with
some of the I don't know, maybe people don't buy
a new car and they don't go out for dinner.
So you know, second quarter of this year we saw
a huge drop because the economy was going backwards and
(10:49):
tourism dropped. So when those two things combine, then it
really can affect restaurants. We had an amazing Christmas, a
really good first quarter, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
That really are you seeing some life now in Q three,
as they say.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
In Q three, Yes, I mean it's really dramatically picked up.
There's been some great activations in Auckland with Auckland Restaurant
Month and things like that, and corporates are sort of
spending a bit a little bit more money.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
What about your entire empire around the country you were
a half dozen.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, yeah, you know, if I'm in Queenstown, you're in Queenstown.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
You can't go wrong in Queenstown, can you.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well you can. There's a saying you can sell shit
sandwiches in Queenstown and make money, so apparently, yeah, I
hate but I don't live by that, just so you know.
But yeah, I mean I think when you know you've
got summer and winter season and then you've got two
shoulder seasons. Some years those shoulder seasons are really small
(11:42):
and some years are really long, like last one, for example,
we didn't have many Australians come over for a ski
and then this year a lot of Australians, So you know,
it swings.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It swings around about. Always good to see mate, go well, well,
thank you. We'll talk close to the time of the
Wellington operation. Thanks Mane Ben Bailey for more.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
From the Mic Asking Breakfast. Listen live to News Talks
it B from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
Time for catch up with one of the country's best
hospital operators and all around food hero. Ben Bailey owned
six restaurants these days. A seventh is a great story
and we'll come to that. Also as television show, if
you've been watching it in New Zealand, Food Stories just
wrapped its fourth season. So but to cover and Ben
baders back.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
It's good to see you, same here, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
The food story was the stone Fruit in Central Otago.
We like that, isn't it amazing? It's just it's well class.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
You know. Did you see the Forest Lodge orchard. The
Elecgend cherry is a very first electric farm in New Zealand.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's Mike.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, Mike, He's amazing.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Mike hates me. Mike, Mike loves me and he hates
me well because we've got this electricity thing going on.
I'm a sort of a I'm not as enamored with
evs as he is. And he wants to the whole
world electric and so he writes to me on a
regular basis. But when it comes to cherries, nobody does
it better than he does.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
That's right. And you know the cool thing about this
is that I've never seen a cherry chair and that
actually give birth cherries. It was my first time plucking
it cherry off the tree and that sounds weird because
New Zealand grows the best cherries in the world and
when you see the cherries you can purchase from Forest
Ladge orchard or electric cherries. They want a big balanced
farm environment awards as well, they won every Bloody award.
(01:13):
You actually get export cherries in your home, so if
you buy cherries from a supermarket, they're the tiny, little
kind of B grade ones and so ordering from him.
That was really my first experience as a New Zealander
in New Zealand eating an export cherry and this big
you can't really see, but they're like thirty two to
thirty six centimeters millimeters.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
The the interesting about you see. High Peak Station was
one of my favorites as well, because I can't work
out whether it's just the high station where I'm from
Canderbur anyway. I find looking at those sort of places
actually quite emotional.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, and do you absolutely.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Because there's something it's so big. What they do at
a place like that is it's a significant business, isn't
It's not just some sheep running away? You know, hundreds
of hectares away.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
It's a story about farmers diversifying. And if you look
at that family, who are just wonderful human beings. To
be honest, how do you Especially when farms pass on
through the generations, they often get divided up or sold.
And so the father who sadly passed away wanted the
whole family to live there together and to work it out.
(02:21):
So you've got one person running the farming element, then
you've got the terrorism element, and then you've got the
honey element. So so much land, ten thousand acres, you know,
and right at the foothills of Mount Hart and so
I mean you're just as a New Zealander getting access
to that high country is phenomenal and in fact it's
sort of like if I wasn't a chef, that's what
(02:42):
I'd like to do. So for me, that's emotional.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Do you has this worked for you? What was your
purpose of because I think I'm correct and saying tell
me if I'm telling tales here, But this was self funded,
wasn't it. This was sort of a gift from you
to the country.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
To Yeah, we're fully self funded and we do sponsors
like Balanced Farm Environment Awards. Without those guys, we wouldn't
be able to make the show, So we don't get
any money from New Zealand on air or anything like that.
For me, it's a couple of things, like as a chef,
it's my responsibility to get out there and make sure
I know what the farmers having for breakfast, let alone
how they've grown the animals. And you've got to find
(03:19):
out like what's good out there. There's you know, you
go to the supermarket and you kind of don't know
the story of food. And when you go on the
farm where you go out on a boat and you
hear the stories and you hear how hard it is,
you have a new respect. That is the beginning of
the creative process for coming up with a dish. Like
(03:40):
there's just this natural process that goes on in my brain,
like you know, I want to create a dish from
these ingredients and I want to buy direct from these people.
So there's that process, and then there's a whole New
Zealand ink story where if we tell our food story better,
we can sell our products for more, especially when it
comes to export. I think we're hiding this story too
(04:01):
much in New Zealand. And we want to uncover and
see the soldier of the earth. Kiwis who are doing just.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
Doing phenomenal autistic stories? Are you running yourself too thin
at the moment? Six restaurants? And when I happened to
be an h couple of months ago, you were there
and you look like you were doing something. That's like
you weren't wandering around am So how do you do that?
Plus your television? Plus the seventh restaurant?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
It's like for me, I feel like I've just started
out in my career and I just feel like I'm
a commie chef, just started out from culinary school or so.
I have the sense of enthusiasm that I that I
can't can't extinguish. I get a lot of I get
a lot of pride and value out of seeing other
(04:46):
people sort of rise up, employees or staff members rise
up through the ranks, and I'm constantly replacing myself and
giving a pathway to those staff members to be able
to level up. I mean, I'm just a stepping stone
for everyone that works out there restaurants. So my job
is to make sure that they go on to do.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So quick health check on the hospital industry, which has
so many headlines. If you want to in this current
environment in New Zealand, and can you do well if
you want to?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Absolutely? I mean you've got to love what you do, right,
And I don't have a job. Hospitality is a lifestyle business.
I work on the weekends. I answer emails and take calls.
Someone will text me, I'll make a booking and I
love that stuff. You know, it's really it's a noble
thing to serve someone. Someone walks in the restaurant, you
look at them and you go, I wonder what you need.
(05:35):
And there's nothing better than putting a smile on someone's face,
you know, when people leave, like say, ah, we will
do one hundred covers a night. I get one hundred
thank you. Like what other job do you walk out
at the end of the day and every single customer said, Wow,
that was amazing, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
That's so true and it's really cool.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Industry A it's hard. Yeah, sure, every job's hard, but
that for me is it really fills my carp And
so you talk about big spread and people go, oh,
you can't be every at once. Well, I don't need
to be real ever at once. I want to do
it like this. I mean, I could stay at one
restaurant and just cook every day, but I love the
(06:12):
sense of adventure, and that's there's nothing better than cruising
around and pretend you're working.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
That's the truth. I've made a living out of it.
Is there another series in the New Zealand story?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Do we know? Yeah? We started already there. Yes, so
we're going to go. We're doing a pop up up
in China, so I sort of want to see in
Shanghai for the CIOE, the big International Import Expo in
Shanghai November, and you know, it's just sort of seeing
where our food goes past New Zealand. I find that
fascinating as well, and seeing who's exporting, what they're doing,
how the story has been told to the world. So
(06:46):
that's going to be fun. We're doing a week in
Shanghai at w Hotel fourth to the eighth of November,
so that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Brilliant stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
The seventh restaurant is at the What I would know
is the Rotunda, Yes, Wellington, Yes, Oriental Parade, Yes, prime
real estate, waterfront on the waterfront. Yeah, it's called the Pavilion.
It has been empty for twelve years. That's a disgrace
in itself, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
One hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Yeah? And so how's this come together?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well, I mean, twelve years empty of waterfront building like that,
it's kind of a symbol of Wellington. I mean I
love Wellington for a start. I've always loved going down there,
had family down there, and so when the opportunity came up,
I just flew down and checked out the building and
just fell in love with it and met the developer,
David love Bridge from Watson Group and then Rod Drew's
one of the investors who as zero as in zero yes.
(07:38):
So these guys are essentially doing a service to community.
They're spending the money, their own money to fix this building,
to get it ready to have a venue in it,
which in itself is millions of dollars.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So right, so that's what it needed. Because my understanding
is that you guys aren't the first to have a
look at it or a crack at it. But the
problem was the dosh.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yeah exactly. I mean, one thing's for sure in the
next sort of well, you know, there's going to be
more earthquakes in New Zealand, right and Wellington's due. So
that's a big thing. Getting at earthquake strengthen is a
big Okay.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
So they've got the money, you've got the expertise. How
did you get roped into it? They just said do
you want to?
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah? I guess once a week someone calls me up
and asks me to buy their restaurant and they think
it's a brilliant idea. And so that's what happened in
this in this case. And but I went down there
and found in love of the building and then got
along really great with David and the team down there,
and and so that was sort of the process. And
you've got to be super careful getting into business with people,
(08:33):
and you know you sometimes you just click and you've
got to go with your gut. And all these things
sort of sort of played out over the last sort
of since the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
And then that I, without getting too political, did you
deal with the council? And how was it?
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Poor David had two Yes, but they've been good and
they just don't have the money to fix it. So
it's got to come, you know, from.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
From So there's a mix of business and philanthropy in
that sense.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
So my view is one hundred percent that's the case.
I don't think it's a good business. Is a decision
to fix this building. I mean they're doing it for
the community, I believe.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So you're in that windoes all this happen.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
By the way, I reckon it will open sort of.
We're hoping for October each year. Okay, yeah, and I'm excited.
You know, we've got Garage Project involved and they're part
of the sort of cultural fabric of Wellington. So it's
been amazing working with with that team. That one of
the most amazing beverage companies in New Zealand. Seeing the
alchemy they make one hundred new beers a year, so
that's really cool. So there's some really good centergies there
(09:30):
between food and.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
In some trouble the other day, I see I've not
tasted as zero alcohol beer that I can. I just
don't like it. There's something about it's just have you
got one? Have you tasted one? Is out there?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah? Not zero zero tiny percent? So their Garage Project.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Five or six percent something like that, just a little yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I think it's point five tiny is really good from
Garage Project beer beer from Sawmal.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
So you you argue they're good beers and you can.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah, I mean the drinkable.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You go.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I mean, I mean those beers are good. Yeah, I
mean you drink them. And I think when you drink
zero beers or lower it, very very low alcohol beers
and you're at a party or whatever, there's some sort
of sort of placebo effect.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Where you're just happy.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
And you kind of I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
What I like about you is that because we talk
about the economy a lot in this program and it
affects everybody, is that you don't seem affected by the
economy and you just do what you do. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Well, I'm kind of nonchalant about it because you can't
change it, and we are. Restaurants are a great barometer
of the economy. Just christ why spin right? So with
some of the I don't know, maybe people don't buy
a new car and they don't go out for dinner.
So you know, second quarter of this year we saw
a huge drop because the economy was going backwards and
(10:49):
tourism dropped. So when those two things combine, then it
really can affect restaurants. We had an amazing Christmas, a
really good first quarter, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
That really are you seeing some life now in Q three,
as they say.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
In Q three, Yes, I mean it's really dramatically picked up.
There's been some great activations in Auckland with Auckland Restaurant
Month and things like that, and corporates are sort of
spending a bit a little bit more money.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
What about your entire empire around the country you were
a half dozen.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Well, yeah, you know, if I'm in Queenstown, you're in Queenstown.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
You can't go wrong in Queenstown, can you.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well you can. There's a saying you can sell shit
sandwiches in Queenstown and make money, so apparently, yeah, I
hate but I don't live by that, just so you know.
But yeah, I mean I think when you know you've
got summer and winter season and then you've got two
shoulder seasons. Some years those shoulder seasons are really small
(11:42):
and some years are really long, like last one, for example,
we didn't have many Australians come over for a ski
and then this year a lot of Australians, So you know,
it swings.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It swings around about. Always good to see mate, go well, well,
thank you. We'll talk close to the time of the
Wellington operation. Thanks Mane Ben Bailey for more.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
From the Mic Asking Breakfast. Listen live to News Talks
it B from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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