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“Do you know a good place to find a pie around here?”
I’ve just been handed the keys of my rental car at Queenstown airport, so I’m not expecting much of an answer, but the SIXT staff member’s response is more detailed than the instructions for driving the vehicle. I’d heard pies in New Zealand were good, but my new friend is evangelical.
On my way to Clyde, to cycle three of the Ngā Haerenga – The Great Rides of New Zealand – I’ll now add a detour to Cromwell to stop at Sanga’s Pies, a bakery renowned throughout Otago for hearty offerings such as The Southlander, a combination of corned beef, mustard and peas, or the Holey Smoke, a pie stuffed with tender chunks of New Zealand beef and smoked cheese, each $NZ10 ($8.20). It now makes sense to me that the bakery is located in Cromwell’s industrial quarter: a pie is exactly what you need for lunch if you’ve been on the tools since daylight.
In Australia, sport is the topic that unites all ages and backgrounds. After a few days in the South Island, I suspect pies might be the subject that fuels the national conversation. That’s good for me, because while I don’t know anything about sport, I do know a great pie when I see one.
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We like pies in Australia, but the average bakery here wouldn’t stand a chance in New Zealand. The standard is just too high. “Even the cheap and cheerful pies here are actually really good,” says Dunedin-based photographer Derek Morrison. He should know. In late 2024 he published New Zealand’s Best Gourmet Pies, a book of photographs and stories featuring bakers from all over the country.
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Morrison says his book is now being used like a map, with some readers even regarding the bakeries profiled in it as an unofficial guide to New Zealand. If so, they might end up in some surprising places, he says. “It’s about being somewhere where you might think, ‘Oh, I’d be lucky to get anything to eat out here. But hang on, then, here’s a gourmet pie, and it’s been the best pie I could ever eat’.”
That experience might happen somewhere like Cafe 35 in Tokomaru Bay (population 483) on the North Island’s East Cape. It specialises in paua (abalone), boil up — a Māori stew with meat and vegetables — smoked fish, and pork belly pies ($NZ12). The humble cafe, 90 kilometres north of Gisborne, has become a place people now design their road trip routes around.
I’m doing the same thing in the south. When you’re cycling all day, deciding where to refuel needs careful consideration. As well as Sanga’s, my list includes Jimmy’s Pies in Roxburgh (pies from $NZ4.60) and the Waipiata Pie Co in Maniototo, a favoured rest stop on the Otago Rail Trail even if their heartiest pie, a whopping 500g of lamb shank with a signature bone protruding through the pastry ($NZ10), is an intimidating option.
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Owners Mark and Nikki Button began making pies after they bought the Waipiata Hotel following a cycling holiday in the region. “We had some lamb shanks left over, and thought, ‘Oh well, let’s just chuck them in pastry, because everything tastes pretty good in pastry,’” says Mark. Word got around and the hotel’s pies became a rail trail icon. In 2025 they sold the hotel to focus on the pie business and now supply their handmade goods nationally.
We have our vanilla slice competitions in Australia. In New Zealand, the Bakels Supreme Pie Awards have been highlighting the best baking efforts of New Zealand’s pie makers since 1996. The competition for the pie of the year has raised the profile of pies generally and the bar for all pie makers, says Morrison.
That might also explain why the Pie, Pint and Pinot event has been a fixture of the annual Arrowtown Autumn Festival for well over a decade, and a Most Creative Pie competition, where six South Island bakers showcased local ingredients and unusual flavour combinations, was launched last year. Waipiata Pies took out the 2026 prize with its 480g Rib and Cheek Pie – filled with slow-cooked Maniototo beef short ribs and cheeks in a red wine and stout gravy with caramelised onions ($NZ10).
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In New Zealand, they don’t do pies by half.
Even in the small Clyde supermarket, the oven has an impressive offering. I pick the vegetable curry ($NZ6.70) and eat it on the bench outside in the sun, where a passing local nods and smiles. “I’d stop for a chat,” he says, “but I can see you’re busy.” I want to tell him I’d happily talk, but my mouth is full of pastry.
THE DETAILS
VISIT
Cycling is a popular year-round activity in Otago and three local Great Rides — the Otago Rail Trail, Roxburgh Gorge Trail and Lake Dunstan Trail — all end/start in Clyde, or rent a car and explore via the Central Otago Touring Route. See trailhub.co.nz for a guide to bakeries in Otago.
nzcycletrail.com
centralotagotouringroute.co.nz
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FLY
Virgin, Qantas, Jetstar and Air New Zealand offer flights to Queenstown from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
STAY
Clyde is a charming and convenient base to explore the rail trails and the region. The Olivers Collection includes a brewery, cafe and restaurant and beautifully renovated historic accommodation on the main street. See olivers.co.nz
The writer travelled as a guest of Ngā Haerenga Great Rides of New Zealand.
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Justine Costigan is a Melbourne-based travel and food writer with a soft spot for food markets, mountain villages and the kind of small-town piazza where everyone seems to know everyone. She’s just as happy tracking down Marseille’s best street food as she is cycling through wine country or bathing under at the stars. Follow her on Instagram @justcostiganAdvertisementAdvertisement