Local food, arts and culture in the Waikato
This post is an overview of some of the great local food, arts and culture in the Waikato.
When I’m visiting a new place, I want to know about local foods, and where I can find them. Also, it adds a special shine to a holiday to experience local performers, festivals and events. This post will help you find what’s happening when you visit.
The Waikato is full of creatives – artists, writers, musicians and performers of all kinds. I’ll cover some of the main places to find art and music in the region, and some of the regular arts festivals.
I’ll also include suggestions for where some of New Zealand’s famous foods can be found.
I’ve been part of the local food and arts communities ever since I came to live in the Waikato. This post comes out of my own experience. For a decade I wrote a local food blog, the Waikato Food Basket, celebrating local food producers in this region.
Local food in the Waikato
The Waikato is one of New Zealand’s famous food producing regions. It’s best known for dairy farms, which produce vast quantities of milk and other dairy products for the global market.
But local food doesn’t just mean cows. There’s a wide variety of food being grown and produced here. You just have to know where to find it. And there are seasonal delicacies – like perfect fresh strawberries.
To find out more, read my post about where to buy local food in the Waikato.
Waikato Farmers’ Markets
The Waikato has two year-round weekly farmers’ markets. They are great places to connect with local producers and to find what’s in season.
The Cambridge Farmers Market takes place on Saturday mornings from 8am to noon, in Victoria Park. On Sundays 8am to 12 noon, there’s the Hamilton Farmers’ Market. It’s mostly indoors, in a barn at Claudelands Park, off Brooklyn Rd.
Seasonal fruit in the Waikato
Blueberries are a great seasonal fruit picking experience. The peat swamp ground of this region suits blueberries well. Local blueberry farms include Monavale Blueberries, near Cambridge, which is a fully certified organic orchard. Their popular restaurant is open year-round. There are several other local blueberry farms including Blueberry Country, Ryburn Gardens, and the Lavender Backyard Garden, which has both lavender and blueberries in season.
Strawberries are another seasonal delicacy. The Kanes are local strawberry growers with a strong reputation for quality. They also sell nashi and kumara in season. The Jersey Girls milk stall at the farmers’ market also sells certified organic strawberries.
Newstead Orchard is a heritage orchard producing apples and plums for local markets – delicious varieties, most of which will never be found in supermarkets.
Oranges and mandarins are grown in the Waikato, especially in Ohinewai, north of Huntly. They’ll be at the markets in mid-winter.
There are local kiwifruit growers, especially in the Karapiro area, growing for export – but I don’t know whether any of the fruit is currently sold locally.
Feijoas are another fruit crop that’s grown for export, especially by Southern Belle Orchard near Matamata. You can find their huge feijoas at the Hamilton Farmers’ Market. But in feijoa season (around Easter) backyard trees are laden with feijoas.
Local cheese makers
Since the Waikato is so famous for dairy farms, it’s not surprising that there are some award-winning local cheese makers. (As well as the big blocks of plain New Zealand cheddar that you’ll find in supermarkets.)
The largest of the local cheese makers is Meyer, a family business making Dutch-style cheeses in their Hamilton factory. You can find a small selection of Meyer cheeses in New World supermarkets. But for the full range, check out the Gouda Cheese shops in Hillcrest and Rototuna.
Another well known boutique cheese maker is Over The Moon, who are based in Tirau. They offer cheese making workshops and tours, as well as selling their cheeses at the local farmers’ markets.
Cilantro is a small company selling fresh goat milk and artisan cheeses, from their Hamilton factory, and a few selected stockists.
The Cheese Barn at Matatoki, on the Thames-Paeroa highway, make certified organic cheeses and yoghurts. They have a shop and café.
Local milk and small dairy farms
There are some small scale family farms with smaller herds (hundreds of cows rather than thousands), producing superb milk for local markets.
Here are two excellent milk suppliers that I highly recommend:
Matamata-based Jersey Girl Organics produce certified organic, A2 full-cream milk. They sell their milk at the Waikato farmers’ markets, and also through some retailers and supermarkets.
Dreamview Creamery, near Raglan, produce both raw and pasteurized milk in glass bottles. Dreamview milk is available at selected retailers, including my local Hamilton East Bin Inn.
Ice cream and gelato
These are two famous Waikato makers of frozen treats:
Duck Island Icecream has its home base in Hamilton East, although they have popular stores throughout New Zealand. The name Duck Island comes from the local nickname for a small island in the Waikato River off Hamilton East. They have a great range of delicious and quirky icecreams, including a good selection of gluten free and dairy free. My husband Matthew is a big fan of their plain vanilla. I enjoy their peppermint chocolate chip, which tastes like real peppermint.
Raglan Gelato is superb European-style gelato. They have a pop-up stall in Raglan in the holiday season, and can also be found at Gourmet in the Gardens in Hamilton Gardens – here’s my post about Hamilton Gardens.
Kawhia Kai Festival
The Kawhia Kai Festival is an annual food event celebrating Maaori food and culture. It takes place at the remote, normally quiet settlement of Kawhia on Waitangi weekend (somewhere around February 6th).
It’s one of the Waikato’s most famous food festivals. It’s low-key and mainly aimed at locals, but it also gets a big thumbs up from Lonely Planet.
It’s where you can find authentic haangi, traditional kaimoana (seafood) including paua, mussels and whitebait. And ika mata, marinated fish, and traditional delicacies like kaanga wai, fermented corn.
Strong recommendation: don’t eat a big breakfast. Save some space!
Local beers and other beverages
The best known of the Waikato craft breweries is Good George, which produces the excellent brews served at Hobbiton – for more, read my post about visiting Hobbiton. There are Good George bars at Frankton and Rototuna and the beverages are available in various other places, including supermarkets and liquor stores.
There are several other local breweries. Brewaucracy has a brewery and taproom in Te Rapa, on the northern side of Hamilton. There’s also Hypnotic, and Bootleg, which is based in the Matangi Dairy Factory.
In Raglan the local craft beer is Workshop Brewing.
Fish and seafood in the Waikato
The best place for locally caught seafood is Raglan Fish, on Raglan Wharf, along Wallis St a couple of blocks out of town. Raglan Fish has excellently fresh fish, much of which has been caught by local boats. There’s a fish restaurant and you can also buy fish to take home to cook. There are also Raglan Fish stalls at Hamilton and Cambridge farmers’ markets.
Kawhia is another place where you can often find locally caught fish, sold from a harbourside truck.
Kawhia Harbour also has oyster farms. The Raglan Fish stall at the farmers’ markets sells Kawhia oysters. (Probably most of them go to upmarket restaurants.)
Green lipped mussels are a famous New Zealand seafood that will always be local, even if you buy them from a supermarket. They’ll almost certainly come from the mussel farms on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Local arts and music in the Waikato
When you’re visiting a new place, it’s great to know about local events. This post will cover some of the well known local arts and music events in Hamilton and Raglan in particular.
When I first came to live in the Waikato I learned about events by word of mouth. They didn’t always get well publicized in local media. These days there are some great “what’s on” newsletters, including the weekly Hello Hamilton newsletter and Creative Waikato’s Things To Do.
Music and events in Hamilton
Hamilton city has a lot of music, art, theatre and other cultural events happening throughout the year.
The new Waikato regional theatre, now called the BNZ Theatre, is on the riverbank in central Hamilton. It opened in January 2026 to general acclaim. The New Zealand Listener even called it “New Zealand’s most beautiful theatre”!
Smaller venues in Hamilton include the Claudelands Arena, the Meteor Theatre, the Clarence St Theatre, and the theatres at the Gallagher Performing Arts Centre at Waikato University. The Riverlea Theatre also hosts smaller scale plays. Smaller venues in central Hamilton for live music include the Nivara Lounge, Last Place and Biddy Mulligans for Celtic music.
To find what’s on, check Hello Hamilton, and also look at the listings and social media of the venues.
Cambridge has frequent concerts and plays, and there are often live arts and music events in other places around the Waikato.
Hamilton also celebrates a film/musical connection, to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The show’s creator, Richard O’Brien, grew up in Hamilton. He is locally recognised with a statue of Riff Raff, the character he plays in the movie, in the main street of Hamilton, near the new BNZ Theatre.
Hamilton Arts Festival is an annual festival featuring music, theatre, comedy, cabaret and more, in magical outdoor settings in Hamilton Gardens and local theatres. It takes place over ten days in late February – early March.
Raglan arts and music
Raglan has a lively arts scene, with regular live music events, small galleries and studios. To find out what’s on in Raglan, check the Raglan information hub here.
One of the annual highlights of the Raglan arts calendar is Raglan Arts Weekend. This is as an open studio arts festival featuring over 60 local artists. It’s held over Labour Weekend in late October. There’s usually a Country and Blues music festival on the same weekend.
The Sculpture Park at Waitakaruru Arboretum
The Sculpture Park is a woodland park featuring a landscape full of artworks. Over three decades a derelict quarry was transformed into one of New Zealand’s largest outdoor art galleries.
There are regular events and exhibitions and workshops – check the website for details.
I’ve taken part in outdoor music events at the park. One time, a chorus of frogs loudly joined our voices from their lilypads!
Wool, fibres and crafts
Fibretron is a big creative event that attracts yarn and fibre enthusiasts from all over the country. It takes place at Mystery Creek, near Hamilton Airport. In 2026 Fibretron is July 26th.
Art shops and art galleries
As well as the Raglan Arts Weekend (see the Raglan section) here are some of the art galleries of the Waikato.
Te Whare Taonga o Waikato Museum & Gallery, in central Hamilton, holds the biennial National Contemporary Art Awards.
Next door to the museum is Arts Post/ Waikato Society of Arts , which has a gallery, gift shop and also has regular classes and exhibitions.
The Morrinsville Art Gallery has regular exhibitions. Other local art galleries are The Mandarin Tree, in Gordonton, and Inspirit Gallery and Studio, in Tamahere.
Stay in touch to find out more
I hope I’ve given you plenty of inspiration for finding out about local food, arts and culture when you’re planning your Waikato travels.
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