"I like to let the ingredients speak for themselves, " he says, and they do: Aoraki salmon from glacial waters, Cardrona Merino lamb, vegetables grown in his garden ("those beets were in the ground a few hours ago, " he told me), and eggs from his 21 chickens.

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The 55-acre South Island parcel sat on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, whose waters come from glacial-melt rivers originating in Fiordland National Park.

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