Apparently “everyone who has ever been to Queenstown, (the New Zealand one) has had a Fergburger”, so it’s one of those stupid “when in Rome” type of analogies, which generally I hate, but this particular one couldn’t pass. I tried a New Zealand fergburger, which is today’s Friday’s Featured Food!
Fergburger ONLY began in the year 2000. There is only ONE Fergburger outlet in the world, which is situated in the party zone of Queenstown on New Zealand’s South Island.
On route, the obvious food stop of choice was the legendary Fergburger. As expected there was a big queue and everyone was trying to get their hands on a Fergie. We both opted for the traditional option, and by far the most popular item on the menu…a Fergburger. The original. I decided to have cheese on mine for an extra 50 cents, the burger itself is $10, which in the UK is about £5. Tim went for no cheese.
As we waited in the queue, I also noticed they were licenced to sell alcohol and indeed had Tui/Speights on tap. That was odd for a burger shop. Then I got to the front of the queue and blurted out my order to the lady. Only to be greeted by the unexpected charm of “you are so from Belfast aren’t in you?” from the smiling, pretty perky cashier in her own Northern Irish accent. “Em actually, no I’m not, from Bangor, but near enough! Where are you from?” “Antrim Road”, and there you have it – the Northern Irish nomads are getting around the world. And this young lady (with black hair behind the kiosk in that photo) Michaela was serving me in the wonder of Queenstown!! We both remarked on how long since we’d heard a random Northern Irish accent.
I had of course been with Sydney NISC, Owen and Pat in the previous few weeks – but that was planned. Michaela was my first NI accent experience for quite some time, possibly since self pronounced “Derry country girl” Sheree O’Reilly worked with me in PJ Gallagher’s Irish Pub a few months previous.
The wait of 10 minutes was easily passed by admiring the walls, full of memorabilia, burger reports and merchandise from Fergburger. I was order number 98, and sure enough got called up fairly quickly to receive my Fergburger in a white paper bag with the Fergburger logo (presumably that of “Ferg” on it).
It looked every bit the part, a massive burger not dissimilar to one my mate Dave Watson had eaten in Poland in 2005. And I launched into it.
It was lush. A lovely sauce was sandwiched in between the beef (seemingly cooked medium rare), tomato, cheese, lettuce and large bap. Straight away it was worth the $10.50 I paid for it. Me getting tore into the Fergburger. Tim’s arrived soon and we both agreed it was the best burger we had ever had. After that it was down to the pub for a few leisurely jars.
Jonny Blair is a self confessed traveling nomad who founded and blogs at Don’t Stop Living. He sees every day as an adventure. Since leaving behind his home town of Bangor in Northern Ireland ten years ago he has traveled to all seven continents, working his way through various jobs and funding it all with hard work and an appetite for travel. Don’t Stop Living, a lifestyle of travel’ contains over 1,000 stories and tips from his journeys round the globe. He wants to show others how easy it is to travel the world, give them some ideas and encourage them to do the same but most of all he aims to constantly live a lifestyle of travel. He is currently based in Hong Kong and on Twitter @jonnyblair.
