Spring is blooming amid the Auckland hospitality scene and will feature a star chef from Hawaii saying "Aloha" at the Park Hyatt and celebrity chef Josh Emett and wife Helen Cranage opening their first Auckland restaurant together.
The Park Hyatt on Auckland's Viaduct opened on Tuesday - its Captain's Bar has panoramic views of the harbour and city skyline, a luxury spa features a pink Himalayan salt wall and its Presidential Suite is already booked out for the America's Cup.
Jonathan Pasion has worked for the Park Hyatt chain in Maui since 2014 and the owners of the new Auckland hotel brought him over in August last year to be chef de cuisine of its swanky new restaurant, Onemata, which means rich, fertile soil, in te reo.
Before leaving his native Maui for the City of Sails, Pasion was most notably chef de cuisine at Ka'ana Kitchen at the Hyatt chain's Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort.