South Australia: Filling up in ocean's pantry

Fishing nets at Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Port Lincoln is known as Australia's seafood capital. And it doesn't disappoint Sarah Ivey.

"Sort of like an orgasm in your mouth."

High praise indeed. The waitress was describing the banana pancakes on the menu at Sarins in the Port Lincoln Hotel. She sells a lot of pancakes.

But at Port Lincoln, one mustn't be distracted from the main fare: the seafood.

This is the seafood capital of Australia and there's something there for every taste and budget.

If oysters are your thing, you can grab a dozen from Coffin Bay and shuck them yourself on the pier for nine bucks.

At the other end of the dollar scale, you've got the King Oysters at Sarins. Known as the Goliath of the Southern Ocean, they cost $112 a pop but you certainly won't be left feeling hungry.

The Fresh Fish Place is a small multi-species fish-processing factory. You can purchase over 50 species on the shop floor, including the infamous King George Whiting which, I might add, goes fairly well battered and thrown in a brown paper bag with a scoop of hot chips. Head to the beach with this little gem and the seagulls won't be the only ones that are jealous.

If you fancy a repeat when you get back home, The Fresh Fish Place also hosts cooking classes designed to cover off every aspect of seafood cookery.

With a small population of merely 14,000, Port Lincoln is a well-serviced and resourced fishing village. If you spend a little time at the wharf, you can watch empty trawlers go out empty and then return fully laden with their catch of the day. Prawns, tuna, kingfish, snapper.

The crab dish on the menu at Delacolline Estate. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Aside from the seafood, the wharf houses 400,000 tonnes of wheat from local farms. Ships move it offshore daily and provide yet another string to Port Lincoln's thriving economic bow.

Speaking of riches, three-time Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva stands on the foreshore in a fine bronzed form.

Tourists pass and take photos, and although locals inform me the horse never stepped a hoof in the town, they claim her all the same.

After a stroll along the waterfront just one more culinary adventure beckoned.

Delacolline Estate supposedly makes the best seafood platters in the area, and it didn't disappoint. We clawed our way through the menu; the crab dish is perhaps not first-date material - being messy and time consuming - but it's stunning.

The highlight was yet to come. Honey and lavender panna cotta is by far the best thing I've ever tasted.

I was tempted to lick the plate.

CHECKLIST

Getting there: Air New Zealand flies non-stop from Auckland to Adelaide, from where local carriers continue to Port Lincoln.

Further information: See southaustralia.co.nz and australia.com.

The writer visited South Australia as a guest of Air New Zealand, Tourism Australia and South Australia Tourism.