Shoreline Classic · Battered Abalone
Pāua Fritters
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Wolfgang K / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Recreational gatherers must free-dive or pick pāua at low tide — using scuba gear to take it is banned — and each one must meet a minimum legal size.
Pāua — a large native abalone — is minced and mixed into a thick batter with egg and breadcrumbs, then fried into a dense, chewy fritter with a distinct briny, iron-rich flavour. Kaikōura's seafood caravans and shopfronts sell them alongside crayfish and blue cod as a cheaper way to try the region's shellfish.
Why it's made this way: Pāua clings to rocks along Kaikōura's exposed coastline, and gathering it by hand has long been a local pastime; the fishery was closed for several years after the 2016 earthquake lifted the shoreline and reopened under strict limits.
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