Win a Trip to the Heilala Vanilla Plantation!

9 August 2012

Win a Trip to the Heilala Vanilla Plantation!

White sand, turquoise sea, blue sky, and Vanilla – the Vava’u Islands in the Kingdom of Tonga are one of the most beautiful locations on the planet and Heilala Vanilla want to take a food service customer to experience this magical world of vanilla in October.

The prize consists of travel for one including airfares and five nights’ accommodation at the Tongan Beach Resort which is walking distance to the Heilala Vanilla plantation or a short ride on the back of the Heilala truck.

To enter the competition, customers simply purchase any product from the Heilala Vanilla Foodservice range from the distributor of their choice. They then need to email a photo of the Heilala Vanilla product in their kitchen along with their contact details to tongatrip@heilalavanilla.co.nz.

Over five glorious days in the Tongan sunshine in October, the winner will be immersed in the humble village life and the Tongan way, appreciating and learning the complex and intricate processes of growing and harvesting vanilla. This trip follows on from Heilala Vanilla’s successful plantation trip with NZ chef Peter Gordon and LA based pastry chef extraordinaire Natasha MacAller in 2010 with a group of NZ foodies.

October is the perfect time to experience the unsurpassed beauty of the Vava’u Islands – one of the 170 archipelago islands in the Polynesian South Pacific. During the month of October thousands of beautiful vanilla flowers will be opening each morning, ripe for hand pollination. The winner will have the opportunity to take part in the hand pollination process and make their mark on a green developing bean.

Remote and truly unspoiled, the waters around Vava’u are crystal clear with a visibility exceeding 100 feet. The competition winner will have the opportunity to put their feet up and enjoy the local beauty that surrounds the island group. The weather promises to be stellar (20-28 degrees Celsius) with the water around 26 degrees Celsius - perfect conditions for swimming, snorkeling and sailing.

The competition closes at midnight 24 September 2012.

About Heilala Vanilla

Heilala Vanilla began as an aid project over 8 years ago, when a Vanilla plantation was established by a NZ family, in partnership with a local family from the village of Utungake in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga. In 2005 the first crop was harvested and brought back to New Zealand, and was snapped up by local chefs.

Since these small beginnings of the first harvest of 40kg of dried Vanilla pods, Heilala Vanilla in 2011 completed a harvest of 3.5 tonne. This has had a significant impact on the local community providing employment and infrastructure.

Products are sold into specialty food retail, fine dining establishments and gourmet food manufacturers. Markets have been established in New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia and Singapore and in the United States.

As a retired NZ dairy farmer, John Ross, together with his son in law Garth Boggiss who has a horticultural background, have built up a vast knowledge of growing this very specialised crop rich in history through meeting and visiting Vanilla growers in many parts of the world (including Tahiti, Reunion Is and Costa Rica) . A plantation in both Tonga and in Tauranga as enabled a complete focus on the intricacies of growing Vanilla.

Heilala Vanilla has a range of award winning 100% Pure Vanilla products, including Vanilla Beans, Vanilla Extract, Vanilla Paste and Vanilla Sugar and Vanilla syrup.

ENDS

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