Hayz At The Anchorage

Hayz At The Anchorage Restaurant And Bar - https://www.hayzattheanchorage.com/ https://instagram.com/cookingwithhayz?r=nametag
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Happy Father’s Day 💙Today we acknowledge all the fathers, grandfathers, stepdads, uncles, father figures, and all the in...
05/09/2026

Happy Father’s Day 💙
Today we acknowledge all the fathers, grandfathers, stepdads, uncles, father figures, and all the incredible men in our lives who show up, hold the fort down, guide, protect, support and love their whānau.

Know that you are seen. You are appreciated. You are acknowledged. And we are incredibly grateful for all that you do, often without ever asking for recognition in return.

To all the dads and whānau joining us today, we’re looking forward to welcoming you through our doors, feeding you well, and being a small part of your Father’s Day celebrations.

From our whānau to yours, Happy Father’s Day.

Much love,
Hayz & The Anchorage whānau x💙

Somewhere amongst everything, this happened 🥹💫The announcement came through in the midst of a week where life had very s...
05/09/2026

Somewhere amongst everything, this happened 🥹💫
The announcement came through in the midst of a week where life had very suddenly shifted from celebration to profound loss, and truthfully, I hadn’t had the capacity to stop and take stock of what it actually meant.

Hayz At The Anchorage has been named in the Cuisine Good Food Guide for 2026.

And when I finally put these three alongside one another, 2024, 2025 and 2026! I had to sit with that for a few minutes.

Three consecutive years.
For a little restaurant at the bottom of the motu, in little old Bluff, built by a Bluff girl who has simply kept doing the mahi and telling the stories of our people, our place and our kai, that’s something I’m immensely proud of.

This recognition belongs to the many hands that make Hayz At The Anchorage what it is. My team, my whānau, our fishermen, our producers and suppliers, our community, and every person who has walked through our doors and allowed us to share a little piece of Murihiku with them.

Manaakitanga has always sat at the heart of what I do. It’s something I was raised with, something my whānau taught me long before I ever owned a restaurant, and something I hope people feel when they sit at our tables.

Perhaps that makes this year’s recognition land a little differently.

Cuisine Good Food Guide 2024 |2025 | 2026. Three years running.

We did that proudly 🤍

04/09/2026

Our Hākari for our Nan 🪽💜

31 years apart. The same four walls. The same carpet. The next generation.Thirty-one years ago, my cousins and I sat on ...
03/09/2026

31 years apart. The same four walls. The same carpet. The next generation.
Thirty-one years ago, my cousins and I sat on this very same lounge floor after our Grandad died. We were his mokopuna then.

We sat around his casket, talked to him, drew pictures and covered it in our handwriting and little messages of love. We spent time with our Grandad in the only way children really know how, simply being close to him and leaving little pieces of ourselves behind.

Thirty-one years later, I stood in the same room, within the same four walls remarkably, even on the same carpet and watched another generation do exactly the same thing for our Nan.

Her mokopuna and great-grandchildren gathered around her casket with pens in their hands. They wrote their names, drew pictures and traced around their hands, meaning that quite literally, Nan went to her resting place with the hands of her legacy all over her.

The little ones even carefully labelled some of their masterpieces for her. This is a tiger. This is a lizard. This is an owl. Because apparently when we adults couldn’t identify them immediately, it was important that Nan knew exactly what they were. And of course it was completely obvious to them.

To somebody else, it might simply look like writing all over a plain wooden casket. To us, it couldn’t have been more beautiful.

Nan didn’t need something elaborate or perfectly designed. Her whānau were the centre of her world. This was the design.

Every handprint. Every scribble. Every name. Every picture. Every message.
Completely imperfect. Completely one of a kind.

And our words went with her too.
Nans great grand-daughter Violet handmade a beautiful little hardcover notebook decorated with sparkling bedazzled owls, perfect for our Nan, who loved her owls.

We filled its pages with messages for her. That little book was placed inside Nan’s casket and laid to rest with her.

So she left surrounded by our words, some written across the outside by generations of her whānau, and others tucked safely inside beside her.

There was something incredibly full-circle about standing back and watching all of this happen.

Thirty-one years ago, we were the mokopuna sitting on that carpet, putting our hands and our words onto Grandad’s casket.

Thirty-one years later, some of those same mokopuna stood watching their own children do it for Nan.

Same whare.
Same carpet.
Same love.
Different little hands.

Thirty-one years between those two moments. And an entire legacy grown in between 🥹🪽💜

FLOWERS MADE FOR NAN 💫I’ve spoken a lot over these past few days about the magnitude of the legacy our Nan leaves behind...
03/09/2026

FLOWERS MADE FOR NAN 💫
I’ve spoken a lot over these past few days about the magnitude of the legacy our Nan leaves behind. It is difficult to put something so enormous into words, but sometimes it can be seen in the smallest, most intentional things.

Before Nan’s tangi, AJ and I cut harakeke from my garden and brought it to our whānau. What followed was something incredibly special.

Nan’s daughters, mokopuna, their partners and her great-grandchildren sat together weaving. Those who knew how taught those who didn’t. Aunty Rewa shared her knowledge with the younger generations, and our wee Moana somehow became one of the absolute stars of thee entire operation, patiently teaching cousins, aunties, uncles and great-aunties the way she knew to weave.

Different hands. Different generations. Different ways of doing things.
All for the same woman.

Together, those individual pieces became a floral tribute for Nan, that was handcrafted entirely by the hands of the whānau who loved her.
And when we laid Nan to rest, our mahi went with her.

There is something profoundly beautiful to me about that. Harakeke gathered from home, woven by her own bloodline, laid upon her resting place and eventually returning naturally to the whenua.

Nothing about it was extravagant. Everything about it was intentional.

People often recognise that intentionality in the things I do, but it didn’t begin with me. Neither did the importance I place on whānau, manaakitanga, teaching one another, giving what we have and making things meaningful. Those things were handed down. That is legacy.

Not simply what someone leaves behind when they go, but what they have planted so deeply within their people that it continues to live through their hands, their values, their traditions and the way they care for one another.

Looking around that room at Nan’s tamariki, mokopuna and great-grandchildren weaving together, I could see hers everywhere 🥹.

One final gift for our Nan, made by the legacy she created 🤍

02/09/2026

My final words for my Nan, spoken as her eldest granddaughter, followed by a haka from her mokopuna and great-grandchildren.

A haka learned together on the marae only the night before, and when the moment came, everyone gave it absolutely everything. Watching it back, I know Nan would have been so incredibly proud.

There were never going to be enough words to capture everything she was to us, but I hope these final moments give a glimpse of the woman we knew, adored, and were so fortunate to call our Nan.

Rest peacefully Nana Ann Simeon, What a legacy you leave behind x Part 27

02/09/2026

My final words for my Nan, spoken as her eldest granddaughter, followed by a haka from her mokopuna and great-grandchildren.

A haka learned together on the marae only the night before, and when the moment came, everyone gave it absolutely everything. Watching it back, I know Nan would have been so incredibly proud.

There were never going to be enough words to capture everything she was to us, but I hope these final moments give a glimpse of the woman we knew, adored, and were so fortunate to call our Nan.

Rest peacefully Nana Ann Simeon, What a legacy you leave behind x

Our Final Hākari For Our Nan 🥹🥲There aren’t really enough words in me tonight to express the gratitude I feel looking at...
01/09/2026

Our Final Hākari For Our Nan 🥹🥲
There aren’t really enough words in me tonight to express the gratitude I feel looking at this table.

So much aroha and mahi went into preparing Nan’s final hākari, from her tamariki, daughter-in-laws, mokopuna and our wider whānau. But today, when we needed to simply be together, to be present with Nan and say our final goodbyes, my Anchorage whānau stepped in and carried us.

For the past few days they have fed us, supported us and quietly taken care of whatever needed doing. And today, alongside our extended Anchorage whānau, the Blair sisters, Gail and so many others who jumped in. They took everything our whānau had prepared, got it heated, organised, plated and served, and delivered this incredible hākari for our Nan.

They didn’t just put food on a table. They gave us the gift of time. Time that I didn’t have to spend worrying about a kitchen, because I could spend it beside my whānau, with our Nan.

To the fisherman who caught the seafood for us, the factories that donated to us, to help make this all possible 🥹 To Mirren, mama Dee, Paddles, Jashana, Tania, Sonya, Margareet, aunty Jasmine, Jada, Ayesha, Gail, Justin, and every single person who stepped into that kitchen over these past few days, thank you. You have helped carry me and my whānau through one of the hardest weeks of our lives.

We will never forget it. We are Eternally grateful 🥲 Nan would have been so incredibly proud of this.

A final hākari, prepared and served with immense love For our matriarch 🤍🪽

Prepping for our nans tangi tomorrow 💜
31/08/2026

Prepping for our nans tangi tomorrow 💜

Address

86 Gore Street, Invercargill
Bluff
9814

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11:30am - 2pm
Thursday 11:30am - 2pm
4:30pm - 7pm
Friday 11:30am - 2pm
4:30pm - 7pm
Saturday 11:30am - 2pm
4:30pm - 7pm
Sunday 11:30am - 3pm

Telephone

+6432127670

Website

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