Bluff oyster lovers can today expect to enjoy their first taste of the slippery delicacy this year, after a good start to the season yesterday.
Harbour Fish and Best Cafe are among the Dunedin businesses which will be selling oysters today after all boats in the Bluff fleet put to sea in good conditions.
Harbour Fish was sending a truck south about 5am today to pick up the season's first consignment, which would be on sale about noon, manager Aaaron Cooper said.
He said his phone had already been ''running hot'' with inquiries about oysters, which would sell for the same price as last year.
Best Cafe co owner Marc Yeoman said the first load of 60 dozen oysters had been picked up from Southland yesterday, and they would be on sale from 11.30am today. Further supplies were expected today.
The shellfish would be sold for $25 a dozen raw, $42.50 a dozen as an oyster meal, and $34.50 a dozen cooked, to take away.
The cafe expected to sell between 500 dozen and 600 dozen oysters a week during this month.
Barnes Oysters manager Graeme Wright, who is also a spokesman for the Bluff Oyster Management Company, said a crowd of 70 people was waiting outside the Barnes shop in Invercargill when it opened at 2pm yesterday.
Among the early buyers were people who had driven from Milton, Gore and Queenstown, Mr Wright said.
