Dining with the Birds

For one month from 9 January until February 2009, in a redwood plantation north of Auckland, between Puhoi and Warkworth, and 10m up a tree, the Yellow House restaurant will serve three-course meals for $195 a head. Diners will approach the onion-shaped treehouse along a 60m elevated walkway, while the food takes another route – the kitchens are at ground level, so the chefs will send it up on a winch. The restaurant was created in 66 days as part of a marketing project for the Yellow Pages. “They’re a bit vague about what’ll be on the menu,” writes the Times, “but we’re hoping for bird’s-nest soup.”