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Tasty Bread
Lisa enjoys her morning toast. First off. Thanks for all of you who wrote comments. I'm unfortunately an idiot and didn't know that the comment system forces me to actively accept them in order to show up. Now that I know, feel free to continue commenting and I'll be sure to accept them quickly. Gaddang spammers ruin the Internet for everyone.
It occurs to me that we are terrible bloggers. Either that, or we've been really busy having a mostly good time. Or both.
When we last left our heroes, they had just spent their first night in Napier and were preparing for a busy day of wine-filled peril. Did they survive? Did they manage not to embarrass themselves? Did they meet a stinky goat? Read on for all the answers, and more! Where were we? Ah yes, Napier. We had just stayed our first night after an amazing sunset, and woke up early enough to catch the equally brilliant sunrise the following morning. Why are we up so early? Well, first of all, we just seem to be morning people here. It’s strange, and I’m not sure what to make of it, but I think I may like it.
Baby Goat
Feed me, I'm not the smelly goat! I generally wake up at six, and have slept in as late as eight once or twice. I believe I’ve seen midnight once, maybe twice. But today we got up for a different reason, and that was to feed the animals with our host farmwoman extraordinaire Ros(lyn).
Just a bit about Ros. Last night when we arrived, she was very gracious in greeting us, but was a bit preoccupied with something. It turns out the rhubarb she had planted wasn’t satisfactory, and she wanted to try again. She mentioned this to us, and was talking about having to find a place to plant it. She showed us around the farm a bit and then suddenly stopped while we were meeting the goats. Now, most of us talk about doing a lot of things, then put them off for awhile as we ponder the problem and put aside the time to follow through later. Ros says, “This looks like a good place.” and then sort of just gives us a motion like “Keep doing whatever” as she grabs a shovel and starts attacking the ground. Evidently rhubarb needs about a two and a half foot hole to be planted, and
Donuts and Sushi
Don't that look good?!? she got about a foot and half down then decided “Nah, this won’t do.” She continued to show us around then found another spot that might work and tried again. She was probably out there digging for half an hour before she found something she liked. All this while making us feel right at home. I guess that’s the farm work ethic for ya.
In the morning, Ros ushered us all over the farm. Meanwhile, the kitten that they’d received two days ago, Ally, followed us everywhere we went. She was a real sweetheart and kept us entertained the entire time we were there.
First came the chickens, which were “standard as”. (Kiwis have a saying “Good as gold” which has mutated to become “_____ as” where the analogy is never finished. “Sweet as” is very popular and one of the other Americans we’d talked to had even heard someone say “Average as”, to which I’ve been trying to ponder a proper analogy for hours.) Next came the sheep, and we got to feed Lisa the black-faced sheep, which made Juni quite happy. I even got in the pen with Lisa to feed her. She was quite a
Kitty on Piggy Action
She sure is hamming it up. character and I was also able to verify that I have no Scottish blood in me, because I had absolutely zero attraction to her. We moved on to the goats and I finally understood the Adam Sandler Goat Skit in its full glory. There was a goat family, Daddy, Mommy and Baby. As we went into the pen, Ros said, “You can feed the two smaller goats, but stay away from the big one, cos he smells.” She wasn’t kidding. Daddy was the smelliest goat I could possibly imagine. Now the line “He reeks worse than my nuts do” has a whole new meaning. If he had a D&D stat it would be Aura of Stench 15’. But the other goats didn’t smell bad and were friendly. Last to get the grub were the piggies, but they got the sweetest deal. While the other animals got fed bread and other grain type food, the piggies got old donuts from the local bakery, and even some old sushi maki thrown on top! I may have to reconsider my personal reincarnation animal if I’d get to eat donuts and sushi everyday. Not to mention, I’d smell like bacon! We also had fun
Snobby Wine Pondering Face
Mmm.. yesssh. I think these grapes will do quite nicely. putting Ally on top of the piggies while they were eating. We even got her to stay on long enough to take a picture :P. After we finished, we went back to the deck and Ros made us a great breakfast of eggs benedict and muesli while we enjoyed the amazing view. Not a bad way to start the day.
Our other host, Don, is a third generation wine-maker and guided us to the best wineries for someone with my barbaric palette. We headed to the first winery on the list, Esk Valley, which Don’s family had sold to a California winemaker not too long ago. We tried to play it cool, as this was the first wine-tasting we’d ever done, but were quickly scolded when we drank the reds first and then asked to try the whites. Whites first! So we sampled the works: Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay (oaked and non), Cabernet Merlot, Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah. Then we continued on to other wineries to sample various combinations of the wines above. By the end of the day, we’d hit Esk Valley, Mission Winery, Te Awa, Trinity, and Craggy Range. Juni was driving, so she had
Napier Wine Club
From left to right: Mac, Don, James, a bunch of Kiwi blokes, and Ben. to daintily spit out most of her wine. I can’t bring myself to spit out wine. Even the mediocre stuff. The only one I spit out was a Chardonnay I found particularly abhorrent. Suffice it to say, I was pretty happy by then end of the day, and it only cost us five bucks in all. Here are a few things we learned:
Juni likes white wines a lot, especially Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris, and also fancied the Syrahs in the red spectrum.
I liked the Sauvignon Blanc the best of the whites, and found I really don’t like Chardonnay.
Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region is “choice”
The Merlots were pretty good, but the straight Cabs were pretty much undrinkable. Maybe I’m spoiled by the big Cali Cabs, but yikes! It’s not wonder they usually blend Cab with Merlot or Malbec in almost all their Cab wines.
I found the NZ Pinot Noirs to be much tastier than the Cali ones. I’ll have to bring one next time Theo’s does Pinot.
Trinity was the solid winner for me. Their wines were great across the board
Kitty in Da Hood
A hoodlum in the making. (except the Chard of course). I think their Merlot was my favorite.
Juni’s favorites were the Te Awa Syrah which she found to be like “spicy cranberry sauce goodness” and the Craggy Range Sauvignon Blanc which was a “peachy ambrosia with the sweetness all in the smell.” She said it was way too drinkable.
After we finished up at Craggy Range, we headed up the said range to Te Mata peak where we enjoyed the view of the entire Hawkes Bay region from the lookout on top. I’m pretty sure more than a few babies have been conceived up there by the local youngins.
When we returned to the ranch, we found out there was a hitch with the dinner that we’d planned to have with our hosts. Don had forgotten that tonight was the monthly meeting of his wine club, so he wouldn’t be able to make it. He did, however, manage to get us invited to the get together. Oh no, more drinking, whatever will we do?!?!
Normally these meetings are held at the houses of the selected host for the evening, but this particular host was having his house worked on,
Zack Attack
He greeted us and then sent us on our way. so we met at a restaurant in Napier. Don drove us down, so we could drink to our heart’s content. We arrived and our host, James, greeted us with a glass of Chardonnay. Hey, what are you going to do? At least it was a lot tastier than any of the ones we’d had earlier that day. He then explained how the club works: Wines are sampled by the group, with no label, and then there is a quiz about each one. That night, they had a guest who teaches winemaking, Mac, and he would be tacking on general wine trivia to the end of each set of questions. At the end of the night, all the points would be totaled and a winner would be declared. We just smiled and said we’d give it a go, but not to expect too much. As the first wine came out, and we took our taste, the first question was asked. “Is this wine a Durp, Nurp, or a Shurp, where each *urp is a different varietal that neither of us had ever heard of. We just laughed and wrote down our best guesses at what those words were and lo and
Waterfall
Found in the middle of Napier for some reason. behold I got it right! U-S-A! U-S-A! :P James continued on to ask us which of five countries the wine had come from, and the year of the wine. The same questions were asked for all ten wines. Meanwhile Mac asked us things like: “What is the youngest of these types of grapes?” and “What type of grape is a Petit Syrah really?” Suffice it to say, I didn’t really get many right the rest of the night, but I had a good time and got to hang out with a big group of Kiwi blokes for the first time on the trip.
The following morning, after another wonderful breakfast, it was time to leave our gracious hosts. Ally didn’t want us to go and camped out in Juni’s hoodie for a good while. Ros and Don are fantastic and were the first Kiwis we got to stay with. They really welcomed us into their home and made us part of the family for a couple days, and I can’t imagine having a better experience in a Bed and Breakfast situation.
Before we headed out of town, we wanted to check out a bit of Napier proper and
Istanbul
Look Jason, we went to Istanbul too! the Art Deco architecture. We didn’t really feel up to doing an entire guided tour, but we did go around for awhile and check out the cool buildings. As we were driving around, Juni also spotted a park with a big waterfall, so we got out and took a few pics. Finally, the last thing we wanted to do was go to the beach spa. It’s basically a health facility where one goes to workout, swim, etc, but they also have private spas like you find in those expensive spas in Santa Cruz. The difference was, we paid $12 to use it for half an hour instead of $50. Suck on that Well Within!
The drive down to Wairarapa was long but uneventful. I’ve actually gotten pretty used to driving here and did the entire drive myself. Most of you who know our driving habits won’t believe me, but it’s true dammit! We got into Greytown and decided to find some accommodation. We’d called a few B&Bs on the way, but had lucked out so far (New Zealanders say “Lucked out” when you have bad luck and “Lucked in” when it’s good). It was getting fairly late, so we thought maybe a hotel would work out better for us this time around. We parked and walked for awhile, checking a few, and they were shockingly expensive. Finally we came across an affordable one, but it was pretty bush league. It wasn’t a total Hole like the Skunk Train Motel or anything, but it wasn’t really what we had in mind. Finally, we tried one more B&B in Carterton, and the voice on the other side was shocked that we wanted to stay there tonight, but they’d be happy to have us. Great!
We drove a mile outside of Carterton to the small farm Homecroft, and met our hosts Neil and Christine, a jovial couple that had emigrated from Britain in 1971. After a quick greeting, we asked where we should eat and were pointed at a few restaurants in Carterton. We ended up eating at Istanbul, both because it made me think of Jason, and it sounded and smelled really tasty. It was indeed, really tasty. As we headed back to the farm to get settled in, there were flashing lights all over a checkpoint on the road and we were asked to stop the car. The officer asked Juni if she had been drinking that evening, which we had not. She said no and he asked her to speak her name and address into a machine that looked like a little tape recorder with an LCD screen. Being shocked at the question, she kind of stumbled her way through our address after which the LCD read “No Alcohol”. The officer smiled and said, “Thank you, have a chocolate” and handed Juni a wrapped mint chocolate wafer that read "Life is sweet, drive sober." We couldn’t stop laughing as we drove away. We had to wonder, what happens if you're not sober? "Bad drunk, NO candy!!" It was really strange, but as far as encounters with cops go, it was approximately one million times better than any I’ve ever had with a US cop. Also, why are our breathalyzers so damn intrusive when the Kiwis have this amazing tape recorder technology?
We finally got back and had a good chat with Neil and Christine, relating our most recent story. Tomorrow we’re supposed to meet up with some of the members from Juni’s emigration forum to have some grub and talk about their experiences here.
Until next time…
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Sealveyah
non-member comment
Blogging Be Damned! Not Really..
Just want to let you both know that I have really been enjoying your blogging. You are both great writers and storytellers and it is always a joy to read your commentary..HOWEVER, I want you both to know that I think it is alot to ask of yourselves to spend the great deal of time it must be taking you to do the blogging, thus taking away from your travel experience. I commend you for taking the time as I know you both will be able to look back on your blogging in the future and relive these moments in time. When I did my daily journal whilst we were down under, I was just trying to get a few things down on a daily basis just for the purpose of being able to remind myself of some of the activities and people and places we experienced. It didn't detract too much from the experience, but, oh my, the wonderful great lengths you two have been going to to "blog it out" has been tremendous! So, don't beat yourselves up about it. Crikey!! Thanks for sharing! All's well here....just sent Jay off Tuesday for Istanbul and if you have read the spactaco forum, you will see that he has arrived safe and sound. Take care, you two. Looking forward to hearing great stories on your return as well! Love, Seal