Blogs from Blenheim, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

Day 16 – Tuesday the 29th of March Today was a real driving and relaxing day. A hark back to civilisation. We woke as late as possible and slowly tidied the camper up. Surprising just how much mess we were able to make in only 17 or so hours! We spent the morning eating brekkie and folding our washing done the night before. Eventually we decided on Nelson as our next port of call with a stop in at the few vineyards in the area. After winding our way back over the hills (the area being laden with apples, pears, kiwifruit and nashi) we eventually reached the relatively large town (comparative to most we have visited) of Richmond - located just outside of Nelson, and probably just considered a part of Nelson. We stopped in at ... read more

Hello everyone! Work continued in the vineyards, though last week we had a little bit of a change where we were working on our boss’s brother’s farm because we had to wait for the plants to grow a bit more for the third wire lift. We went to his farm in Seddon and started off weeding wild oats from a wheat field, barley field and oats. They’re usually taller than the other crops so it’s not that hard to single them out, but it can be difficult to see them from a distance, especially in the oats. The reason we had to remove all the wild oats is because once the seeds get into the soil, they can remain there for years before growing again and they’re even bad for stock feed. I was given a ... read more

Hello everyone and sorry I have been so remiss in updating but until now the internet was hard to come by here. I got the job at Talley’s worked for 3 and a half weeks before spinach ran out and got another job! I worked on the afternoon shift from 4PM to midnight and couple times a few hours later. Talley’s processes a lot of different kinds of food, our factory specifically does spinach. It comes in on dump trucks at about 5 tonnes at a time and is then dumped into a large hopper on hydraulic masts. The hopper is lifted up to the conveyor belt that leads into the factory where workers pick through the spinach coming in and remove all the bad leaves and weeds, it then travels through several water sprayers where ... read more

Before I forget and the internet dime runs out, one of the best wines tasted today, highly recommended for a Thai meal is 'Gewurztraminer'. And Spy Valley exports its wines to Nova Scotia. Despite the fact that Sauvignon Blanc is well known from this area, the Pinot Noirs are the up-and-coming wines. Light, interesting based on where they were grown, cheeky reds are quite nice. I enjoyed the Pinot Gris....very light, soft and surprising. No, I can't change my mind about Chardonnays...don't like them, although the un-oaked varieties were o.k. The tour was quite informative. There were three of us, two from Sweden. We ate a big lunch so that the wine wouldn't hit us too hard. Every place gave us Sauvignon Blanc as the first drink, then we had one wine from different years so ... read more

Niet al te vroeg opgestaan. Auto naar ferry terminal gereden en daar achtergelaten bij de rental toko. In totaal iets van 1200km gereden op het North Island. Ferry vertrok om 10:00 richting Picton. Een nogal 'rocky' overtocht, maar volgens de kiwi's juist rustig.. :) Laatste stukje door de Marlborough sounds(verzameling van eilanden voor de kust). Erg mooi....Was trouwens weer super weer(20-26 graden). Bij aankomst Picton even verkend, maar stelde niet veel voor. Daarna naar Blenheim, het cetrum van de Marlborough wijnstreek. Heb de Lowson's Dry Hills winnery bezocht. Labels kwamen alleen wel heel bekend voor. Blijkt dat Gall&Gall de distributeurs voor Nederland zijn...lol Toch een Rose pinot gekocht. Die verkopen ze niet bij G&G... :) Verder naar Nelson gereden. Nog 1,5 uur vanaf Blenheim, waar ik een kamer bij een B&B heb geregeld. Route naar Nelson ... read more