Category: Uncategorized

June 4, 2016

Another change in plans! It’s a little after six in the morning, pitch black and freezing cold and we’re underway, heading to someplace north of here.

That’s as specific as we can be. We are going to head up the east coast of New Zealand and see how far we can get before the winds start to blow from the north. We’ve been waiting in Nelson for a weather pattern that would get us to New Caledonia and it looked like we might get it about the 1oth but that’s falling apart now on the forecast models. We think we have a better chance of good passage if we leave from further north, so here we go! It’ll take us about two days to reach Napier. We need to get at least that far. –Rich

June 3, 2016

The drive between Blenheim and Nelson is lovely, but this particular run was the emotional equivalent of being tossed off a sunny lounge chair into a cold pool. Blenheim had been such a great time out, but now it was time to face the music. This meant facing the pile of errands and chores that had to get finished today, wrapping everything up before tomorrow’s pre-dawn departure for a trip neither of us wanted to make (going back across the Cook Strait and up the east side of North Island was definitely not in our plan!). I kept reminding myself that I’d rather have these problems than some of the ones we had back in land life, but it wasn’t helping. Below, a gallery of photos from the drive both to and from Blenheim.

The Nelson Marina was still full of boats yet it felt empty because everyone we knew had left. The saving grace was having a really nice weather forecast for the next 3 days, enough to make it to Napier or Gisborne, halfway up the north island, before another windy period.

Below, a few orphan photos from the Nelson area that need a good home. I’ve invited them to live in this post. (Click to enlarge/scroll through galleries above.)–Cyndi

June 3, 2016

After breakfast, our first stop was Lawson’s Dry Hills which turned out to have some excellent wines, the pinot gris and gewurztraminer especially. This place made us glad we decided not to cut this trip short.

Next up was Villa Maria, one of the major wine producers in New Zealand. Like Brancott, we like to buy Villa Maria wines and assumed we wouldn’t purchase any today. But then along came a wine that we loved that’s not available in stores. It goes to show that it’s worth visiting some of the major players even of you know their wines well.

Our next stop was Highfield Terra Vin. It’s in a big pink hacienda with a lookout tower and probably the most standout winery building in the region, even more so because it sits on a hill. There was a group tasting going on when we arrived so we were invited to climb the tower first. We did just that, probably climbing a good three stories. Our efforts were rewarded with sweeping views of the basin, golden rows of grape vines and grassy slopes around us. Beautiful! After our return we had a tasting of their very nice wines, another bottle coming home with us.

With all our purchases, our car was getting heavier and heavier, and soon this weight would be transferred to our boat. It’s a good thing we’re not into racing!

Our final stop was the mud brick building of the Wairau River Wines Cellar Door and Restaurant. The cellar door felt like a cozy living room while the restaurant was in the mud brick structure, which frankly reminded us a bit of cinder blocks. Not that it wasn’t nice looking, but it lacked the wow factor of other places we’d seen. Since they only had four wines to taste, only two of which I’d be interested in, I opted to just order a glass of wine with lunch. It was nice, but not special enough to buy, proving it is possible for us leave a winery empty-handed. What was special, though, was their seafood chowder! That’s what finally got a “wow” out of us here. We’d come back here to have that again!

It was now time to head back to Nelson, but Blenheim had left a big impression on us. We’ve been to wine country areas much like this, but there is something about this one (aside from the wine) that makes it feel really nice to be here. Maybe it’s the relatively compact size of the area and the fact that it’s fairly flat yet surrounded by hills. Maybe it’s the green and golden grasses with enough trees to make it feel pastoral. Maybe it’s all the sunlight, penetrating and warm even though it was well into fall. Whatever it was gave Blenheim have its own special magic; it just felt good to be there. –Cyndi (You can click to enlarge/scroll through any galleries above.)

June 3, 2016

The actual town of Blenheim covers a large area but is so laid back that it feels much smaller than it is. One of its prettiest features is the walk along the river that runs through the town, and the best place to start this walk (at least we think so) is by having breakfast at a place called Raupo.

Raupo has very much the same style as the wineries we’d visited: lots of wood, stone, and glass walls. Our breakfast there was delicious, the river views very pretty. It’s hard to imagine there’s a nicer place for breakfast in Blenheim than this.

Unfortunately there was one fly in the punchbowl. It came for a swim when Rich looked at the weather and discovered that, once again, our next weather window had dissipated. We’d promised ourselves we’d head north if this happened but were still really reluctant to do so.

Rich then emailed Bob McDavitt who confirmed our thoughts: we needed to get further north in New Zealand and find a weather window from there. Crap. And we had a weather window to get north only if we left really early in the morning. Double crap. Our vacation was suddenly over. But wait; this was wine tasting. Wine tasting fixes stuff like this. It doesn’t make it go away; it makes you just not care so much. So we decided to stay with our plan to visit a few more wineries, have some lunch, then head back to Nelson in the afternoon.

We took a stroll along the river to sort ourselves out. It was a beautiful walk but the signs of fall were impossible to ignore, more reminders that it was time to head north. We decided to take the time to enjoy this last day then head out before dawn tomorrow. Below, some pictures of the river walk in Blenhiem. (Click to enlarge and scroll through any of the photo galleries.) –Cyndi

June 2 – 3, 2016

After a rest at the hotel we headed out again, driving amidst the endless vineyards on the Wairau plains. Our first stop was a winery called Gibson Bridge. While Blenheim is home to many of the biggest wineries in New Zealand, it also has its share of mid-size places and even small, family-run wineries. Gibson is in the last category.

When we stepped in, one of the owners came in from pruning vines–she and her husband do most of the work themselves. We admired the way she’d decorated their cellar door in sort of a bordello style that’s fun and quite fetching. The wines, mostly variations of pinot gris, were good and we found one we loved. Her husband appeared with their beautiful wiemaraner so we got to chat with him and pet the dog. Smaller wineries nearly always have at least one dog.

Our next winery was Forrest, yet another beautiful building with lots of barn beams, wood, glass and stone, and yet more canine greeters to give us a dose of doggy love. The dogs are one of our favorite parts of visiting wineries! We headed to a very nice room to do the tasting, picking six wines from their extended list for a tasting flight, which we then took to a seat by the windows to enjoy. We love tasting wine this way: we can go at our own pace and discuss the wines freely. (After all, you don’t want to say anything negative in front of the person who’s pouring the wine even if they only work there.) In this case, we loved at least two of the wines enough to make a purchase.

Our final winery of the day was Framingham Wines, a pretty winery with a courtyard, an appealing tasting area, a dog (of course), and some very nice white wines (yes, a couple came home with us–we had quite a collection by the end of the day).

Finished for the day, we picked up our new favorite light dinner at the supermarket: hot-smoked salmon, aioli, and a baguette. We’ve found that slicing up the baguette, spreading each round with the aioli, and topping it with some smoked salmon makes a wonderful combination. Of course we had one of our new wines to go with it.

Aside from exploring a new area, it’s such a treat to stay in a hotel and watch cable TV, stuff like Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers, Pawn Stars, Storage Wars, Mythbusters, and other such shows. Will Sig meet his crab quota? Will the newbie truck driver make it through the icy pass? Will the old antique gun be worth anything? Will one of the storage units make a big payoff, and is it possible to spontaneously combust? These are the burning questions that get answered during our hotel stays. –Cyndi (You can click to enlarge/scroll through any of the photo galleries above).