Wine Country

We rousted the jet-lagged out of their beds this morning to head out to Wine Country, the Wairarapa region, north of Wellington and east of our location.  Yesterday, when we were lounging on the deck, as is our want, the lady next door, who the owners here had suggested was a good resource, yelled over hello and asked us what our plans were.  We said we were going to wine country.  Oh, she said, take your time and don't let drivers behind you pressure you, just move aside.  That scared me a little.  How difficult would it be to get to the town of Martinborough, where many of the wineries were?

Well, we got our answer.  Very scary.  These pictures can't really convey how winding and narrow in spots that road was--it was like driving on the Amalfi Coast in Italy--full of blind curves and larger vehicles coming at you.  Ada was terrified in the back seat.  I was too focused on getting us through the pass between the mountains to be scared.  Here are some of the pictures Meredith took of the trip.  Again, they don't really convey the scariness.

When we got to Martinborough the first thing we did was sit down for a meal--after all, it was 11:30AM.

Then we walked around in what I can only call the searing heat, looking for wine to taste.
We came across this one, where the people were not that friendly.

And walked a little farther, on a road that cut through the vineyards

.Finally coming to the Ata Rangi vineyard, where the people were great and the wine very good.  The fellow there even took this picture of us.

We were kind of tuckered out, especially the jet-lagged contingent, so we headed home again, once more into the breach--or rather the mountain road.  We obviously made it back, or I would not be writing this.  We decompressed with our favorite pastime, sitting on the deck, and then took the train to the next town to go to dinner.  We actually took a cab home.  For some reason, no one wanted me to drive tonight.

As for the train, it runs only once an hour later in the day.  Meredith and I have concluded this is not a very happening town.  When we went into Wellington on Friday night--on a national holiday--there were very few people in town.  It was very quite along the harborside.  That did not stop us from having a drink at the Dockside restaurant in front of a propane fire.

The last train left town at 1:14AM.  Not exactly conducive to a lively bar Meredith had hoped that when Noreen got here they could go out together some night and leave us old fogies at home.  But now she has no idea where they would go.

We think perhaps young people here are more into hiking and boating than partying.  Or else we just haven't found them yet.

Ada and Noreen Arrive

I know it's been a couple of days since I posted, and I wish I could say it was because we have been so busy, but the truth is we have been having trouble tearing ourselves away from the deck and the water.  And as I mentioned, the sun is too bright out there to work on the computer.

Ada managed to get an earlier flight and arrived about 10:50 in the morning Saturday.  The airport is only half an hour away so we encouraged her to do so.  It was then that we realized the strange system at the Wellington Airport.  Domestic flights arrive in the morning and international ones in the afternoon, and apparently never the twain shall meet.  This makes for very long layovers for some people.

You have to drive through basically the center of town to get to the airport from where we are staying.  You go through two tunnels, the second one, the Victoria Mountain tunnel, is very strange.  Everybody honks at you as you go through.  There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it--just honking.

When we got back to the house after picking Ada up, we went immediately up to the deck--where else?  I had put some sun tan lotion on earlier but I still go a burn in the maybe 45 minutes I was up there.  The sun here is so hot and has so much UV quality that a very small exposure results in a burn.  We have been trying to keep that in mind, but sometimes you get so caught up in the view and the conversation that you disregard it.

Anyway, a few hours later we picked Noreen up from her flight, went back through the honking tunnel and right back up to the deck.

We had an early night that included some really good, really cheap steak from the local supermarket and of course, some of that delicious corn from the garden.  By 8, the recent arrivals were in bed and Meredith and I were thinking about it.

Soon, our trip to wine country and questions about Wellington night life.

We go to Wellington and Hobbiton

Meredith and I are hanging out on the deck of our lovely house in the Plimmerton suburb of Wellington, looking out on the bluest water I have ever seen.  The weather is fantastic.  Bright sun but not too hot, small breeze.  We are wondering what we did in a previous life to deserve this--or whether we will have to serve some extra time in Purgatory to make up for it.  Oh well, live in the moment, right?

On Wednesday, we decided to take the train into Wellington City.  The train station is only a ten minute walk through the tiny town of Plimmerton.  The train runs every half hour and takes 29 minutes to get to the main station in Wellington.  We got off the train and started walking toward the information office.

There were quite a few seaford restaurants along the shore, as you might imagine.  But landlubbers like us had to find one with some beef/chicken we liked on the menu.

Wellington considers itself a very artsy place.  There are sculptures everywhere.  Some make sense

This one is apparently a tribute to a rugby victory.  Rugby, referred to as "footy" here, appears to be an national obsession.

Other statures don't make quite as much sense.

But most refer to the maritime character and history of the town.

This one seems to be famous.  It's called Solace in the Wind.  I believe it is anatomically correct, but Meredith and I were too polite to check that out.

We could not find a restaurant to our liking along the harbor so we went to Cuba Street, the coolest street in the city, we were told.  And the artsiest.  We stopped at a sidewalk cafe and had some great food but were distracted by some really terrible music from a fellow who apparently was self-taught in guitar--and pretty recently--and by these two "dancers."  The quotes are because it looked to us that the only choreography was rolling around each other.  Perhaps that could have been interesting, but definitely not from these two.

 We did a little shopping on Cuba and then want back to the harborside.  We were really impressed by the houses right along the water.  Some reminded us of San Francisco style

Another section reminded us both of Positano, Italy, on the Amalfi Coast.

Many were built right on the cliffs and seemed to be hanging over the water.

I especially liked this one.

We found a grill overlooking the small local beach.

And sat down for a drink.  As you can see, the weather was very nice, though it was a bit windy.
Behind us, we watched as the ferry to the South Island came into dock. We are going on that ferry in a few days.

The waterfront walk is very interesting.  Obviously, there are plenty of boats tied up.

But there were also boat houses along the water.

And even a couple of pop-up stores, making do with what looked like shipping crates.

One sold fabric, which I thought was kind of unusual.

I also have to mention what appears to be a love affair with the bean-bag chair.  We saw at least two waterside bars with many of them for customers.

Go figure.

We were also surprised that so much of the harborside is pretty industrial  Even in the pedestrian parts it's not usual to see a big crane like those used in off-loading cargo.  But the harbor is pretty small and you have to get your goods in somewhere, I guess.

We took the train and made our own dinner--yes it's a hardship--including some unbelievably sweet corn from the garden here.  The owners encouraged us to take vegetables from the garden.  There may be no corn left by the end of our trip.

The next day we decided to go to Hobbiton, which was a kind of crazy decision since neither of us is a big fan the films.  But it just seemed the thing to do in New Zealand.  The trip involved driving 5 1/2 hours there and back, but the scenery made it worth it.  We drove by these snow-capped mountains.

And an active volcano, which we later learned had erupted last in 2012..

And we drove by the gorgeous Lake Taupo.

The trip went fast.  We were headed toward Matamata, which appeared to be a town in the middle of no where, so we were quite surprised by its size and amenities when we arrived.  Of course, a lot of it revolves around the Hobbit movie set , used by the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies, which is on a farm about twenty minutes outside of town.  The information office sets the tone.

Other retailers got on the bandwagon, though it appears you have to be licensed to sell Hobbit stuff.

You can't just show up at the ranch; you have to take a tour.  So we got on the bus and went to Hobbiton.

It was well worth the trip.  So many really cute houses and gardens; we wanted to live there.  With the trend toward tiny houses in the U.S. (if you don't know what I mean, Google it), we would fit right in.

 There were 44 houses altogether, each one made to look like a particular kind of person lives there, for instance, this one was for a miller.

We did feel kind of sorry for our guide Kelsey.

I think that of the 26 people on our tour, four spoke English as a first language, and some seemed to have non English at all.  They would talk in their native languages when she was speaking.  Very rude.

At the end of the tour, we got a beer at the Green Dragon Inn

Then we were off again for another 5 1/2 hour drive.  Yes, we are crazy, but there are compensations:

Today, as I noted, we are hanging around.  We have plans to go into Wellington for a nice dinner.  We are so spoiled!!!!