Five weeks we had now been on the south island and I think we were both ready to move on, over the Cook Strait to the North Island. Before that though we had one last thing we needed to do, wine tasting!
We had been looking forward to this for a very long time, not least due to shells fascination (I want to say addiction- just not in the AA sense) with Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
We booked ourselves into a great little backpackers that let us park our campervan so we could still sleep in it which made it much cheaper. The guys that ran it, a lovely old couple, were like a long lost aunty and uncle. They called us by our first names and told us to be careful as we sped off on our bicycles in search of our first wineries.
There are over thirty wineries in the area so unfortunately we could only visit a handful of them but as we were later to find out, that would be more than enough.
So we left in the morning after one of the coldest nights I can remember and off into the vines, sliding effortlessly along perfectly flat roads until we reached our first cellar door, Cloudy Bay. The place was simply immaculate, decked out in mock Mediterranean paraphernalia. To be fair, they were all stunning so it would be a bit boring to explain them all to you but let's just say this, we had a staggering day, literally.
I think our favourites were Allan Scott and Giesen but we learnt so much that day from all of the wineries that simply drinking a glass of wine will never be the same again. For instance, the location of the wineries is paramount to the taste that you want to acquire. Riverside vineries will acquire a fuller-bodied wine due to the clay content of the soil whereas Coastal wineries will be cleaner with a slight metallic taste due to the mineral deposits found next to the coast. And so on and so forth...we learnt so much and spoke to so many different people that if you'd asked us at that point to drop our respective careers and head into winemaking, we'd have chewed your arm off.
The day after, feeling pretty awful after drinking wine for ten hours straight we headed around the glorious Marlborough Sounds, a maze of unspeakably beautiful little coves and beaches which, in the glorious sunshine, looked more than perfect. It would be the perfect antidote to what we had coming the next day, the famously rough Cook Strait crossing from South to North islands.
It was awful. No matter where we sat or stood on the boat it really didn't matter, the huge ferry rocked violently from side to side. To be fair, the first hour of the journey was just beautiful as we wound our way around the serene Queen Charlotte Sound, part of the incredible Marlborough Sounds.
After three hours we finally arrived on the North Island and into NZ's famously windy capital, Wellington. Thankfully for us it wasn't too windy but instead was bloody freezing! It was sunny and clear but so cold, like one of those crisp winter days we sometimes get back home. Anyway, we stayed in Welly for a couple of nights as it was a cool little city. It had a really interesting waterfront where the huge national museum, Te Papa sat and also a few microbreweries serving really delicious beer. Welly itself had some wicked little places to eat including tonnes of little Asain noodle houses where we ate really cheaply (for NZ) on roti chennai (that amazing Malaysian concept we ate every morning in Kuala Lumpur), spicy Hokkien noodles and spring rolls.
It was almost like a much smaller version of Manhatten in a way. The whole city, despite it's small size, just seemed to have a really nice feel about it. A really interesting place full of weird architecture, strange people and awesome food. Not a bad place to spend a couple of cold days in.
Anyway, from there we faced a five hour drive, cross country to the east coast through what can only be described as a part of the world that has absolutely nothing to offer. If we thought, as we do in the UK, that we are the only country in the world to suffer from a shite culture of fast food joints and aggressive looking youngsters in stupid looking cars then, if this area has anything to go by, we would be gladly mistaken. New Zealand is fantastic, don't get me wrong, but just like Australia you can't help but feel that when you leave the main cities and drive through the small towns, you are looking at people who still collect gollywogs.
For the next few days we spent our time in Hastings and Napier, two pretty towns sat along Hawkes Bay, a huge sweeping bay that resembles, to me anyway, a big bite of an apple.
We stayed a night in Hastings, but only to pay a visit to it's local farmers market, one of NZ's most famous. It was, as markets go, up there with the best of them. We bought some amazing bread and stocked up on fresh veg and tried a plethora of foods such as black pudding, sausage, houmous, Turkish bread, all locally produced in the region. You see, the greatest thing about these markets is that the people who attend them seem to take them more seriously. This in turn helps the Market to shed the novelty factor and in doing so brings down the prices. Which is the reason these markets should operate in the first place, to bring fresh and interesting produce to the general public, at affordable prices.
Up next was Napier, a town obliterated in the 30s by an earthquake and rebuilt in the art deco style of the day. amazingly, due to superb planning and conservation, every single building still remains to make the biggest concentration of art deco buildings in the world. It's fantastic to be around, it almost makes you want to walk around with a swagger and a tommy gun.
Hawkes bay is also a hugely successful wine producing area and Napier, being it's centre, provided us with yet more opportunity to divulge! It was here where we got the opportunity to do an interactive wine tasting. We had to pick from White or red, we chose White, and got ushered into a room that resembled a small theatre. In front of us was six White wines which, when the film started to play, all became apparent. We were essentially flown around six different wine producers who told us all about their wines whilst we drank. Amazing! Next up, was a tour around the aroma room. Essentially, every different kind of aroma you could acquire from a wine. From citrus to stone fruits, toast to leather. They even had soil and horse to represent which smell you would associate with an off wine. It really was fantastic stuff.
We spent two days in sunny Napier, taking in the town and planning our last month and a half on the road. It's a fair old distance to most places in NZ but if you ever get the chance, go to Napier, you will not be disappointed.
As for us, we are both really well. Looking forward to our last couple of weeks here and exploring the geothermal wonderlands!
Hope some of you are still reading on, we'll be doing tests when we return...
Much love. Tommo and shell xxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment