5.26.2007

middle earth

yeah, yeah....you can stop snickering in the peanut gallery but the south island does look straight out of tolkien's imagination (long before peter jackson came along). look for my next entry when i'm smart enough to remember photos of otago/middle earth (lake matheson will have to be a stand-in for now). it is also true that it is A LOT more beautiful than the north island. don't get me wrong, the north island is also very pretty, but the south island is more dramatic in its beauty. it is also very reminiscent of new england and maine's coastline.

obviously you can gather that i'm having an ah-mazing time on the south island. it does get a little lonely traveling alone, but i still have daily conversations with my "vodafone best mate" katy (sometimes on speakerphone with brittany and naughty caine :). my first days were exploring marlborough and its multitude of wineries. nautilus (craggy watch out 'cause this place is quite flash too), fromm (note to my german friends from gesenheim...if you make it to marlborough, then go to fromm and check out their german-styled rieslings), and neudorf (owned by new zealand's answer to robert redford) were definite highlights. i found the spy balls that gave spy valley winery its name...very x-files like but also a great picnic spot.i took a detour drive to punakaiki and the pancake rocks. i turned the corner and found myself in hawaii looking at a scene out of lost, but with a more plausible polar bear encounter.i didn't have time to make it abel tasman or milford sound (note to jenn...next campervan journey?), but i did make it to fox glacier and lake matheson which were unbelievably gorgeous. i drove into glacier country and was met by rain that turned into buckets of rain ("il pleut comme une vache qui pisse comes to mind"). i still had luck on my side because the next morning i was greeted by an amazing sunrise. i made it to lake matheson before the winds disrupted the lake waters so that i could see firsthand the mirror effect of mt. cook and mt. tasman (see the first photo at the top of the blog entry). i also made it before the busload of kiwi experience teenagers came to ruin the serenity. i hit gillespies beach and finally found the crashing waves of new zealand (the east coast waves are definitely smaller). i then made it to fox glacier and tramped right up to the terminal face. unfortunately, i ate it big time crossing one of the rushing streams that feed into fox river and twisted my ankle, which effectively ended my tramping day. pretty much not pretty handy, but at least it came at the end of my tramping itinerary. i next headed down to queenstown, driving with my injured foot on the gas pedal and my left foot on the brake pedal. dangerous, i know, but it hurt too much to move my right foot back and forth.near punakaiki and at the terminal face of fox glacier, i found some classic kiwi signs. i will say, after these many days of being on the road, the kiwis do have great road signs that clearly explain what i should be aware of on the road. and not just great fun signs like warning me of a potential penguin crossing but also what kind of turns to expect on the road ahead. you may have to zoom in on the first photo below, but that's right, you may catch your bike tire in a rut and fall headfirst over the handlebars. and this sign depicts what almost happened to me, except my fall wasn't due to being hit by falling ice/white rocks.

5.20.2007

ferry shenanigans

the 18th was my last day of work at Craggy Range and i temporarily bid adieu to hawke's bay today as i headed on a tour of the south island and its wineries. before i get into the exact nature of the shenanigans, i must post one last photo of the kopanga crew (from left to right, me, Katy, Marine, and Brittany) on our last dinner together at Terroir Restaurant. besides the absolutely scrumptious dinner (braised Wagyu short ribs for me) and delectable wines (hate to name drop but a '00 Bouchard Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Le Cailleret, '95 L'Arlot Grand Cru Romanee Saint-Vivant, and '02 Chateau Suduiraut 1er Cru Sauternes), we even got sparklers. i know, i know, name-dropping is a sin but i couldn't help myself...

even before our last day, the kopanga crew went on a date with each other and went horse-back riding in Waimarama (where i had previously taken the photos of the sheep on the road). if you're ever out at Waimarama, i would definitely recommend Waimarama Horse Treks. the horses are beautiful, the guides are awesome, and they let you canter/gallop on the open beach. i hadn't been running on a horse since i was 14 or so...good times.
so after some frantic last minute packing, i headed off to wellington to catch the ferry to the south island. my father taught me well, so i was about 2 hours early (you do have to check-in by 1 hour before departure). i thought i had turned my car off all the way and was happily checking out my itinerary and reading the newspaper. lo and behold, when it was time to drive onto the ferry, my car wouldn't start. note to self, if you let the radio run for 2 hours, make sure that you've turned the car off to the last setting and don't let the car battery run. i was completely embarassed as i had to wait for the ferry people to bring over jumper cables, while a line of cars were probably wondering why they weren't being allowed to board even though they got there quite early. just further prooves my theory that bad things happen to me in twos. dear earl's (my car's name... little white nissan pulsar with the lil' engine that could) battery had died a couple of weeks earlier when the lights were left on for the entire work day (although that wasn't my doing but we won't quibble over minor details)! eventually i made it onto the ferry and got to see this delightful sight as we entered the home stretch before docking in picton.

more to come of my adventures on the south island, but first another addition to my miniature winery run by oompa-loompas...a tiny centrifugal pump found at Clearview Winery in hawke's bay.p.s. i've decided to work vintage at Patz & Hall (thanks Nate!) in napa in order to lock down some california winery experience. yeah that's right, i've actually not worked in california yet.