North to South Island

Friday, February 12 – Monday, February 15


Contrasts:

North of Auckland we often saw lush tropical vegetation along the roads, and it was rolling hills there. As we move south on the north Island the tropical plants have disappeared; the farm country here looks like what we might see in Washington, except that the variety of trees is amazing. Including lots of gum trees (Eucalyptus).

We had expected to see more tourists in the Martinborough area today; but not; it was really quiet for a Friday. Apparently the folks from Wellington come up for a short weekend; not a long weekend. Pinot Noir wines were quite expensive in the wine shop in Martinborough, as they were in wineries close to town. But to our pleasure we found that as one got out of town the wineries became less pretentious and the prices dropped. We enjoyed a particularly good visit at Te Kairanga winery, where the other two tasters were a grape grower from Napa and his daughter – she managed to convince him that he could take 18 days off for this trip. Our first real conversation with folks from the U.S. And we should note that folks here have told us that tourism travel from the U.S. really dropped off after 9-11 and hasn’t picked back up.

The grapes in this region are just starting to get ripe, so it's time to put up the nets to thwart the birds. Some of the grapes are very tiny, more so than varieties we've seen elsewhere.

Our hosts here at Shy Cottage are great; she invited us for dinner tomorrow evening in their home! A great place for us to be staying.

Out to the coast on Saturday to walk to the Pinnacles and on to the lighthouse. Well, that was the plan anyway. When we arrived at the parking lot for our 1-1/2 hour round trip walk to the Pinnacles the wind was blowing quite strongly and drops of rain were in the air. We decided that the better part of valor was to take a pass so on we went. At Ngawi we snapped a few photos of the 20+ old bulldozers lined up along the beach that are used for dragging fishing boat trailers in and out of the water. Our host here at Shy Cottage calls this an example of Kiwi ingenuity, I wonder why they can’t get together on this dozer business. In any event it is quite a sight.

Next stop was at the end of the road for a walk up 250 steps to the Cape Palliser lighthouse. Great views from up here, but wow the wind was really strong!

On the way back along the gravel road we had to take a few pics of the seal colony; then back to Martinborough to hit a few wineries on our way back to Greytown.

An interesting day – and we also got stopped while a dairy farmer was moving his herd down the highway toward the milking barn. Got some interesting shots of this experience (yesterday we were stopped while a farmer was relocating a herd of sheep along the road). Farmers here seem to all use quads to ride herd on their animals – we guess that horses are a mode of transportation that has gone out of favor. The dogs seemed to do a good job of helping the farmers with the herding tasks.

Our dinner this evening with Franz and Dierdre was excellent – a good lamb dinner. We felt privileged to be invited to dinner with them. We have enjoyed very much our opportunities to really get to know our NZ hosts. And they did a superb job of taking care of us in our cottage. Which was spacious with a bedroom, LR, dining area and full kitchen. A fully stocked refrigerator each day with warm breads and the daily Wellington paper greeted us each morning.

On to Wellington on Feb. 14 and a trip down to the Te Papa museum. New Zealand’s finest, they say, and deservedly so. We spent four hours there, a record for us and we didn’t see it all. This museum is unique in that the displays are more interactive, much more interesting, than in other museums. A real treat, and admission was free!

Feb 15 and our early morning ferry crossing to Picton. We were a bit apprehensive as the Wellington harbor was cold and windy yesterday afternoon, but not to worry. An extremely smooth crossing. We had great seats in front (inside) and at one point saw dolphins playing in the water in front of our ferry. This was a very large boat – lots of cars and people.

On to the Marlborough wine region some tastings and on to our Homestay accommodation at Antares. This is quite a nice place, they have great new bikes for us to ride about the wineries in this area and we look forward to doing that tomorrow providing the weather does not deteriorate more – it is rather cold and almost rainy today. Finally cold! We have had temperatures in the mid to upper 70’s with some humidity, but not today. We checked out winery restaurants this afternoon and made a reservation at one for lunch. This evening will be our rather normal dinner of fruit, bread and cheese while watching the Olympics on SKY TV – great coverage!!