It’s 4.45pm and I’m and writing this sitting in a bar! We are staying for the next 2 nights in an old style hotel in Martinborough which is about an hour east of Wellington. It is the middle of the wine growing area and we have just been into the wine centre and chosen a dozen bottles to be shipped home. (When they arrive in about 8 weeks it will come as a lovely reminder!). Nigel is going out for a run now so I am sitting here in the hotel bar with Premier League footie on the big screen, drinking a lemon cordial and soda. It’s quite a lively place with locals as well as hotel guests. I think we might eat in here tomorrow. Tonight we plan to have dinner in the hotel restaurant as it gets a good press, but we are trying to vary the way we eat as fine dining can pall if you do too much of it!
The weather is a little overcast today and there has been a bit of rain in the wind but the drive here was rather interesting. Although no longer in the thermal region or traversing the mountains there was a lot of interest to be had looking at the crops and orchards as we drove by. This area is known as the fruit basket of NZ and of course at the moment most of that fruit is nearly ready to harvest and the wooden crates are piled in the orchards. As we dropped down towards Martinborough the orchards and fields of veg were replaced with vineyards. The big wine in this area is Pinot Noir and that is what we tasted and decided to ship home.
We have had some very nice things to eat since we have been here. I guess it is a good time of year for fruit and veg and there is plenty of beef, lamb and pork as well as very nice fish and seafood. One of the things we find universally great is the coffee. Nigel has become addicted to what is known as a ‘flat white’ – a kind of cappuccino with non-bubbly froth. The black coffee is good too and we have both developed a taste for iced coffee – a slightly naughtier treat as it includes a scoop of ice cream and you have to get in quick to stop them adding extra cream to the top, which we find a little to rich.
We were talking to some other English people we met on the wine tour and we laughed because we all agreed that we had slept in comfortable beds everywhere. So there you go –top NZ treats:-the coffee and the comfy beds!!!
Tomorrow we are planning a lazy day. We hope to take a picnic and sit by the ocean with our books. This means that except for going through the port on the way to South Island on Friday, we won’t have been to Wellington which is a shame in some ways but compromises have to be made if we are to avoid total exhaustion. Maybe if it rains our choices will have to change!
Gosh I have been rambling on. I’ll stop now and read a bit of Rumpole which I picked up at the last hotel library – I haven’t become a book thief, I left one of mine there in exchange. This is a good way to get something new to read because books are very expensive here.
Nigel now -Note the fountain picture on last nights blog, the picture to night is of the wines that we are bringing back. Also took first railway pictures for Laura, all the railways are narrow guage. We stopped in a ilttle village that had been settle by Scandinavians. They had been encouraged to settle in a desolate area in the 1870s. Many had died or resettled to California. Still in the visitors book there was a predominance of Danes and Swedes.
Great run tonight round the vineyards and a little cooler, that is 9 in a row!!!