Starting the South Island
Aug. 12th, 2018 12:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetI have loved New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc for many years now, so when we started planning this trip I knew I wanted it to include a visit to the Marlborough region where the best of them are made.
We departed Wellington on the Interislander ferry at 9am. It's a huge boat...our load included several fullsize trucks, including four trailers of cattle. We had a fine breakfast in their cafe and then found comfy seats in the viewing lounge and napped most of the way across Cook Strait. But we were awake for some amazing views of Queen Charlotte Sound as we arrived in Picton.
Having picked up a dark orange RAV4, we made our way to Gusto, the restaurant recommended by the Avis agent. I was impressed that they had something to exactly suit our different tastes (Thai curry for Jason, pasta with mushrooms for Alice, and seafood chowder for me) and it was all very tasty. We looked in one of the souvenir shops and then got on the road.
We drove up to a lookout over the water and then decided to take the scenic route to our lodging in Blenheim. That involved more unsealed road than we expected, sometimes with creek-carved gullies across it that made us glad to be in a vehicle with power and clearance. But it took us up through amazing mountain forests and then right down to the edge of the water in Ocean Bay, Oyster Bay, and White's Bay, before dropping us down into the vineyards on the flat lands of Marlborough.
We made it to the Driftwood Retreat around 4pm, in time to borrow some gumboots from our hosts and head out for a sunset walk. We avoided the actual wetlands, but we're very glad of the boots. We meet some very friendly alpaca, including a baby named Lulu with the silliest face you've ever seen. There were also two different batches of sheep--one white, the other brown--with several tiny lambs running along with them. When we entirely failed to have any treats they let us continue our ramble along the Opawa River, where Will & Rose lead kayaking excursions, and then back along the "stop bank" at sunset as the cows in the next field were running for their barn.
Will recommended Gramado's, so we went there for dinner. It's a Brazilian/Italian restaurant and we had a lovely meal. We shared mussels to start, even Alice, who has been converted by the garlic cream sauce that's very common here. For mains I felt a little silly having the steak, but it was calling to me and turned out to be delicious. Jason had an enormous portion of pork belly with a sweet chili sauce. Our waiter told Alice they could make her pasta with whatever she wanted, so she requested chicken, bacon, and broccoli with cream sauce and was very happy with the results. For dessert we shared an order of churros with dulce de leche and dark chocolate sauces, and then rolled ourselves back out to the farm.
The Retreat is really lovely...made of corrugated metal, raised up on stilts to avoid flooding, it was beautifully finished on the inside with lots of wood and warm touches. There are only two rooms, so Alice got the couch and tv in her room and the breakfast table was in ours, with a kitchenette built into the hallway past the bathroom in between. In the morning the sun rose through the trees just outside the full wall of windows and we enjoyed sunrise from the comfort of our beds. Both mornings Alice got to help feed the animals, including Bobo the Kunekune pig and Rupert, a three-week old lamb they are bottle feeding, as well as all the sheep and alpacas. She had a great time and entertained Will and their young Australian Shepherd dog, Bonnie.
Saturday we spent the entire day with Pamela of Your Local Chauffeur for a tour of local wineries. She was great fun and kept us all entertained, especially Alice. We visited:
- Hunter's Wines, which was founded by an Irish member of the clan in 1979 and is still run by his wife, Jane. We especially liked their 2016 Pinot noir and a blend called The Chase.
- Pataka, a wine & cheese shop that offers tastings of Lake Chalice wines paired with local cheeses. That was fun, but we didn't love any of the wines.
- Saint Clair, where we were hosted by a charming Frenchman named Alex. They had the best Sauvignon Blanc we'd tasted yet, so I bought a bottle and we'll see if it makes it home.
- Vines Village, a collection of specialty shops, where we bought some locally made candy and saw some lovely local arts and crafts. I was particularly intrigued by the scratchboard work of Karen Neal.
- Highfield's, where we tasted wines and then had a marvelous lunch including really delicious lamb agnolotti in a creamy leek sauce and our first encounter with a local fish called gurnard. Their Merlot rosé was delightful and Jason quite enjoyed their oaked Savi.
- Forrest, a quick stop especially to taste their Albariño, which was only ok, but they had some other nice whites in their Two Doctors label. (The founders are a GP and a molecular biologist.)
- Villa Maria, where we had an especially lovely conversation with our host, Steve, a very hip young man. Their Pinot noir was my favorite of the day; fortunately Total Wines carries several of their releases, so I didn't feel the need to make our luggage any heavier.
- Makana Confections, where we got to see inside their factory room and Alice got some very nice chocolate fruits.
- Blue Penguin Gifts, a lovely shop of New Zealand crafts and products.
That made for a long, but lovely day. Our only disappointment with Pamela was her recommendation for dinner: Rocco's, a very old fashioned Italian restaurant that didn't seem to have been updated in any way since the 1970's. We weren't miserable, but ate quickly and we're glad to get out of there.
The next morning we got up with the sun around 8am, had breakfast and packed while Alice feed the animals one more time and then we were on the road to Christchurch!
We departed Wellington on the Interislander ferry at 9am. It's a huge boat...our load included several fullsize trucks, including four trailers of cattle. We had a fine breakfast in their cafe and then found comfy seats in the viewing lounge and napped most of the way across Cook Strait. But we were awake for some amazing views of Queen Charlotte Sound as we arrived in Picton.
Having picked up a dark orange RAV4, we made our way to Gusto, the restaurant recommended by the Avis agent. I was impressed that they had something to exactly suit our different tastes (Thai curry for Jason, pasta with mushrooms for Alice, and seafood chowder for me) and it was all very tasty. We looked in one of the souvenir shops and then got on the road.
We drove up to a lookout over the water and then decided to take the scenic route to our lodging in Blenheim. That involved more unsealed road than we expected, sometimes with creek-carved gullies across it that made us glad to be in a vehicle with power and clearance. But it took us up through amazing mountain forests and then right down to the edge of the water in Ocean Bay, Oyster Bay, and White's Bay, before dropping us down into the vineyards on the flat lands of Marlborough.
We made it to the Driftwood Retreat around 4pm, in time to borrow some gumboots from our hosts and head out for a sunset walk. We avoided the actual wetlands, but we're very glad of the boots. We meet some very friendly alpaca, including a baby named Lulu with the silliest face you've ever seen. There were also two different batches of sheep--one white, the other brown--with several tiny lambs running along with them. When we entirely failed to have any treats they let us continue our ramble along the Opawa River, where Will & Rose lead kayaking excursions, and then back along the "stop bank" at sunset as the cows in the next field were running for their barn.
Will recommended Gramado's, so we went there for dinner. It's a Brazilian/Italian restaurant and we had a lovely meal. We shared mussels to start, even Alice, who has been converted by the garlic cream sauce that's very common here. For mains I felt a little silly having the steak, but it was calling to me and turned out to be delicious. Jason had an enormous portion of pork belly with a sweet chili sauce. Our waiter told Alice they could make her pasta with whatever she wanted, so she requested chicken, bacon, and broccoli with cream sauce and was very happy with the results. For dessert we shared an order of churros with dulce de leche and dark chocolate sauces, and then rolled ourselves back out to the farm.
The Retreat is really lovely...made of corrugated metal, raised up on stilts to avoid flooding, it was beautifully finished on the inside with lots of wood and warm touches. There are only two rooms, so Alice got the couch and tv in her room and the breakfast table was in ours, with a kitchenette built into the hallway past the bathroom in between. In the morning the sun rose through the trees just outside the full wall of windows and we enjoyed sunrise from the comfort of our beds. Both mornings Alice got to help feed the animals, including Bobo the Kunekune pig and Rupert, a three-week old lamb they are bottle feeding, as well as all the sheep and alpacas. She had a great time and entertained Will and their young Australian Shepherd dog, Bonnie.
Saturday we spent the entire day with Pamela of Your Local Chauffeur for a tour of local wineries. She was great fun and kept us all entertained, especially Alice. We visited:
- Hunter's Wines, which was founded by an Irish member of the clan in 1979 and is still run by his wife, Jane. We especially liked their 2016 Pinot noir and a blend called The Chase.
- Pataka, a wine & cheese shop that offers tastings of Lake Chalice wines paired with local cheeses. That was fun, but we didn't love any of the wines.
- Saint Clair, where we were hosted by a charming Frenchman named Alex. They had the best Sauvignon Blanc we'd tasted yet, so I bought a bottle and we'll see if it makes it home.
- Vines Village, a collection of specialty shops, where we bought some locally made candy and saw some lovely local arts and crafts. I was particularly intrigued by the scratchboard work of Karen Neal.
- Highfield's, where we tasted wines and then had a marvelous lunch including really delicious lamb agnolotti in a creamy leek sauce and our first encounter with a local fish called gurnard. Their Merlot rosé was delightful and Jason quite enjoyed their oaked Savi.
- Forrest, a quick stop especially to taste their Albariño, which was only ok, but they had some other nice whites in their Two Doctors label. (The founders are a GP and a molecular biologist.)
- Villa Maria, where we had an especially lovely conversation with our host, Steve, a very hip young man. Their Pinot noir was my favorite of the day; fortunately Total Wines carries several of their releases, so I didn't feel the need to make our luggage any heavier.
- Makana Confections, where we got to see inside their factory room and Alice got some very nice chocolate fruits.
- Blue Penguin Gifts, a lovely shop of New Zealand crafts and products.
That made for a long, but lovely day. Our only disappointment with Pamela was her recommendation for dinner: Rocco's, a very old fashioned Italian restaurant that didn't seem to have been updated in any way since the 1970's. We weren't miserable, but ate quickly and we're glad to get out of there.
The next morning we got up with the sun around 8am, had breakfast and packed while Alice feed the animals one more time and then we were on the road to Christchurch!
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Date: 2018-08-14 02:09 am (UTC)