Rest of the weekend, and pictures

The Edwin Fox, looking aft:



The tiller:



Copper cladding:





Renwick vineyards:





Lake Roitoiti:







Today I pottered around Nelson for a bit. A pretty town, with a very Sixties cathedral and a little pretty historic park with old buildings in it which was good for an hour's wander. There was a booksale on too but I didn't find anything I really wanted. Somebody was apparently ditching their entire Frederick Forsyth collection.





Then I drove back to Picton along the scenic route; winding roads, mountains and glorious sunshine. These were the Marlborough Sounds as sun began to set.



I was hoping to get back for choir, but really it was too late and I was too tired so I skiived. Ooops.

Happy Birthday, your Majesty!

I find it very odd that NZ celebrates the Queen's Birthday when we don't at home. Apart from the Trooping of the Colour, that is, but it hardly counts as only tourists go and watch it. I suppose it's partly to do with having a Bank Holiday the week before for May.

Anyway, I'm taking advantage of the Queen's Birthday holiday tomorrow to get away from Wellington for the weekend. Not that I don't like Wellington, I do, but after all I'm here to see as much of NZ as I can before I go home, whenever that may be. And seeing as there's so much of NZ to see, I think I need to take all the chances I get.

So I got up early yesterday to fly to Picton with lovely Sounds Air. I was a bit daft actually and managed to get the time wrong, so I thought my flight was at 7.15am. That was, in fact, when I was supposed to check in, so I had half an hour to kill at the airport when I could have been asleep. Oh well. It was worth getting the early flight though because the light flying over the Sounds was utterly stunning; the sun was just coming up and everything was golden and calm and beautiful.

Picked up my car in Picton, an amusing little blue thing which doesn't like hills but otherwise appears to be behaving itself. I was (as will be revealed later) very grateful for it being a little hatchback. Breakfast was leisurely and scrambled eggs in a cafe with the Saturday Dominion Post - terribly civilised.

After that I thought about going straight to Renwick, my first stop, and getting straight into the wine tasting but I realised I wouldn't actually need the whole day for wine tasting. Instead I went to visit the Edwin Fox, the ninth oldest sailing ship in the world (who's measuring these things?) The Edwin Fox was built in Calcutta in 1853 as an East Indiaman, very old-fashioned even when she was constructed. She spent a few decades sailing round and round the world before fetching up in NZ, where she spent a while as a freezer ship of all things and then was used for coal storage. Eventually she got left on a sandbar in Picton harbour, where she languished listing to starboard for some time.

But because some people are ship geeks, they decided to rescue her. About eight years ago she was refloated and towed across into a dry dock, where she in now with a roof over her. Her masts have been gone since the freezer ship days, and her timber shows the ravages of the sun, sea and tide (better where she was submerged and where she was in ballast). Her port side, left exposed, has about half its copper cladding still; the starboard side is almost completed clad after all these years.

There's a little museum you go round before boarding the ship - though the main deck's gone the tween deck is still half-complete, and you can also go down into her hull. She's incredibly deep - built not for speed but for carrying a lot of stuff. When I was wandering around the hull in shippy happiness the vice-president of the trust working to preserve her turned up, and proceeded to show me round with lots of detail. He even took me up to the stern and showed me her great rudder-post and the hole which was the ship's safe, and pointed out all sorts of little anomalies like alternating inferior timber and that sort of thing. And he took me into the dock to have a look at her from below. He was wonderfully enthusiastic and it was lovely to have a personal guided tour! I even ended up with a nail that had fallen out from where the copper sheeting was coming loose, as a souvenir. :)

After the tour I got back in my amusing car and drove to Renwick. R&E had recommended staying in a backpackers there called Watson's Way, renting bikes and cycling round the local wineries, so that's just what I did. I managed to not buy very much wine because I don't have much room in my bags and it's heavy, but I did manage to taste plenty. Cycling tipsy is quite amusing, particularly on a glorious, unseasonably warm winter's afternoon. Many of the wines I tried are on sale in my local liquor store, so I shall toddle along there at some point with my lists. It was fun.

Spent the evening reading and partaking of steak and chips in the local tavern. Mmm. Slept badly, because the dorm was too hot and I had funny wine-induced dreams.

Today I headed off promptly towards forbidding-looking skies west of Marlborough for Nelson Lakes National Park. The skies cleared as I got there and I was able to see Lake Roitoki in the sunshine, snow-capped mountains on the horizon. Not much snow though considering it's June. It was pretty chilly though, that crisp Alpine chill. I went for a bit of a walk, about three hours but nothing too challenging, through forests and then along by the lake.

After that, drove to Nelson through a rainstorm, checked into tonight's backpackers (free internet, friendly dog, nice bunch of guests), before going out to see Becoming Jane at the cinema. Good film, slightly spoilt by an annoying couple chattering all through. I mean honestly, if you're going to spend $13 each on going to the cinema why not actually watch the film?

Tomorrow I'm going to potter around Nelson before driving back to Picton the scenic route. Hopefully I'll be back in Wellington just in time for choir, or at any rate not too late ...

Pictures later this week.

The Wairarapa

Before I started work three weeks ago I took a couple of days and drove north to the Wairarapa. It was a last chance for a bit of holiday, and also an opportunity to get back in a car after a year and a half. The last time I drove was in Wales in September 2005, and that was over three years after the previous time. It's safe to say I'm short of practice. Luckily I got an automatic so driving was really easy and the roads are, relatively, quiet.

I took State Highway 2 up through the Hutt Valley on a beautiful autumn day. First stop was Kaitoke Park, a smallish woodland reserve which happened to be the location for Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings. I arrived just after a couple of tours groups doing the Middle-earth Tours thing that's a popular tourist option round here. Instead of following them straight to the Rivendell site I walked through the forest the long way. It was pretty and quiet and I was utterly happy in a peaceful sort of way - just me and my camera.





The Rivendell bit was actually fairly disappointing. You can't really visualise it as it was when they had lots of pretty Elvish buildings there. It's nice in a sylvan sort of way, I suppose, but nothing special compared to the rest of Kaitoke. I followd yet another tour group and eavesdropped on what the guide was saying: "Here's where Aragorn stood with the princess ... what was her name ..." Excellent quality stuff. Not.

Anyway I jumped back in my car and headed off again, over the very windy Rimutaka Hill. That caught me off-guard a bit - one minute I was gaily bowling along at 100kph on a nice straight bit of road, the next I was doing 30kph up this great big hill. And the radio reception went.

It didn't take long to get to the Wairarapa, where it was hot and sunny. I checked into the nice little campsite in Martinborough for the bargain price of $12.50 - I paid more for every one of the bottles of wine I later bought - and put up my tent for the first time. It turned out to be slightly trickier than R&E's tent, but I got it up eventually. Though next time I need more tension in the under-tent bit. And I need a groundsheet, which I'd forgotten to buy. Luckily despite rain the night before the ground was bone dry and remained that way.

I left the car and went for a walk, camera on my back with a handy bottle of water which I needed - it was sweltering.





I arrived at the first vineyard, Tirangi, rather parched. The people there were really welcoming and a rather sweet bloke with a bit of a stutter took me through the wine on offer and explained the region to me. The Wairarapa is a newish wine growing region, famous mostly for its Pinot Noir although actually everything is good. It tends to get very hot days and cold nights, which is good for the grapes. Most of the vineyards are boutique and few export outside NZ - in fact even the big New World supermarket here in Wellington doesn't sell any Wairarapa Pinot Noirs, which is insane. Consequently they're not the cheapest wines in the world, but they are very very good. I tasted a couple at Tirangi and on discovering that my clever plan to drive around the next day and buy lots of bottles was foiled by Good Friday licensing laws, bought a bottle of their rose.

Next stop was Ata Rangi, one of the better-known Wairarapa vineyards. A very friendly lady poured me wine and we discussed the weather. I got Pinot Gris from Ata Rangi but was wishing I hadn't got the Tirangi rose because the Ata Rangi stuff was delicious. Since then I found it in my local liquor store. Hurrah!

After that, feeling mellow and happy, I strolled along the road to Muirlea Rise, where my tasting was interrupted by an Irish couple complaining about the very small tasting fee in most of the vineyards. They didn't taste, but disappeared to try and find free wine. They wouldn't have had much luck. I departed with a 2004 Merlot that was being sold off as it was the last of the vintage.

My last vineyard was possibly the nicest. The owner was a cheerful bloke, casual and friendly, who explained that Murchison is a very small family-run affair which makes its wines the old-fashioned way - ie slowly. He was right, too, because his wines all tasted very French in a good way. Like proper Bordeaux. And I tried a delicious sort of liqueur/dessert wine they make from wine and French cognac, which tasted like Christmas pudding. I left there with an expensive bottle of Pinot Noir which went down very well with Easter lamb on the following Sunday!

I faffed the rest of the day. Dropped my wine off at the campsite because it was heavy, had a coffee and read the paper at the village cafe, panic-bought food for breakfast and lunch because everywhere was going to be closed for Good Friday. Then I went to the little arthouse cinema in Martinborough and saw Miss Potter - predictably schmaltzy, but good - and ate lovely pizza with Ata Rangi rose.

Slept well in my tent but it was soaking with condensation when I woke up. Very frustrating - I had to pack it damp. I was on the road before 9.30am heading for LOTR location of the weekend number 2, the Putangirua Pinnacles, or the Paths of the Dead.



The Pinnacles are really one of the coolest places I've been. The rock is very very soft, and crumbles to the touch. They're high, and they're like towers in strange shapes. Well worth the visit. I tried to find the Pinnacles lookout walking back from being among them, but after two aborted efforts to find the path gave up. Both efforts involved me scrambling up increasingly narrow gorges, under trees and over rocks, and I have no idea where the signposted path actually was.

I had a car, and I had time, so the last stop for the weekend was Cape Palliser. At the end of a long coastal road, and 5km of fun fun fun gravel track (ugh) there's a lighthouse and a seal colony.





I enjoyed looking at the seals, although I got growled at by one because I didn't see it lying under a rock and was a bit too close. Made me jump.

Then I drove back, with the radio on most of the way. A thoroughly enjoyable couple of days.