6) The drive from Picton to Nelson and grapes
Aside: I’m back! Sorry for abruptly dropping off the face of the earth, but shortly after getting back from this trip I started shuttling back and forth to Virginia to look at houses, do a home inspection, close on a house, etc. as I moved from Lincoln, NE, to Lexington, VA. Then there was the whole starting a new job thing that sucked up all of my time.
It was sprinkling as I headed to the Hertz “office” at the Picton ferry terminal, but I didn’t really think anything of it. The lady I’d been chatting to on the ferry suggested that I take a more scenic route to Nelson than the most direct highway route, so I glanced at the map and settled on something I thought might work out nicely. I wasn’t in any hurry, after all. Shortly, however, I realized that I maybe should have thought about things more carefully. The rain quickly became a downpour, and the windy road (if there’s a stretch of straight road in NZ longer than 1 km, I’d be astounded) requiring me to drive on the left-hand side of the road was almost too much. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of interconnectivity of roads on the South Island. Once you make a decision about a road, you’re stuck on it for quite a ways unless you want to bail off onto truly minor roads. Fortunately there were enough scenic few turnoffs for me to pull over and take a break when I needed it. Because of the weather, not many photos to share, but I did happen upon a site that shows one of the South Island’s industries: logging.
Logging by
mitchkeller, on Flickr
Eventually I found my way off Queen Charlotte Drive and onto something less narrow and winding. By this time, I was getting hungry, so I stopped in Havelock. I’d seen signs promoting the town for its mussels and in particular the mussel chowder at The Mussel Pot, so I figured that it was worth a stop. It definitely was, as I was able to have a leisurely (and tasty) lunch while looking over the Nelson wine map I’d picked up on the ferry. One thing I hadn’t anticipated when timing my stops was that since it was autumn, it was off season (or at best shoulder season) for the Nelson wineries. This meant that a lot of them would be closed on Saturday, so I had to figure out which ones I could still make on Friday and settle on a couple to visit on Saturday. Since I just had the one night, I figured if I got in two Friday afternoon and two or three Saturday morning, I’d be good. Friday I managed to make it to Richmond Plains/Te Mania Estates. They have a pretty broad spectrum of grapes, and the person handling the tasting was really friendly and chatty (a common trait amongst Kiwis, in my experience). Another person she knew came in to taste and settle on some bottles as gifts, so it was a fun stop. They’re apparently known for their pinot blanc, but it didn’t strike my fancy, so I grabbed a bottle of their sauvignon blanc, which was more to my liking. I then headed off to Seifried, the oldest winery in the area. They sold their original vineyard a while back and planted anew, but they’re still doing great stuff in an old world style, being Austrian immigrants. They had a lot of good stuff, but I settled on their Sweet Agnes Riesling and a bottle of zweigelt. I really, really liked the zweigelt and wish that I could get it in the US. I’ve found their distributor, but it seems that they are only importing whites from this vineyard at the time. The zweigelt seemed so very appropriate with my upcoming stop in glacier country. It’s a very earthy red (but not one that smacks you in your face with the earthiness) that I suspected would be a great way to warm up after a day on a giant sheet of ice.
After those two wineries, I was at the time everything else was closed, so I decided to try to find my hotel. Even with my iPhone handling GPS duties, this was a bit of a feat. I was staying at the Aloha Lodge Beachside Accommodation, which appears may actually be in an area of Nelson known as Tahunanui. (No pics, but it’s a pretty standard mom-and-pop tourist hotel.) On the map, it looked like it was on the main drag, but it’s actually on a side street that’s really hard to turn onto if you’re not coming from the right direction. They also had a poorly illuminated sign, so I drove right by the first time I actually got on the right road. Eventually I got there and checked in. The desk clerk said that since they had really low occupancy, she’d prepare a breakfast tray for me and bring it to my room that night so I could eat at my leisure. In a manner similar to stays in Australia previously, I was given a checklist of yoghurt types, cereals, bread types, (canned) fruit types, spreads and jams, juices, and probably some other things I’ve forgotten. The tray was brought over before bed time as planned and made for a good breakfast the next morning.
An unplanned downside to my accommodation location was that dinner options nearby were meager. I was still whipped after the drive from Picton, so I wanted something local. The Internet was not too helpful, but I eventually settled on a Thai place nearby. It seems that it’s a chain, but most chains in NZ would hardly be considered such in the US given the limited population and geographic spread. The pad thai was satisfying if not terribly authentic.
Saturday morning I woke up and decided I’d better Skype DL to get my seat in first class on ATL-OMA, which was relatively painless. (In theory I could have called the NZ reservations line, but I didn’t really trust their ability to make the change without mucking something up along the way, such as losing my TPAC J seat.) I then headed off on a fine autumn day to check out a beautiful area and taste some more wines. Before wine, however, I decided to head to the Nelson market, which came highly-recommended. I snagged a couple kilos of new crop apples for trail snacks in the coming days and enjoyed wandering around and looking at all the local goods for sale. There were some really neat outdoor decorations that I was intrigued by, but I didn’t relish the idea of clearing customs in HKG, NRT, and ATL with a wooden item that I might have to declare. I settled on two mugs made by a local potter. One for my mom, who loves pottery of that sort, and another for me featuring an etching of a kiwi in the unglazed portion. After the market, I figured it was time for some wine. My first stop was at Woollaston Estates, where it was really cool to see sheep out grazing amongst the vines. This is a winery that has catering and clearly does a number of events, and although photos can’t really do the surroundings justice, let’s give it a try:
Woollaston Estates by
mitchkeller, on Flickr
Woollaston Estates by
mitchkeller, on Flickr
Woollaston Estates by
mitchkeller, on Flickr
At Woollaston Estates I grabbed a bottle of riesling. I don’t remember which vintage it was, but I do remember how the neat part of the tasting was going through three different vintages (from consecutive years) of riesling and seeing how incredibly different the wines were. I then headed off to Kahurangi Estates, where a friend of my friend is the cellar door manager. Unfortunately, with it being a Saturday, she was off. However, the guy running the tasting was great and let me taste more than I was supposed to, I think. They do wood-fired pizzas on site, so I figured this would be a good time and place to stop for lunch. Again at Kahurangi Estates I was really impressed with a red. They were pouring the last of one vintage of montepulciano and starting into the next, so I got to try both. I decided that it would pair nicely with the pizza I was about to order, so I ordered a glass of the older vintage, as I liked it a hair more. Turns out there wasn’t a full glass (probably 2/3), so I got that and then the server brought me a full glass of the new vintage, all for the price of one glass. The pizza really hit the spot, and I ate it slowly to make sure that I was good to drive before hitting the road again. The last thing I needed when I had days and days of rental car bookings left in NZ was an arrest for drink driving. (I suspect that I would have been quickly shown to an airport and sent away in Y had that happened, anyway.)
Up next: Nelson to Reefton: Hiking Six Mile Creek Track and Driving in the Dark