Pine Hill Rise Bed And Breakfast Blenheim

... notes.

2007 Gimblett Gravels Cellar Selection Syrah – Intense colour, little sign of age. Pepper and blackberries again. Firm tannins, good fruit and acidity, smooth and long.

Cloudy Bay – The best marketed of the Marlborough wines and a swarve place for the tasting with a glass wall behind the room into the cellar.

2006 Pelorus – 84% C******nay, 16% Pinot Noir, 2 year ferment ...

... cestou jsme se kochali vyhledem na Queen Charlotte Sound a Cook Straight. Z Jizniho ostrova se nam ale vubec nechtelo, moc se nam tu libilo a opousteli jsme ho s tezkym srdcem. Zaroven jsme ale byli plni ocekavani co se tykalo Severniho ostrova a uz tehdy jsme vazne zacali uvazovat o tom, ze si nas pobyt na NZ o tyden prodlouzime. Na Jiznim ostrove jsme totiz stravili mnohem vice casu, nez jsme si puvodne naplanovali, ale rozhodne toho nelitujem. :-)

... weiterging. Nach 5 min nix...10 Min...20 Min...30 Min... Wir waren dann so verzweifelt, dass Simon mich auf den Ruecken nahm und ich das Schild hochgehalten hab, hatten halt Gaudi!!! Uns nahm dann eine Neuseelaenderin mit, die grad von einem 1 Woechigen Festival kam, so sah es dann auch im Auto aus also wie Dresden 1945!! Naja sie war echt nett aber etwas verstrahlt, fuhr auch immer gefährlich weit auf... Naja wir kamen dann wieder heile in Christchurch an...war echt mal ne audi!!

... to rain before we got the end of the route and it was just too cold to continue so we decided to head back to base to warm up. As both Andy and I have spent many a year in Cape Town and have tried many of the wine farms there, it was great to go on a wine route with a difference - it did help that the farms were close together and the roads were fairly flat ...

Kia Ora, am zweiten Tag waren es dann etwas ueber 20km zu wandern, zu Beginn (gestern und heute morgen) klettert man ueber zwei knapp 250km hohe Saettel, dann aber ist es eine langgezogene recht flache Angelegenheit um eine Bucht herum. Auf diesem Teilstueck sieht man daher ziemlich viele Touristen. Mit ihren Kindern... Das "gute" an diesem Track ist, dass man ihn an vielen Stellen mit dem Boot erreichen kann (und an einigen ...

... was picking us up for our gastronomic experience of the holiday.... Herzog, michelin starred restaurant with its own vineyard, we arrived having already decide on the 5 course degustation menu. Matched wines with each course, waiters appearing out of every crack and crevice of the place. Rated as NZ's best restaurant in 2006 (what happened since then?). It was truly fantastic, amuse bouches of octopus, marinated feta croutons & ...

... the very tight and crowed carpark!). Travelling by boat Pelorus Sound is 42km long end to end, but has 379km of shoreline! When I mentioned earlier that the road was winding this gives you some idea of how much and how many bends there are on the road (to say nothing of the ups and downs of the hills just to add further interest!). We found a delightful and secluded DOC campsite on a a beautful cove which we had ...

... nights (in our tent) ourselves as we liked it so much. The town itself was also quite pretty, not what you'd imagine from the place where all the ferries come to port, so South Island made a very good first impression on us. We left Picton for a trip along the Queen Charlotte Drive, which was meant to be very pretty and again didnt disappoint, lots of beautiful scenery and incredibly windy ...

... a bike hire company in Renwick (Old Mill House) that would pick you up and then return you to Blenhiem. The lady that picked us was very nice, she had run a B&B for a few years, realized that people wanted to hire bikes to get around the vineyards and so incorporated that into her B&B business. She kitted us out with the bikes, helmets, panniers (for the wine purchases) additionally the bikes had comfy seats which was a relief after the ones we ...

... than back home, a refrain that we have heard before. I still think I could live on a lot less or work 2 jobs if I could get out of the States, particularly if I did not need a car, but it DOES make me think some more. We have advised the office staff of my predicament. I have received another call from a man, probably the Consulate guy responding to my (third) voicemail. I don't expect them to be in on the weekend, and now that I know I can get on the plane to SFO, I'm less concerned ...