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Boozing in Blenheim
Entry 30 of 75 | show all | print this entry |
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I think the last blog was from Abel Tasman if I can remember correctly, so that would take us to Blenheim next, in Marlborough country, the famous wine area of New Zealand.
We arrived in Blenheim quite late in the evening, well after dark, so we dined under the stars on pot noodles and bread and butter and hit the hay after a few obligatory games of yhatzee.
Awoke the next morning to the sound of many ducks quacking around the van, other campers were feeding them with their leftover bread etc. We sort of adopted one which had a deformed webbed foot, and she was there the following morning for breakfast as well.
We headed into the town centre to the information centre to get some flyers on bike hire in the area. At this point we realised that Blenheim isn't really the heart of the wine district, rather Renwick is, and that was 10 km away and not on the bus line. This wasn't a problem in the end as we found 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 had in Abel Tasman. A few recommendations for wineries to visit for lunch, a map, and emergency phone number in case we were to drunk to cycle (did she know us too well ?) and we were on our way.
First stop on the wine trail was Seresin, named after Micheal Seresin a filmmaker, you may know it from the handprint symbol, which is his own (I always though it was a kids). This is a wine Helen had got quite into whilst in Bermuda. One lunchtime (when her, Heather and Stephanie happened to be in the same restaurant) one of the law firm partners sent over a bottle and told them the one they had wasn't great (ladies that do lunch and all that).
I couldn't keep her of he stuff for the following 6 months. The winery was quite small in comparison to those we had been to in South Africa, but they had a good selection to taste and the elevated views were fairly nice. Unfortunately the bloke in charge of the tasting was a bit of a wine ponce, going on about the bouquets and stuff - not quite Oz Clarke. Regardless, we bought a couple of bottles and also tucked into some tasty bread and lemon olive oil they had (they grow the olives alongside the vines over here).
Next stop was Bladen which had been recommended by the B&B lady. This was a lot more chilled out, we met the owner who took us through all the wines they did without the fancy words and explanations.
We had a good chat with her about her vineyard and what we were up to as well, before purchasing another bottle and heading on our way, Helen's bike a little front heavy now with all the wine in her basket.
We then went to Wairuru River for lunch which had also been recommended by the B&B lady. This was very pleasant with good food and a glass of wine to go with it. The pinot gris was fast becoming one of our favourites rather than the Sauv Blanc the region is famous for.
After lunch we cycled to Herzog to check out the menu for my birthday the following day. It was now looking like a scene from one of those movies were the husband and wife happily cycle along on a warm summers day through the vineyards (except we were wobbling a little bit). The Herzog menu (this was a famous dining experience in NZ) was very complex and a little too over the top, with lamb sweetbreads and the like.
In the end a little too fancy for us with nothing we really would have liked to eat. So we decided against staying in Blenheim for my birthday and instead would drive down to Kaikoura and do dinner there. We did however have some wine at Herzog, served by a girl about our age, who was from Birmingham. We had a good chat with her about home, NZ and what we had been up to on our travels so far whilst tasting some nice wines. This was more of a boutique vineyard and the grapes were mostly French in origin. We eventually bought a bottle of Voignier which was very tasty.
The day was drawing to a close and the last stops on the list were two of the more famous vineyards - Allan Scott and Cloudy Bay. We dropped into Allan Scott first, and did both some fizz tasting (we needed a bottle for the following day) and some beer tasting as well. We picked a good bottle of pop (can't call it champagne coming from NZ can you ?) and I bought a few bottles of some different but tasty cherry beer. We were now pretty loaded up on the bikes with booze when we went across the road to Cloudy Bay - the vineyard that put NZ wines on the map.
Cloudy Bay vineyard wasn't as impressive as we were expecting, and fairly quiet due to it being quite late in the day. We tried their fizz and Sauv Blanc but weren't really impressed with either and due to the weight of the bikes decided against any further purchases, it was also time to get the bikes back as well.
After getting back to the B&B in one piece with all the wine, we were returned to the campsite by the lady's husband with all our purchases.
I think (can't remember that far back) we actually cooked a meal in the van that night and then afterwards went to the cinema to watch "We Own The Night" which was an okay movie and worth a watch. Then kip in preparation for our drive down to Kaikoura the following day.
Latest Comments (1)
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Blenheim Bomber? (reply)
Mar 19, 2008 10:24 EST by therickards
More good pics, though I must say I am surprised that your hands were steady enough after the tastings!
Going on the evidence in photo no 6 you were obviously running late and they had sent the search aircraft out to find you
Dad
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