In The Scrum
I know it's been a while, and there are some adventures that I'll have to relate later. I arrived in beautiful Queenstown on Saturday (it's Thursday night here) . I arrived in typical high style on the InterCity bus from Christchurch (follow along with your map if you like). The bus crossed the magnificent Southern Alps twice via high passes, stopping at Lake Tekapo and affording clear views of EnZed's highest peak - Mt. Cook/Aoraki. 
Mt.Cook - Aoraki
Queenstown is a lakeside resort community nestled around NZ's longest lake - Wakatipu - at the south end of the Alps. Not only is it the best place to throw oneself off of a bridge/mountain/slope/glacier/boat . . . , it is also home to the Central Otago wine region and my dear friend Margo.
I'm staying with Marge in her furnished flat below her, and my, current boss, Domenic Mondillo and the lovely Ally. Dom manages 170 acres of vineyard for Gibbston Valley winery, along with his own vines and various other properties. He has just started his own label, and hopes to be debt free by 2020. The flat has a view of the lake and a washer and dryer - heaven. I have joined Margo working amongst the vines just this week. The land is sandy silty loam and the area is dry, so they use full irrigation. Much of the farming is done by machine - trimming and hedging as well as leaf-pulling and laying net - which is what we've been doing out at Bendigo Station this week. Seems NZ has some starlings who love to strip vineyards of their fruit. It's pretty wild wrapping hectares of vineyard in nylon netting, stringing the nets together and weighting the edges down with rock. The result is Christo like in style and scale.
The blokes reckon it would look better in 'Saffron'
Other than birds - including Magpies and Harrier Hawks, I don't see much animal life in the vineyard. A few earwigs and ladybugs and some whitetail hunting spiders I've been warned about. Oh, and the rabbits, which some Englishman (Pommy) introduced to the country and now they've (the bunnies) made a good mess of it. We're hoping to get some target practice in soon. Ah, the romance of the wine lifestyle.
I played rugby yesterday. Yes, you heard me right. Actually, 'touch', which is I'm told, very unlike true rugby. Margo's friend Kali is on an intramural team and was kind enough to let me muck it up for a bit. It's six to a side, you get 5 or 6 'downs' you can only pass backwards and a goal is called a 'try' . Try as I did, I kept running ahead of the ball and was offsides so often the the ref stopped calling me on it and started coaching me from onfield instead. He told me to "put the hammer down" when I was in possession. All I managed was to put down was a big bottle of Speight's (pride of the South) in the clubroom after, that and some handmade sausages and chips at Kali and Scotty's house later. Good stuff.
We won some mystery meat in the post-rugby raffle!
Gotta go and hit the sack - more net to lay tomorrow. This weekend should include some winetasting and some more rugby, purely spectator this time. I plan to keep working and exploring the South Island from my Queenstown base as long as Margo and Dom can stand me. The Milford Sound and the West Coast are calling, and there is always more wine to drink, ummm, taste.
p.s. I made it to the Sounds
too bad this bloody Yank got in the way of the beautiful scenery
Mt.Cook - Aoraki
Queenstown is a lakeside resort community nestled around NZ's longest lake - Wakatipu - at the south end of the Alps. Not only is it the best place to throw oneself off of a bridge/mountain/slope/glacier/boat . . . , it is also home to the Central Otago wine region and my dear friend Margo.
I'm staying with Marge in her furnished flat below her, and my, current boss, Domenic Mondillo and the lovely Ally. Dom manages 170 acres of vineyard for Gibbston Valley winery, along with his own vines and various other properties. He has just started his own label, and hopes to be debt free by 2020. The flat has a view of the lake and a washer and dryer - heaven. I have joined Margo working amongst the vines just this week. The land is sandy silty loam and the area is dry, so they use full irrigation. Much of the farming is done by machine - trimming and hedging as well as leaf-pulling and laying net - which is what we've been doing out at Bendigo Station this week. Seems NZ has some starlings who love to strip vineyards of their fruit. It's pretty wild wrapping hectares of vineyard in nylon netting, stringing the nets together and weighting the edges down with rock. The result is Christo like in style and scale.
The blokes reckon it would look better in 'Saffron'
Other than birds - including Magpies and Harrier Hawks, I don't see much animal life in the vineyard. A few earwigs and ladybugs and some whitetail hunting spiders I've been warned about. Oh, and the rabbits, which some Englishman (Pommy) introduced to the country and now they've (the bunnies) made a good mess of it. We're hoping to get some target practice in soon. Ah, the romance of the wine lifestyle.
I played rugby yesterday. Yes, you heard me right. Actually, 'touch', which is I'm told, very unlike true rugby. Margo's friend Kali is on an intramural team and was kind enough to let me muck it up for a bit. It's six to a side, you get 5 or 6 'downs' you can only pass backwards and a goal is called a 'try' . Try as I did, I kept running ahead of the ball and was offsides so often the the ref stopped calling me on it and started coaching me from onfield instead. He told me to "put the hammer down" when I was in possession. All I managed was to put down was a big bottle of Speight's (pride of the South) in the clubroom after, that and some handmade sausages and chips at Kali and Scotty's house later. Good stuff.
We won some mystery meat in the post-rugby raffle!
Gotta go and hit the sack - more net to lay tomorrow. This weekend should include some winetasting and some more rugby, purely spectator this time. I plan to keep working and exploring the South Island from my Queenstown base as long as Margo and Dom can stand me. The Milford Sound and the West Coast are calling, and there is always more wine to drink, ummm, taste.
p.s. I made it to the Sounds
too bad this bloody Yank got in the way of the beautiful scenery
posted by Sur Lie at 9:36 PM
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