Auckland to Pukititiriri

Tuesday 17th January

Sorry for the lack of posts but we've just been too busy to get them up. Add to that a lack of wifi and its been tough. We let mum and dad sleep in on their first morning in New Zealand, although, they didn't exactly get up much later than we were anyway. The first job we had to do was repack the car, with the additions of 2 large suitcases, a hand luggage suitcase and 2 extra people. The car looked full but we would definitely all be able to fit in. After that was sorted, we checked out of our room and headed out in to Auckland to have a look around, leaving the car in the secure car park. Our main task was to find somewhere to have a cooked breakfast but within 10 minutes, we had managed to get ourselves slightly lost. With mine and Charlotte's vague knowledge of Auckand we managed to get ourselves back on track and walked along the harbour front and past Britomart, which is the downtown area. As we were standing at the traffic lights at the bottom of Queen Street looking suspiciously like tourists, a local lady came up and asked if we were looking for anything in particular. We said a place for breakfast and she pointed us in the direction of viaduct wharf. We found a café that seemed reasonable and parked ourselves on a table outside to watch the world go by. The breakfast was okay but it filled us up and we were ready for the day ahead. We'd only booked 1 night in Auckland as there isn't a whole lot to see in the city, so we wandered up Queen Street, with Dad picking up a new pair of shoes, had a quick look around Aotea  Square and then returned to the car to hit the highway. Before leaving Auckland for good, we made a quick stop at the Mt.Eden lookout which gave excellent views across the city and out across the Hauraki Gulf.

We were driving down to the city of Rotorua, which would be the first major stop on my mum and dads trip around New Zealand. The sun was shining, whilst they fell asleep in the back of the car. In order to stretch our legs we pulled over in the town of Matamata, which is famous for being where the set of Hobbiton is from the Lord of the Rings series of films. We didn't see any hobbits but the local information centre had been designed to look like a hobbit house. We all got a drink at a café where we could keep an eye on our fully loaded car and basked in the glorious sunshine. We only had an hour remaining until we arrived in Rotorua and, when we did, we immediately checked in to our accommodation, which was a “tourist flat” at Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park.

We didn't stick around for long and headed straight out to have a look around. The only problem was that mum was driving and it was her first time to ever drive an automatic. We got there safely but it was an interesting ride. When I say there, I mean the Redwood park. Charlotte and I had visited when we'd come through a few months earlier. We went for a stroll through the park and admired the huge trees, before setting off into Rotorua in search of dinner. Despite our reluctance to dine in “Eat Street”, we ended up there and were pleasantly surprised by the prices and the food we received. After dinner, we all got ourselves an ice cream each and headed for the shores of Lake Rotorua. We took great amusement out of watching the unsophisticated people stuffing their faces with McDonalds and Burger King, before we called it a day. When we got back to our room, we sat on our deck and had a few drinks while the sun disappeared below the horizon and the mosquitos came out to play. That ended mum and dads first full day in New Zealand. It had involved a long drive, so we would really be able to get down to things the following day.

Wednesday 18th January

We were up bright and early, keen to get out and about and have a look around. After breakfast, it was Dad’s turn to have a go at driving an automatic. He made it look slightly easier than mum had but Charlotte and I still clung on for dear life. We parked up in town and went for a wander. Rotorua is famous for its geothermal features and that's what we were heading for. The government gardens is a large park in the centre of the city that contains a few easily accessible features like a steaming pool that Maori’s used to use as a burial spot for their warriors, so their bones could remain undisturbed. After our jaunt around the government gardens we stopped for a coffee to ponder our next move.

We came to the conclusion that mum and dad would have to take a dip in a hot pool and the easiest way to do that was to go at the holiday park. When we got back, we donned out togs and wandered down the hot pools. As we'd already experienced the energy sapping qualities of the hot polls, charlotte didn't venture in but I thought I had better go in with mum and dad, just so they didn't feel as though we were waiting around for them. We spent around 15 minutes soaking in the hot pools and then transferred to the much colder swimming pool that was just next door. When we were done, we all got scrubbed up for an evening out and then played cards to pass the time. After so long of playing dull 2 players games, the 2 extra players were a welcome relief. The time came and we wandered down to meet the bus that would be taking us to our Maori experience evening and hangi feast. On the way there a “chief” was elected for our “tribe” so as they could represent us during the Maori greeting ceremony. There was 5 groups overall, with 5 different chiefs and they were all given and all gave a present to the Maori meeting party when we arrived. It was, apparently, traditional and how it would have been when the explorers first came in contact with the Maoris around 200 years ago. After we'd been greeted, we were all taken inside the Maori village and shown various features of their culture. These included the Haka, the war dance made famous by the revered All Blacks at the beginning of their rugby matches, their Waka, or canoes, tattooing jade carving and poi. The latter was a pastime undertaken by the Maori women to improve their dexterity and flexibility and involved a weighted ball on a piece of string that they would wave around in various patterns. As this was an interactive evening, Charlotte was one of the lucky (if that's the correct word) participants with the poi. After we'd been shown around the village, it was time to check out the hangi meal as it was removed from the ground. As I've said, the hangi is the traditional Maori feast and is prepared by steaming the food under grown using the smoke from slow burning wood such as the Manuka tree. This was just quick stop before we were shown one final performance of traditional songs and a full Haka. Finally, it was time for our feast and we were all led to restaurant to tuck in. It was a large spread of lamb, chicken and fish alongside carrots, kumara, potatoes and some stuffing. We were full to the brim once we'd finished but all of us but my dad managed to squeeze in some pavlova, steamed pudding and fruit for pudding. Having eaten, it was time to head off, so we all piled back to the coached and were driven back to our accommodation. It was a good night with good food and was very interesting to see the Maori culture and was also a good introduction to the culture for my mum and dad.

Thursday 19th January

In keeping with habit, we were all up bright and early and had the car packed ready to leave at 8. As we had places to be, we didn't thing it necessary to hang around and hit the road. The destination was Wai-o-Tapu thermal wonderland. Old hat for Charlotte and myself but all new to mum and dad. We left them to it whilst we sat outside and waited for them over a rather expensive filter coffee. We'd given them a time to be out by, as we were heading for a geyser that erupted at a certain time and we were surprised to see them back out, ordering their own coffee, with plenty of time to spare. The geyser was only a 2 minute drive away but the late comers to the thermal wonderland had arrived before us so it was fairly busy. At 10:15, a Maori chap came out, explained to everyone about geysers and this particular one, the Lady Knox geyser before emptying his bag of soap powder and scarpering before it erupted. It erupted considerably quicker than it had done when Charlotte and I first visited but the water didn't reach the same heights. It was still impressive though and mum and dad left feeling pretty pleased having seen a real life geyser. As we returned to the car it started to rain but we did manage to squeeze in a quick stop at a bubbling pool of mud just up the road from the geyser. From there, we drive down to the lakeside city of Taupo, where we stopped to have a quick look at the roaring Huka Falls and then proceeded on to the city itself, where we stopped and made a dash through the rain to have a drink at the Crafty Trout brewery. A couple of beers later, mum, being the designated driver, started us off on the road towards the coastal town of Napier.

For the first hour of the drive the weather was horrendous, with torrential rain making the visibility poor and the roads treacherous. As we crested the coastal mountain ranges near the Pacific though, the weather cleared and we were welcomed in to Hawke’s Bay by bright sunshine and warm temperatures. We checked in to our accommodation at Napier Beach Holiday Park  before driving in to town. Our first stop was Bluff a hill lookout. Again, Charlotte and I had visited before but felt it was worth a trip on a beautiful day. We watched a freight ship enter port and admired the views across the bay right out towards Gisborne on the opposite side. Afterwards, we drove down into Napier city centre and checked out some of the famous Art Deco architecture. After Napier and nearby Hastings were completely destroyed by a powerful earthquake in 1931, they were both totally rebuilt using the style and it has helped make them a huge draw for tourists, including us! Once we'd had enough of the building we grabbed a beer and decided to try dinner at a place that we'd been told offered all you can eat ribs. Unfortunately though, the all you can eat ribs had gone by the wayside but we still had a pretty hearty dinner each and retired to the campsite with some beers and trained mum and dad up in how to play Cribbage. Charlotte maintained her winning streak, this time with the help of dad, to win pretty comfortably both times we played. 

Friday 20th January

We awoke early so Dad could fulfill one of his ambitions. Despite being pretty chilly, he took very little time to submerge himself in the azure waters of the Pacific Ocean. He was out almost as quick as he'd gone in but nobody could deny he'd been in. Once dried, we packed the cars and headed back in to Napier to find some breakfast and have another look around. It wasn't long before we were sat in a busy cafe, eating by far the best breakfast we'd had so far and considering our options. We'd seen Napier and as we didn't want to arrive at our next accommodation too early, we decided to pay a visit to nearby Hastings to pass the afternoon. We drove to the adjoining suburb of Havelock North and paid a visit to the Arataki honey outlet. With Manuka honey being such big business in New Zealand, we though it was worth mum and dad having a taste to see what all the fuss was about. There were numerous varieties to try and a large bee/honey educational area too which was worth a read. Once we'd had our sugar fix, we reckoned it was time for some more and headed into Hastings city centre for some lunch followed up with an ice cream at Rush Munroe’s, which is a Hawke’s Bay institution. By the time we'd eaten so much we were ready to explode, it was time to start the drive inland towards Taramoa Farm. We'd stayed on the farm previously when we'd woofed and docked lambs tails and the tenants, Billie and Dan, had kindly offered us the chance to stay with them. We'd gladly taken them up on the offer and were looking forward to showing mum and dad a real slice of rural New Zealand. The only slight drawback was that it was an hours drive up a windy country road but that's the point of being rural. When we arrived we were greeted by Billie, Dan and their 2 children Luke and Eva. We had a catch up over a coffee and were given the lowdown on life in a farm so far away from civilisation. After that, we were very kindly offered dinner, which we simply couldn't refuse. We'd guessed that they would offer us dinner but came prepared with baked beans and a loaf of bread incase of emergencies. After our roast lamb which probably came fresh from the farm, we venture out in to the farm (just the 4 of us) and had a look around. First stop was a look at the dogs who were all incredibly pleased to see us but we're all stuck in there cages, so we couldn't really give them too much attention. Our walk around the farm took us to some exposed yards where Charlotte and I had previously done a bit of docking during our previous stay. The walk gave spectacular views across to the Kaweka Forest and down into numerous valleys surrounding the farm. We kept an eye on some angry looking clouds creeping over the hills and when they seemed too close, we returned to the car and then to the safety of the farmhouse. We had a relaxing evening, or what was left of it, although we did start to worry slightly when Billie enquired as to the rest of our itinerary and then queried whether or not a certain road was open in the South Island after the huge earthquake that hit Kaikoura back in November. We had a quick look online and decided that it was open, which was a bit of a relief. After some homemade carrot cake, we all retired to bed mum and dad in the spare room and Charlotte and myself in Luke’s room, with Luke having to sleep in his sisters room.

James and Charlotte

Auckland: Jetlagged

Good evening! 

This is just a quick post to say that my mum and dad arrived in Auckland today, on time and in one piece after 4 long flights over the weekend. We checked in to a 2 bedroom apartment in central Auckland for the night and spent the evening catching up. Thanks to their serious amount of jetlag they didn't fancy getting out in to the busy streets, so fingers crossed we'll be able to get a few more photos and readable activities up from tomorrow!

James and Charlotte

Ake Ake Vineyard: Thank pluck for that

Sunday 8th January

After 8 weeks of plucking leaves and cleaning motel rooms, the end was finally coming into view as we rounded the final bend. Having said that, I still had plenty of Pinot Gris to get through before we could even think about finishing and Charlotte had made the upcoming Saturday her final day, so there would be no respite for her. After 2 short weeks on the bounce, it was nice to be back to work on a Sunday and safe in the knowledge that I could rack up a fairly decent weeks total without too much struggle. When Charlotte arrived home and I'd done 7 hours for the day, we retired to the bus in order to have a bit of a play with the present we'd received from Michael and Lianna. There were 2 pots of fake snow that we had to add water too in order to make it more sticky, like snow is. Rather than do it separate, we pooled our pots together, although Charlotte didn't really get the idea and made a huge snowman, which left me with a dinky little one. We scavenged some accessories like vine leaf stems for arms and a pipe, a broccoli leaf for eyes a small plastic comb that we'd found in one of our crackers. We left them sitting on the table whilst we had dinner, which was chicken, mash and veg and was really delicious.

Monday 9th January

As I was progressing along the seemingly endless Pinot Gris rows the vines were starting to become slightly smaller and thinner, from where I'd not long plucked them. It helped that we had hardly had a drop of rain over the previous 6 weeks, so they've had nothing to cause them to grow. The smaller and thinner vines meant I was getting through them quicker and quicker and would easily have them wrapped up within a few days. Charlotte was still ticking over the hours at the motel, which was good for our bank balance, although we couldn't wait to finally leave and put as many miles between herself and miserable Michelle as possible.

Tuesday 10th January

For the whole day I was unconvinced about my ability to get the Pinot Gris finished off. That was until Charlotte arrived back with far too much enthusiasm to work in such a heat. By the time we were done I was just short of 9 hours for the day and even Charlotte had clocked up 2 hours 40 minutes. It was incredibly satisfying to finally leave them behind once and for all. In the other hand, we were slightly disappointed not to be staying the whole way through to putting on the nets. In a bid to save room we were ploughing through all the food we had stocked in our larder and were making a good go of it, even if it was still slightly repetitive. We had pasta and passata for dinner, which we'd had only a few days previously but it did mean we were only likely to leave with a bottle of ketchup and a mostly empty bottle of sweet chilli sauce.

Wednesday 11th January

The week just seemed to be flying by and Charlotte always says, “once we hit Wednesday, the week just goes”. We were happy for it though. Our only slight worry was if I could maintain good hours for the rest of the week with the biggest job over and done with. John had me doing a tiny bit of plucking on the Chambourcin before I had to wrestle with some wires on all of the Chambourcin rows in preparation for us doing the nets on the weekend coming. It wasn't a full day's work but it kept me busy for some time. I did however have to take an extended lunch break as “the sub tropical north” was finally starting to live up to its name. The day was steamy and you'd have been forgiven for thinking you were in South East Asia. Rather than venture back out in to the sweatbox, we decided to head in to Kerikeri, so I could get a haircut whilst we had a chance. We paid a quick visit to a small market in the way back out of town but there wasn't much to see, so we returned to the bus and did our best to keep cool for the rest of the day. We cooked up some potato wedges to go with our flavoured chicken for dinner and with nothing much to do, got an early night.

Thursday 12th January

It was slightly cooler than the day before, which made for a pleasant days work. The majority of the plucking had been done so my job was to continue walking round all the vines and pull out the wires in preparation for the nets. Once I was done with the Chambourcin, I moved on to the Pinot Gris, with John asking me to do another small task of hammering in nails to the boards that weren't particularly steady. Charlotte arrived home and helped me briefly in the afternoon before I got too hot and gave up for the day. It really did feel like we were winding down now. I was on holiday mode and Charlotte couldn't wait to escape the motel. As we still had leftovers from Christmas, we had cheese, crackers and various other bits and bobs for dinner, including the Paxo stuffing we had received in the parcel from Donna and Paul. It turns out that Paxo is infinitely better than the tripe they sell out here!

Friday 13th January

As we were getting up, my mum and dad were just embarking on their epic journey to come and visit us. They left snowy Gatwick behind and were headed for their first connecting flight in Dubai. Meanwhile, I kept myself entertained with a new job. We'd done bottling before, this time round I had to “unbottle”. Thanks to a mix up and John missing it, he'd bottled 300 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc that had a pretty nasty sulphuric smell to it. So it was my job to open the bottle, pour it into a large vat, cut the aluminium lid off with a knife, wash out the bottle and box the empties ready for when John had done his magic and made the wine smell acceptable. The job suited me, as it got me out of the forecast rain that never materialised, so got me out of the heat instead. The 300 bottles took me 5 hours and I finished just as Charlotte arrived home, so we could have lunch together. Just before I started, John told me that I was lucky to only be doing 300 bottles, as once he'd had to unbottle 1500 bottles. Charlotte arrived home from work pretty chuffed, as she had received a wonderful and thoughtful present from one of her coworkers that she had got on really well with, Marion. It was a necklace with a Pounamu whale tail on it. Pounamu is New Zealand greenstone, or jade and is big business down on the west coast of the South Island, which is the only place in the world it is found. We'd eyed up pieces before when we'd been in shops but never seriously thought about getting any, so Charlotte's present was a lovely surprise. The rain did eventually materialise in the afternoon but it wasn't heavy and it was nice to be out working in the cooling drizzle. All we had to do was finish off the Pinot Gris wires before we took cover in the bus. With a couple of hours to spare before dinner, we decided to start packing, so as not to leave it all for our final afternoon on Sunday. With all our camping gear sold we had considerably less stuff than when we arrived. Having said that, we still had loads of stuff and were looking forward to my Mum and Dad (hopefully) being able to take a lot of it back home with them. We finished just in time for dinner and wolfed down our rice, beans and chicken with tortilla wraps before Charlotte thrashed me at a game of Cribbage. During all this Mum and Dad had just about made their connecting flight and, as we were going to sleep, we just flying over India on their way to Hong Kong, where they were staying for a few days.

Saturday 14th January

We awoke to confirmation that they had arrived and had probably promptly crashed out, having lost almost all of their Friday 13th (not the worst day to lose!). By now, I'd completely lost all my enthusiasm and couldn't wait to finally escape from the vineyard. Charlotte had agreed to do a short day and was confident she would be home by lunchtime. I forced 4 hours work out of myself, which involved nailing more of the boards steady and doing a small amount of plucking on the Shiraz. Charlotte arrived home and almost the same time I finished and after lunch, we slobbed about for the rest of the day, as John said there wasn't anymore work to do until the nets the following day. For our penultimate dinner, we had that all time classic, pasta and beans, together with a half rotten carrot that we had leftover in the fridge. We were also trying our best to get through a bottle of Syrah red wine that we had opened but it was a bit of a challenge, as we weren't particularly enjoying it.

(Chambourcin)

(Shiraz)

(Wasps nests)

Sunday 15th January

Our final day started at 9 o'clock and we met John round by an old shipping container where he stored his nets. We hopped on the back of the tractor and were shuttled to the first row of Chambourcin that we would be netting. It was a lone row between the Pinot Gris and the Chardonnay. It seemed like an easy job. Charlotte was driving the antique tractor, whilst John and I stood either side of the row and pulled the net down from the crossbar it was being dragged over. Overall we ended up doing about 15 rows, some longer than others and got it finished in 3 and a half hours. There were a couple of incidents that slowed down, such as Charlotte catching a wire with the tractor but other than that, we got it done quicker than John expected. Once we were done, we got a shake of the hand from John and that was our lot. All we had left to do was clean the bus from top to bottom, have lunch and dinner and then one more sleep and we'd be hurtling down State Highway 1 towards Auckland. After a few hours of procrastination that involved napping and a card game, we finally plucked up the enthusiasm to start the packing/cleaning. We filled the car with what we wouldn't need overnight, emptied the bins that we'd hardly used, Charlotte cleaned the car quickly, I shaved, we vacuumed and that was all we could do until either later, or the next morning. As this blog needs to be published before we leave the vineyard, there might be a slight gap now. All I can put (and this is looking in to the future) is that we had our final tub of leftover chilli for dinner, with some rice and leftover wraps too. We'd had a lovely time on the vineyard and were incredibly pleased with the amount of money we'd managed to accumulate over the 9 weeks. Charlotte had been incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time for a job that, she might have detested, but turned into a nice little earner. And whilst Charlotte was at the motel, I was plugging away in the sunshine at the vineyard, trying to trudge through the tedium of plucking leaves of vines. As much as we'd enjoyed it, we were rather excited about meeting up with a couple of familiar faces and going on a jaunt around New Zealand with them. Fingers crossed their plane isn't delayed too long!

James and Charlotte