Wine & Sheep country

The entryway of Black Barn, where we spent two nights on a vineyard. It's a restored barn that has a rustic (but not TOO rustic) feel.
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Flew from Sydney to Auckland and were whisked away to the domestic terminal then redistributed our overweight luggage - the first time we've had to do so thus far. Turns out those Kiwis are sticklers for detail; in order to clear customs we had to produce and explain our airline tickets to depart New Zealand, and describe where exactly we planned to travel and why!

It is certainly winter here - but even though there is a nip in the air and the trees don't have leaves, the grass is really green and it's not really too cold. Just enough to justify lighting a fire in the gorgeous place we stayed.

We kept thinking how much fun it would be to have a party there!
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We spent 2 nights in Hawkes' Bay, which is New Zealand's 2nd largest wine-producing area, behind Marlborough. Our guide for the day was Yvonne, a local wine writer and judge - definitely a perk: not only were we the only people tasting wine at this time of year, but when we walked into these wineries with Yvonne at our sides, people were opening off-the-menu bottles with little or no prompting, hoping she'd like them. Fitzpatrick-Canlas, eat your heart out!

The landscape here is tremendous, and was dramatically changed in the 1930s by a 7.9 earthquake which left the bay in an entirely different location. Although it destroyed a lot of buildings, the area seized the opportunity to construct the 2nd largest number of art deco style structures (besides Miami Beach), and took advantage of the rocky soil which used to lie underwater to grow beautiful grapes. While Marlborough is known primarily for its sauvignon blanc (which Yvonne calls "clean, green, herbaceous"), this region is really diverse and produces some great whites but also pinot noir, syrah...we even tried tempranillo and montalpulciano. We tried (and liked, a first for me) a few dessert wines - called "stickies" in these parts.

View from the dining room area - this is wintertime so a little too chilly to sit outside, but a nice place to wake up!
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Overall the place reminded me of a really quiet Sonoma with a touch of Vermont - grassy hillsides deserted but for sheep (and lots of them, as NZ has a 40:1 sheep:human ratio!) as well as lambs, which apparently are harbingers of spring, but to us are a road hazard, since we keep swerving off the road to admire cuter and cuter babies! It's become commercialized enough that people here can make a profit off winemaking, and has become something of a "brand," but is still quiet (at least at this time of year) and feels personable and pleasantly remote.

We made dinner one night (lamb, of course) and had fresh eggs and homemade marmelade for breakfast.
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It's all too quick that we had to pack up and be on our way again. Today, we drove down from Hawke's Bay to Wellington (at the Southern tip of the North Island) which took the better part of our day. What a beautiful place! We wanted to take pictures of everything, but it turned out to be qite difficult to photograph the sheep on the side of the road. As long as you're in the car - they're fine, as soon as you step out of the car they all start screaming at you as they run away.

If happy cows come from California, then happy sheep certainly come from New Zealand!
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Driving on the wrong side of the road and having to shift the 5-speed with your left hand is somewhat challanging at first and to be honest neither one of us has truely mastered it yet. We have a few more days with the car here. Tomorrow, crossing Cook's staight to the South Island for some more wine country, mussels, and beautiful vistas.