the past week...

Celebration!

The incredible, gorgeous, astounding view from our hike

Hello loyal blog readers! Hope you had a great Christmas/holiday. We really enjoyed our time at Nelson Lakes. For the first time in a little while we really let loose, mainly with respect to eating and drinking. On Christmas day I really chowed, really crammed the gut. The food was excellent, and of course Julie gets most of the credit for our menu. It included an interesting squash puff pastry on Christmas eve, then on xmas day we all had one of our favs--a risotto casserole with asparagus (mmmm) and zucchini, followed by Ms. Barber's (not to be confused with Mrs. Barber's, though a very close second) apple pie. With vanilla ice cream. On Boxing day Matt shared his Christmas pudding and custard. Gretchen brought some bacon for breakfasts, which as some of you know smells good enough for Julie to question her loyalty to the Vegetarian faith. We washed everything down with wine that we had bought right at the wineries, supplemented with a two liter "cask" of Australian shiraz from the supermarket (not half bad actually). ON Boxing Day Julie and I went for a nice hike up the St. Arnaud range. We hoped for a spectacular view of Lake Rotoiti and the mountains but instead went into the clouds. But the forest/bush on the way up was very green and filled with moss, ferns, and lichens, and we also spotted a kaka which is a unique New Zealand parrot-like bird that you don't see everyday.

Before Nelson Lakes, we had a fun day on Sunday in Picton. This is the heart of the Marlborough Sounds and we did a short walk with nice views before heading down to Waitara Bay where our coworker Hamish had his boat blessing party. After finally getting the bottle of champagne to break on the trailer (those things are really solid), Hamish backed the 18 foot aluminum rigid inflatable boat into the water as the son of another coworker did a Maori dance/blessing called a haka. Some may know of the haka from New Zealand's rugby team, known as the All Blacks, who have popularized this dance. Not sure you'd even call it a dance. But if you're interested there are videos of the All Blacks doing this in Utube I think. It was pretty impressive to see and hear. Frank, the boy's father, asked me later if it made my hair stand up, which it did, and he said "Good, he did it right."

Now we have a few days off from work and we're headed to the Golden Bay area...Julie is excited to check out the "hippie vibe" the area is known for, and I'm hoping to fish a little.
We have some more pictures uploaded so go check 'em out-in the Dec albums!
Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays and new year to all! We went to a farmer's market today to buy treats for our Christmas dinner with Gretchen and Matt. We even bought a nice bottle of wine for the evening too, using our discount at Montana!

We will be heading north today to Picton (where the ferry from the North Island arrives). One of our coworkers just got a new boat for his water taxi business....and he is taking us out for a spin in the sound. I can't WAIT to get out on the water and to attend a Kiwi "Sea and Sausage" party. I'm bringing the veggo treats, and Jay is bringing a bunch of green mussels he bought at the market today. After spending the night up there we are off to Nelson Lakes National Park - for long hikes and mountains. I bet Jay will fish, and I will stare at the mountains and dream. I doubt we will be near the internet, I hope not actually. So - our next update won't be for a week but you are all probably too busy to be checking this a lot anyway!

We posted the rest of our photos from Kaikoura - finally. Sorry it took so long. And, finally, we have an address for a month (we leave the last day of Jan.) - if you are struck with the idea of mailing something to us. We also have a cell phone.... ADDRESS: Julie and Jay, Watsons Way Lodge. PO Box 82, 56 High Street, Renwick, 7243 Marlborough, New Zealand PHONE: from the states dial 011 - 64 - 2102580055. If you are not in the states, 64 is the NZ country code and you have to figure out how to dial out from your country.... =)

We hope everyone drives safe in all that snow (if you are east coasters) and that you all have a great holiday! We send our love to everyone....

We got Tink back!

Greetings! We have Tink back! It is nice to have our little home back - especially because it was expensive to fix but not HALF as expensive as we were thinking it might be. New tire, patched radiator, new belts, etc... happy Tink.
AND - we are happy.... we just learned that we can buy a CASE of wine here, as casual vineyard workers, for $30NZ (that's about $25 US). One bottle of Montana's wine is usually around $18 in the stores.....so we are EXCITED about our case of wine. We basically have been trying not to drink any treats with dinner here, in order to save money. We are quite proud of ourselves for sticking to the limited wine/beer plan - but this deal was too good to pass up. YIPEE!
What else...I have to get off this computer soon! BUT - I dream of writing and writing about the people we have met and the sights we have seen. Soon, I promise, this will happen.
Send us emails folks.... we miss our family and friends. We LOVE pictures....

Tinkerbell heats things up

We're still working at the vineyard 40hrs/week, except for today as it's pouring rain, which is good for the area after a really long drought (but bad for us as we got soaked this morning after 2 hours of work). Life has been hardly mundane inspite of working. We went to Kaikoura for the weekend and almost rented kayaks but balked at the price, then settled on a nice walk around the head of the peninsula. Kaikoura is a nice seaside town well known for expensive whale and dolphin watching and lots of fur seal colonies. Gorgeous day, we were happy with our decision. Then we hit a strange but nice Irish pub for a pint of Guinness (tasty!). All was going as planned until we looked at the engine temperature gauge and oh boy did Tink have a feaver! Turns out our radiator had been slowly leaking, so we poured in some patch junk and filled her back up with water and drove back to Blenheim the next day hoping for the best. We made it back, bummed to have missed another nice day in Kaikoura, when Gretchen and Matt texted us and stopped by for an afternoon of tasting some wine and drinking a beer at the pub. Just the cure for two car-trouble weary vineyard workers. Now our van is in the shop and we're staying at a nice place in town, getting rides to and from work from coworkers.

Hope everyone has an excellent Christmas and a Happy New Year. We miss everyone a lot and think of home quite a bit (yanking wires for 8hrs a day leaves us with much thinking time!). We're going to upload some pics now so take a look in both Julie and Jay albums...

Cable knitting, Australia, and wine

Hello there! Here's the hat I just finished knitting, thank freakin' GOD because I've wanted it during many freezing nights here in Tinkerbell. My first try at cable knitting - Tilda and Allison - you were right, EASY! Now, I'm addicted and want to try and make matching mittens that I could use in Nepal. I've got to make up the pattern and I don't remember how to make thumbs, so that should be fun.

Anyway - I'm sure most of you are not super interested in my knitting tales, so I'll switch to other tidbits of info.

Our darling budget. A favorite topic these days, with many hours spent calculating money we will make, money we will spend, etc. etc. Both of us HATE this part of traveling, but it is necessary. We have to try and follow a budget, and it ain't big baby. So - in recognition of the fact that we can't totally afford to travel an entire year if we spend a ton of time in developed countries - we sadly (but strangely happily) called and changed our flight dates to, essentially, cut Australia out of the trip. The positive side of this is that we will now have 23 days in Indonesia. We had been stressed out that we were not going to have enough time there, and now we feel quite happy about the length of time we will have to explore Bali and surrounding areas. We still have 3 full days in Oz - enough to see Sydney and perhaps get Jay to the beach for a sharky surf or two. Yikes! Many of you know, I lived in Oz for a year...so I am sad that Jay will not get to see the country a bit more - but even he is happier about the prospects of more diving in Indo. This decision is likely to save us $1600 - which would keep us going for a month in SE Asia. Hopefully that makes sense to all of you too!

And finally - our first report on wine tastings here. We try to make sure to write notes down on our favorite wines, and we also ask if the wine can be purchased in the states. Wahoo - some of it can. Now, I heard through my sister that one of her friends is throwing a "snooty wine tasting party" because she liked the idea of the party that Jay and I used to throw (I am so proud). Here's what to get - if you like whites!! Our favorite winery so far has been Lawsons Dry Hills - excellent wine and people. I wrote in my journal "more laid back and relaxed here and I swear you can taste it in the wine." Anything was good except their 05 Riesling. I loved the Gewurztraminer, the Sauv Blanc, and the wonderful oak-filled Chardonnay. Their 05 Late Harvest Riesling was AMAZING for you dessert wine fans. Other big tasting wines - Saint Clair - amazing Sauv. Blancs and Chardonnays (if you like oak, the Omaka Reserve Chardonnay 07 was the best I think I've ever had). Finally, we also loved Mount Riley for the small family business and great Sauv. Blanc (07). ENJOY and tell us if you found these treats. They may not be chap, but they would be worth it.

We love this free tasting stuff. Who else is throwing a wine tasting party this year? =)

Wellington and on to the south island

This is a tui, a fairly common but interesting bird...very noisy
The vines at Kaituna Estate, part of Montana winery where we are now casual laborers

We heard it through the grapevine that working on vineyards was worthwhile, so after travelling around the north island for a bit and stopping in Wellington for a few days to visit Gretchen and Matt, we drove onto the ferry and headed to the south island on Saturday to make our way to sunny Blenheim where wineries are popping up faster than asparagus. Gretchen and Matt, by the way, have been living in Wellington since February and after working for five or six months they are now chillin' and doing all the best hikes and backpacking trips in NZ. Lucky dogs! But lucky us because we will be spending xmas with them at Nelson Lakes here on the south island.

They took us to a great wildlife santuary right in Wellington where we spotted many NZ-only birds, insects, and a cool lizard called a tuatara. Not having any mammals before humans arrived, NZ was really a land of birds and there are many interesting and uncommon species. The moas, which were huge flightless birds like ostriches, were hunted to extinction by Maoris hundreds of years ago. Kiwis are still here but they and many other birds are threatened by the introduction of possums, rats, etc. So there are many small sanctuaries (often on islands) where pests are fenced out and native animals are allowed to do their thing without having to deal with things that they evolved without. Check out Julie's photo site for some shots of a few of the things we saw.

So far we like it in Blenheim and it has been very hot and dry, real wine growing climate I guess. We started working on the vines on Monday, doing a job they call wire lifting. Basically we walk the rows and hook the wires that have been left hanging down during the winter, compressing and tightening the vines to support them as the grapes grow and begin to weigh them down. The grapes are teeny right now and won't be harvested until April or so, when we will be long gone, perhaps sitting on a beach in Lombok after diving in crystal clear blue tropical seas teeming with...ok I digress, we need to make some dough so that will have to wait. Now, wire tightening may sound lousy and boring, but the good news is that we just missed bud rubbing season, which involves bending over a thousand times a day...been there and done that! Even better, we are actually making a decent amount of moola for our efforts.

We've also been doing some wine tasting, which is generally FREE so it might become a regular after-work activity. There are something like 150 wineries in the area, so we have our work cut out for us. The area is best known for white wines like Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay, Reisling, Gwertztraminer (sp?), but there is some Pinot Noir and it is halway decent but not nearly as common. So being mostly red wine drinkers I think this will broaden our horizons. We miss beer, but we did get a nice beer fix in Wellington at Mac's Brewery (pics in Jay's photo album), which seems to be one of the few breweries in NZ that knows what hops are and aren't TOO afraid to use them. Beer is also much more expensive here than in the states which further dampens our interest. But for now we are psyched to enjoy and learn about wine. We will report back at some point with our tasting notes, by which time we maybe will have learned how to detect in wine such things as a "hint of horsehair" or a "linear structure", but I doubt it.