Trying to Cook in NZ

For the second time in one week, Nina and I had the same day off. This time, I took a day off so we could enjoy this country. On Saturday, we went to the Marlborough Wine Festival. It is the longest running festival in New Zealand and turned out to be an amazing time. There were 60 wineries showing 372 different wines. Along with that there were food stands offering mostly seafood, but they had other great things too. And just so people didn’t get too bored there was music all afternoon, a fashion show and a wine and food pairing competition. There were a couple thousand people there and everyone was having a very good time. People were dressed up in their garden dresses and hats and people in flip flops and shorts.

Nina and I decided to divide and conquer; neither of us could get wine from the same producer. We ended up trying 17 different wines, mostly Pinot Noir, but we threw in a couple of whites too. Overall, the wines were very good. There were a few losers of course, but overall, it was a very nice tasting. The best of the day was probably the Gravitas 2006 Pinot Noir. It was in the French style and just tasted better than any of the others we drank that day. It had excellent balance of tannins and fruit along with a nice earthy flavor. There is a list at the bottom of everything we had. We also decided to try out some of the wine and food pairings. I started with some Oysters Mornay paired with a viognier, the light sweet wine was totally overpowered by the smokey bacon in the first oyster I had. But, the second oyster was a little bigger and there was less bacon, so it wasn’t such a bad pairing. The oysters were great though. The next pairing I had was a greenshell mussel and watercress fritter with horopito aioli paired with an unoaked chardonnay. This one was very good; the fritters were nice and tender with a little bite to them along with a mildly spicy aioli. The wine complimented it very well. Nina decided on a Thai beef salad with lemongrass and chili jam sorrel bean sprouts (I don’t know what that means). It was good and went with the sweet wine well. We spent all day there wandering around, watching the crowd, drinking wine and enjoying a beautiful afternoon.

What we drank:
Nina
Isabel Estate Vineyard 2007 Pinot Gris
Endeavour Vineyard 2007 Crowded House Sauvignon Blanc
Vavasour Wines Ltd Clifford Bay Pinot Noir
Montana Reserves Riesling
Gravitas 2006 Pinot Noir
Spy Valley Wines 2007 Noble Chardonnay
Hunters Wines NZ 2006 Pinot Noir
Seresin Estate 2006 Pinot Gris

Dan
Clos Marguerite 2006 Pinot Noir
Saint Clair Estate 2007 Premium Viognier
Triplebank Awatere Valley Riesling
Lake Chalice2007 “Cracklin Rosie” Pinot Rose
Tohu Wines 2007 Unoaked Chardonnay
Momo Wine 2006 Chardonnay
Maho 2007 Pinot Gris
Forrest Estate 2007 Sauvignon Blanc
Stoneleigh Rapaura Series Pinot Noir

My weekend last week coincided with Waitangi Day here in New Zealand. That is the day, in 1840, that a treaty was signed between British representatives and Maori leaders that made NZ a British colony. The treaty then became a footnote in history. Too short and general to be a constitution and translated poorly when written, it spent the next 130 years being systematically broken. But in the 1970s a movement started to grow with Maori making claims against the treaty and gaining back land taken from them and getting large cash settlements from the government. The biggest problem with the treaty it seems is that when it was translated into Maori, it was done so poorly that it became two different treaties, one for each side. The day didn’t become a holiday until 1974. Today, it is celebrated or protested by a minority. The majority of Kiwis use it for an excuse to go to the beach. But that is not the real story for us. Since the holiday fell on my weekend, Nina and I had a day off together. She managed to get off work early on Tuesday, the day before the holiday (that turned out to be pretty easy since Monday was Nelson Day, another holiday) and we drove to the Nelson Lakes National Park.

A short hour and fifteen minute drive south of Nelson, is the northern tip of the Southern Alps. The two major lakes that make up the park are Rotoiti and Rotoroa. We got there in the afternoon and headed to a campground on Lake Rotoiti. The place was nearly deserted and had a great view over the lake to the mountains in the background. The lakes were carved by glaciers 8000 years ago and make for some amazing scenery. They are also home to New Zealand’s oldest fresh water Eels. They don’t reach maturity until age 90. We heard that you could feed them bread from the docks, but we didn’t see any. Maybe next time. The next morning we woke up and drove to lake Rotoroa, it is further from the main road (14km) than Rotoiti, so it doesn’t get the same traffic and was very tranquil. There we went on a hike through beach forests and up to a nice waterfall. I even saw my first Tui. It was a beautiful day in the woods, the perfect temperature and the amazing scenery of New Zealand that I haven’t really gotten to experience for a while. I am really looking forward to quitting my job and spending some time traveling around and hiking. Hopefully, that will happen in the end of March the fall will be starting and the crowds will be heading back to where ever they come from. On our way back to Nelson, we stopped at Rotoiti again and were amazed at the crowds. There were hundreds of people there boating, swimming and picnicking. It was quite a bit different from the other lake. That was a great trip and it was a lot of fun to get away from Nelson with Nina even if it was for just one day.

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