One of the world's more picturesque eateries

Lauded by the upmarket food and travel magazines Craggy Range has been our regular Easter treat since arriving in New Zealand. So last week it wasn't cheese batches for lunch but rather a long leisurely stroll through the Craggy Range menu.

Somehow the food tastes better when you have a fantastic view to admire at the same time and the sun is shining. Luckily for us we got both and had some nice things to eat too.

The winery is located looking at the Te Mata Peak. A stunning mountain surrounded in Maori Folklore. The story goes....

Centuries ago the people living in pa (fortified villages) on the Heretaunga Plains were under constant threat of war from the coastal tribes of Waimarama.

At a gathering in Pakipaki (5km south of Hastings) to discuss the problem, the solution came when a wise old woman (kuia) sought permission to speak in the marae. "He ai na te wahine, ka horahia te po, " she said. (The ways of a woman can sometimes overcome the effects of darkness).
Hinerakau, the beautiful daughter of a Pakipaki chief, was to be the focal point of a plan. She would get the leader of the Waimarama tribes, a giant named Te Mata, to fall in love with her, turning his thoughts from war into peace. The plan succeeded, but she too fell in love.

The people of Heretaunga, however, had not forgotten the past and with revenge the motive, demanded that Hinerakau make Te Mata prove his devotion by accomplishing seemingly impossible tasks.
The last was to bite his way through the hills between the coast and the plains so that people could come and go with greater ease.

Te Mata died proving his love and today his half-accomplished work can be seen in the hills in what is known as The Gap or Pari Karangaranga (echoing cliffs).

His body forms Te Mata Peak, the legend says. At sunset one can often see, in the mists which stretch from the crown of Kahuraanake, the beautiful blue cloak with which the grieving Hinerakau covered the body of her husband before leaping to her own death from the precipice on the Waimarama side of the peak. The gully at the base of the cliff was formed when her body struck the earth.

Pity my photography skills just can't do it justice!

So here's some professional ones....

Views from Te Mata to Hawkes Bay Coast

Hello bloggers, back again. Hot foot from Golden Bay.

Without wanting to sound smug to all those suffering in the northern hemisphere winter, life in Golden Bay couldn't have been more golden. We had stunning weather with balmy evenings which made for a fantastic break away.

As well as the good weather the location was pretty good too! It was a bit of a hike to get there: 3 hour ferry ride, and three more hours driving including the Takaka Hill which made the Rimutaka Hill look like a small bump in the road. Nevertheless it was worth the effort to see empty golden beaches and the stunning Abel Tasman national park.

Where we stayed in Ligar Bay there was nothing but kiwi baches and beach houses so the typical kiwi seaside hideaway. The Abel Tasman National Park was only a short drive away (up an unsealed road) so we headed off there for walking and a scenic boat ride along the Tasman Park coastline.

This whole area is designed for outdoor living - camping, tramping and kyaking are the order of the day. If you're into that sort of thing you can see why people return year after year. I'm not sure that the bassets will appreciate the long car journey so maybe next time we return we'll take the flight from Wellington to Golden Bay (if only we could guarantee good smooth flying weather).

Lots of photoblogging to share but no time for that it's back to routine but watch this space over the next few days.

Making the most of the holiday time

Being back home from the Wairarapa has been quite a shock. The sun just doesn't shine as hard on this side of the Rimutakas so back in windy Wellington it would have been easy to hunker down and not make the most of our remaining holiday. Fear not, we're still making the most of our "summer" break and set off today to see some sights in Wellington.

The Botanical gardens with some of the finest examples of municipal planting in the capital amongst the 25 hectares of unique landscape, protected native forest, conifers, specialised plant collections, colourful floral displays, and views over Wellington city (complete with the cable car to save your legs up the hill!). It is classified as a Garden of National Significance by the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture and is an Historic Places Trust Heritage Area.

Also, we ventured to the birth place of Katherine Mansfield, a tragic heroine of New Zealand literature which was just a few yards from our first apartment block on Tinakori Road. http://www.katherinemansfield.com/

The sun did shine when we ventured out so being tourists in our own home town didn't feel so bad!

Photoblogging: Wellington views from the botanical gardens

The Rose Gardens
The Slackers route up the hill!
The kiwi Christmas Tree

Views across the city from the gardens

Off to the land of my dreams

Part of my dreaming over recent years has been a hankering to grow vines and olives - very cliche I know but there you have it. Before coming to New Zealand I was very excited about the prospect for doing this as one of the finest wine growing regions (the Wairarapa) is about 80km (50miles) from Wellington and I thought this might well be a doable commute for MT and started searching for my ideal plot to start my new farming venture.

Little did I know that there is a massive mountain range to cross between Wellington and the Wairarapa making it an impossible daily road commute. Although there are trains they take an hour plus travel time to the station so my dreams were starting to be blown away into something more realistic and closer to Wellington.

Still, I've been living that dream for a couple of days staying in Martinborough. We took to the road on two wheels and went wine tasting, had excellent porch picnic at our "retreat" venue, lunch at a vineyard and dinner at a foodie hotel in town. All in all it was a smashing break to see what I was missing but most of all the sun was shining and we enjoyed a little New Zealand summer.

Today's photo blog gives you a flavour of what we saw, alternatively you can look up what the Wairarapa has on offer for future potential visitors www.wairarapanz.com (we stayed at the Aylstone).

Photoblogging: Martinborough views

View from our room porch door

Views across the vineyards to the mountains beyond

Olives basking in the clouds!

Photblogging: going botanical

Dad and Shirley would have been proud that we took in the botanical sights of Melbourne. As much as it was where the venue for the evening's outdoor Shakespeare performance of Midsummer's Night Dream but also provided some inspiration for our plans for our own garden in Kaitoke.

Photoblogging: Melbourne views just got better and better

Sorry if this photoblogging is getting boring but it's hard to capture the beauty of Melbourne without stopping at almost every corner!

Views of the CBD from the southbank

Similar view from the Kings Domain

Longer look from the Shrine of Rememberance on the King's Domain

Photoblogging: a day of culture

On account of the impact of the sun from the Cricket indoor venues were very much in order. There are plenty of cultural sights close to where we were staying we were able to dodge the sun through the trees in Carlton Gardens.

Royal Exhibition Hall built for the International Exhibition, 1880. Not open for viewing which was a real blow as I'd like to have revisited the hall where on my last visit to Melbourne I enjoyed a particularly boozy and floozy conference dinner.



Melbourne Museum - home to thousands of bugs and artifacts and the Ashes Exhibition. Juxtapositioned adjacent to the Exhibition Hall it seems a fitting place for one of the best museums I've ever visited.

What is it about men and boys?! MT's favourite exhibit

Photoblogging: change of plan for day 4

This shows the view we should have been looking at from the MCG towards the city but since the cricket was over we headed off for alternative entertainment.

JT taking in the boats at the new docklands area




View of the CBD and the other stadium in Melbourne, sponsored by a rival telecom firm we don't speak about!

Photoblogging: a day at the cricket

It's hard to convey to excitement of being part of a crowd of over 80,000 people and the misery of seeing the demise of England's finest cricketers. The barmy army kept us entertained until MT got sun burned and that brought on new depths of despair. It didn't help knowing that our ticket for the next day's play was worthless as the match was over in just three days. Wouldn't have missed it for the world though to be part of such a sporting occasion.

Photoblogging: Melbourne sights

View from hotel at night

MT in conversation with the locals in Treasury Gardens

Free tram that trundles around the CBD making it easy to get to all the sights across the city

Melbourne Christmas

At 4am we started Christmas part two to get to the airport to fly to Melbourne. Luckily it's only 20 minute drive to the airport and with no parking or traffic hassles to contend with we were on our way around 0630. Our hopes for a hot Boxing Day were dashed by a southerly blowing through Melbourne but at least it was around 19 degrees with prospects of getting warmer.

The Boxing Day sales were in full swing in Melbourne so we braved the crowds to get some instant retail therapy. Also, was able to take in the Christmas and not so Christmasy sights.

Kiwi Christmas

Christmas kiwi style, like pretty much much else here, is a low key affair. Certainly the shops don't get angsty and over the top with the commercial push and since there is a pull in many households as whether to go traditional or not the food shops have schizophrenia.

We've enjoyed traditional with the First family which was a lovely way to be amongst our new whanau. I have to admit to a small panic when charged with the responsibility for desserts we couldn't find a Christmas pud as a suitable alternative to the anglo/italian trifle speciality of MT. All turned out well in the end and we were as stuffed as you ever are after Christmas dinner.

There is no doubt though that the key missing ingredient this year was family who are enjoying their festivities 13 hours behind us back in Europe. It's been great catching up and exchanging Christmas wishes by phone. For all those family readers - we miss you lots!

As always MT and I are spoiled with lots of lovely presents which we put under our poinsettia plant as we haven't a tree this year. Look forward to enjoying them over the next couple of weeks off work. I was especially spoiled and am now the proud owner of a shiny silver iPod which will come in handy for listening to on my cross trainer when I have to do double time to work off the Christmas excesses!

Happy Christmas to all - and thanks so much for the cards, pressies, texts and emails.

Photoblogging: Weka for lunch

The weka is a large, brown flightless bird that has a famously feisty and curious personality. It is these two qualities that have traditionally made the bird an easy food source for Maori and early European settlers.

We have the company of a Weka at the Black Rock day hut where we stopped for refueling on our tramp on the Queen Charlotte Track.

http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/001~Plants-and-Animals/001~Native-Animals/Weka.asp

Photoblogging: tramping Queen Charlotte Track (2)

MT - proud of his walking achievements

End of the walk view - looking towards Portage Bay

Where to next - Picton by road (1.5 hours drive), Picton by boat from Torea Bay (10 minutes)

11 November 2006 - Remembering those lost from Kenepuru Sound

Photoblogging: Tramping Queen Charlotte Track (1)

http://www.doc.govt.nz/Explore/002~Tracks-and-Walks/By-Region/009~Nelson-Marlborough/003~Sounds/Queen-Charlotte-Track.asp


Long before the inter-island ferries plied its waters, Queen Charlotte Sound (Totaranui) was an important trade route for Maori, and provided good shelter and bountiful seafood for the many Maori who lived there. The early European explorer, Captain James Cook, also took advantage of the shelter and natural bounty of the Sounds, making Ship Cove (Meretoto) his New Zealand base. He spent more than 100 days there between 1770 and 1777.

Since that time, the area has been the scene of a diverse range of activities from gold and antinomy mining, whaling and fishing through to tourism and forestry. The Queen Charlotte Track passes through a variety of vegetation types, from grassy farmland to undisturbed native forests. At sea level, the forests are particularly lush. Ferns, tree ferns, nikau palms, climbing kiekie vines and perching plants make up a spectacular coastal forest. Several forest birds are common along the track, including the bellbird, tui, fantails (saw one of these) and the weka (shared lunch with one of these) . Along the shoreline shags (cormorants), gannets, terns and shearwaters can also be glimpsed.

A view up the track

Views to die for (that's if the tramping doesn't get you first!)

Well a girl needs a break for lunch!

More views to keep you going

Woodland kiwi style

Photoblogging: the possum problem

WARNING - don't look at the last picture if you're squeamish
(You have been warned!)

There are some gruesome realities of wildlife in NZ that you know about but rarely come face to face with. This weekend we stumbled across a possum hunter relieving the bush of the Queen Charlotte Track of the cute but nevertheless vermin.

Introduced to in New Zealand in 1837 to establish a fur trade from Australia, the possum population now tops 70 million and chomps its way through seven million tonnes of vegetation per year. The damage to native forests can be seen all too clearly in many areas. Possums ignore old leaves and select the best new growth. In some areas they have eaten whole canopies of rata, totara, titoki, kowhai and kohekohe.

Possums compete with native birds for habitat and for food such as insects and berries. They also disturb nesting birds, eat their eggs and chicks and may impact on native land snails.
Dairy and deer farmers have the added worry of possums spreading bovine tuberculosis.
Possums are a nuisance in suburban gardens, and sometimes even indoors.

So the solution to the possum problem is to control the population and make nice warm socks, hat linings or woolly jumpers from their fur. I'm not sure how the industry works per say but we met a down to earth local possum hunter plying his trade in Marlborough Sounds.

Before you read on be prepared for something not so pretty to look at - this is not for the fainthearted. But, remember that without the possum hunters New Zealand wilderness would be overrun with this immigrant vermin and the few remaining land loving birds would be dead and gone or like the kiwi population restricted to tiny numbers in protected land. In short, this is the way of putting right the problems created by man in the first place.

So what does a cute possum look like?

So what does a 21 century possum hunter look like?

(complete with special adapted all terrain tractor)

So what does a dead possum without the fur look like?

(look away if you're sqeamish.......)