The Fantastic West Coast

As we pulled away from wine country I looked back to the sea of grapevines and waved goodbye feeling thirsty. Hadn’t I had enough? I drank and tasted a lot of wine during my stay there but yet I still felt a thirst as I drove away. A thirst for more grape harvesting, a thirst to learn more about organic and biodynamic vineyards, a thirst to make wine and really understand the complicated and delicate process. What can I say? I fell in love with the place. That’s some good living the kiwi’s have there and I was happy to be a part of it even for a little while. I met some great people and had a lot of laughs. I also walked away realizing I really want to learn how to make wine. Another goal and project for when I get home.

We loaded Cecilia with our stuff and headed south towards the west coast, destination Wanaka. If you take a look at a map it’s a pretty far drive from Blenheim so we had a lot of ground to cover the next few days with some planned stops. Everyone has told me that the real New Zealand (all those beautiful pictures that you see when you google NZ) is the South Island and boy were they right. As soon as my eyes hit the Tasman Sea and the mountains along the coast, I knew what they were talking about. Route 6, the one major highway, (they don’t have many here) runs along the West Coast with amazing scenic views the whole way. I really enjoyed the ride except for the really windy roads through the mountains. I was car sick for most of the way but I have to give it to Cecilia she hugged those turns like a champ.

Our first major stop (I say this because we stopped a lot due to Tara’s weak bladder – that girl can piss - she’s no longer allowed to drink water while we drive or anything for that matter) was Punakaiki. We stayed at a retreat hidden in the rain forest right off the coast. You can hear the waves crashing on the shore just outside our window. A kiwi from the vineyard told us about it and it was a hidden gem so we were lucky to get the skinny on this place. We had a great walk along the Pororari River and went to see the fantastic Pancake Rocks and blowholes (I know, it sounds like a band – a very bad one) which was cool. We spent 2 days there and hit the road again…next stop, Glacier Country. Check out the pix...

http://gallery.me.com/monicahutchinson/100162