Weekend of Wine and Wool

So my first weekend roadtrip was a huge success!   I headed to the Wairarapa (aka "Glistening Waters") region, just over 4 hours away from Hawera.  I chose it based on the recommendation of the nurses at the office of my supervising local doc.   I said I wanted to try some NZ wine and they said "You MUST check out Martinborough!"   

 Martinborough is the most southern town in the Wairarapa region, along the southeastern part of the North Island.   I headed out right after clinic on Friday to a fantastic campsite I found online that also had cute cabins, perfect for a cozy, no frills accomodation!

I had a good night's sleep and wanted to do some physical activity before doing all the wine tastings.  Even though I'm not a "Lord of the Rings" fan, I figured I need to see some of the filming locations at the advice/request of all my LOTR-loving friends.   So I did a (quite muddy) hike to Putangirua Pinnacles:

These geologic formations are an example of "badlands erosion".  Sea level was MUCH higher hundreds of thousands of years ago.   These pillars were formed by vertical erosion due to boulder "caps" at the top which acted as protection.   At least that's how I understood it :)

It was a cloudy day, so the pictures aren't that clear, but I think you get the idea.  Plus the darkness kind of adds to the mystique. :)   For those LOTR enthusiasts, The eerie scenes in The Return of the King as Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli ride along the Dimholt Road to meet the Army of the Dead were filmed against the surreal backdrop of these Pinnacles.

Quite phallic, if you ask me :)

It was quite the muddy adventure!

After I got cleaned up, it was time to hit the wineries of Martinborough!

The campground I stayed with had a fabulous winter special (yes, it's still winter here and won't be warm really til December, the local folks tell me...*sigh*) that if you book two nights, you get a bike rental free!   So guess how I went wine tasting?

At least the rain held off for my adventures. 

There are about 20 wineries total in the town of Martinborough, many of them open for tasting.  Pinot Noir is the town's claim to fame.   At my first two stops, I was just about five minutes behind a group of fun, similar-aged Kiwis as myself, from Wellingtown, also biking their way through Martinborough.  At the 2nd winery, they invited me to join their group for the rest of the day!  How nice!  Sure beats touring alone!    Here they are, biking to the next winery...

Plenty of wines to be tasted:

One winery called "Vynfields" proved to be a great lunch spot, too!  Check out our grub!

After fueling up, it was off to more wineries.   I smiled at the sight of sheep grazing in one of the vineyards:

With this quite possibly being my favorite photo of the day:

Who YOU lookin at??   Haha.

So as the afternoon whisked away, the wineries were closing, and I biked out to some farmland behind my campsite to catch this absolutely gorgeous sunset.

Then back into town for dinner with my new Kiwi friends at the Martinborough Hotel.

What a fanastic day!

Sunday I decided to do some more touristy things.  Not only does Martinborough do wine, they also do olives!  I visited an Olive Farm/Mill called Olivo where the owner gave me a half hour personal lesson on the fine art of olive oil making!   I got to try them all--- they even have a vanilla infused Olive Oil.   I bought a jar of Balsamic Dessert Olives to try- the owner said they're delicious with vanilla ice cream.  Can't wait to try them!!

I headed out of Martinborough and further North on State Highway 2, which includes small towns like Greytown, Carterton, and Masterton.  

Greytown is home to Schoc chocolate, a local, fair-trade, organic chocolate maker:

I must've sampled about 20 different types of bars in that store.  My two favorites were the Lime Chili and the Sweet Basil dark chocolate bars.  YUM!

The tourist trap in Cartertown was Paua World.

Cheesy sign for sure!  Unfortunately the factory was closed, but I sat and watched an informational video in their store.   In case you're clueless regarding shellfish (as was I!), paua are are a type of shellfish unique to New Zealand.  They have the most colorful shell in the world.

Maori people used the meat for food and then used the beautifully colored shells to add gleam to the eyes of their carved figures.  Now they're most popularly used as jewelry, gifts, etc.   There are strict rules in the harvesting of these---- there is a minimum weight the shells need to be before harvesting, and divers aren't allowed to use pressurized air to collect them (aka no scuba, only snorkel).  They feed on seaweed, and the holes are how they breathe.

Since I already mentioned some NZ movie trivia today, how about this-   the Paua shells make up the decoration on Xena's first chakram in the hit TV series Xena: Warrior Princess.   Although the show was set predominately in Ancient Greece, the shell is used because the Paua is native to New Zealand, where the show was actually filmed.

My last touristy stop before heading home was Masterton, the largest town in the Wairarapa region (a booming 20,000 people!).  Masterton is the headquarters for the annual Golden Shears, the "World's Premier Shearing and Woolhandling Championships".  I learned all about this at Shear Discovery, a quite informative museum in downtown Masteron.

Did you know there are actual techniques of how to shear a sheep?  And actual levels of certification you can get in shearing and wool-handling?   I don't think LCCC or Maricopa Community College carry those courses!  :) 

The world's fastest shearers can shear an entire sheep in about 67 seconds!   Wow.

I also learned all sorts of things like the different breeds and degrees of wool:

The dozens of different types of electrical shears:

And even down to the nitty gritty of the old historic tools they used to use to castrate sheep:

You think *that's* grotesque?  One of the museum volunteers, an elderly man who used to own a farm with his twin brother, told me that he learned how to castrate sheep using his TEETH instead of a tool.  I'M SERIOUS!   Yuck yuck yuck.

Anyhoo, to end of on a happier note, I caught another fantastic sunset on my way home.

A great end to a wonderful weekend in Wairarapa!