The Travelling Life of Silvan Colani
December 2006 - Honeymoon to New Zealand and Bora Bora (cont.)
From Westport we headed inland and further north into uncharted territory as far as my driving on the South Island was concerned. I believe I have covered every major road in the South except the wine making region of Marlborough in the far north. Being lovers of NZ’s crisp Sauvignon Blanc we were really looking forward to this part of the honeymoon! It was a sunny and hot day (finally!) as we pushed the Subaru along the Buller River through great landscapes towards Nelson and onwards to Blenheim, capital of the wine region with over 40 vineyards around town. As we were going to spend two nights here we opted to stay in a quiet cottage in the midst of one of the vineyards. We had dinner in a Swiss-run restaurant, Gibbs, down another vineyard where we feasted on superb scallops and excellent lamb chops – drowned with a wonderful bottle of local Pinot Noir.
To explore the various vineyards the next day without running into serious drink/driving problems we decided to do so by bike instead. The people at www.winetoursbybike.co.nz give you a bike and a helmet (a legal requirement in this country) and a wine map for NZD 40 and send you down the road in the faint hope that you make it back before nightfall. Neither Mei nor I have been on a (non-motorized) bike in years and we immediately felt transported back into our childhood days. Mei started off a bit wobbly but she quickly got the hang of it.
Our first stop was the wine estate of Matua Marlborough, a large commercial operation recently purchased by our friends at Foster’s of Australia. We sampled all their sauv blancs, chardonnays and pinots and by the time we were out of the door Mei already wore the helmet back to front!!
We paddled on past three more vineyards before stopping again at Isabel Estate. We love the Sauv Blanc from Isabel but had difficulty finding it in Hong Kong recently. The estate was also more to our liking: smaller, boutique operation producing wines only from its own estate. We tasted the whole range and loaded up on a few bottles. Zigzagging on across the beautiful countryside we made our way to Forrest Estate for lunch. We didn’t like their wines but they had a beautiful garden where we ate our picnic lunch of salmon, home-made sandwiches, cheese and strawberries – and a bottle of Isabel Sauv Blanc. Yum!
Now the cycling was getting easier and more difficult at the same time. Easier as the level of alcohol subdued the saddle pain in the butt yet more difficult to keep it in a straight line. As we took a wrong turn and had to turn back the other way Mei found the six-meter wide road too narrow to turn and ended up in a vineyard instead!
After further stops and tastings at Fromm (serious Pinot Noirs by a Swiss winemaker!) and Villa Maria we brought our wobbly bikes back to base – with just enough time and energy left to stop over at Cloudy Bay on the way home!
After a night of deep and blissful sleep we opted for breakfast at the Whitehaven winery (more wine anybody?). Refreshed and strengthened we drove up north to Picton, a lovely little town with wonderful views of the Marlborough Sounds, where the inter-island ferry comes into port from the North Island.
From there it was back south to Kaikoura, a place famous for whale watching. We found it too cold (and expensive) to head out onto the water and cooked a nice Spaghetti Bolognese in our motel instead – with a bottle of pinot noir of course.
Kaikoura was at its sunny best the next morning and the ocean view with snow mountain backdrop from the lookout point is one of the best sights in the world.
We headed south on the scenic route 70 (motto: great roads, no traffic, just sheep) towards Christchurch airport to complete our loop of the South Island.
Midway through our short flight to Auckland the stewardess announced that there was a honeymoon couple onboard and that she wishes to congratulate “The Silvanator”! The Silvanator? There are only a handful of people that call me by that name and it turned out to be fellow Ama Dablam summiteer Lindsay Peak who had spotted me boarding the same flight. What a coincidence!
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