Planet Blenheim

I started my job as a lab technician for Kim Crawford Wines about two weeks ago, and I’m loving it. I’m one of four ladies who work in the lab, running analyses on the musts, juices and wines. There is a real buzz about the lab – it’s a busy place with cellar workers and winemakers popping in and out. There are also a number of dogs who like to visit. I was trying to concentrate on a yeast count the other day but Michelle Richardson’s dog Erik kept imploring me with puppy dog eyes to play. The rubber bungs used in oak barrels make a great fetch toy – they bounce all over the place. Erik is like a teddy bear – loves to play and loves cuddles. Kim Crawford has a similar dog, called Spooky. They look like a husky crossed with a corgi. Unfortunately he was worse for wear the other day, as he had swallowed some caustic. It was off to the vet’s for Spooky.


I’m staying at a place called Spring Creek, around 5 minutes south of Blenheim. It’s such a haven. The landlords, our neighbours, are lovely, welcoming folk. The have a gorgeous cottage garden that attracts the biggest butterflies you’ll see, as well as a vegie garden to die for. We often find freshly picked sweet corn left on our doorstep.

I’ve been getting out and exploring a lot, and have developed a real love affair with the landscape here. So dry and rugged. Rugged like Wellington’s south coast...dry like the Wairarapa. I love it. I discovered White’s Bay the other weekend and felt like a little child again. Just bolting for the rock pools, exploring, running up slopes to look outs and climbing up rock faces to see what’s on the other side. There is some fantastic scenery here that I’d like to revisit...maybe even try the day walk to Mt Robertson...perhaps in training for the Queen Charlotte track which I’d like to do after harvest.


Yesterday I took 2 of my flatmates – Enrique (a vet and port-maker from Portugal) and Hesus (a cellar master for the Mondavis in the Napa Valley) – to the Wither Hills. I watched the sunset from the Rotary Lookout last week and was mesmerized by the beauty of the land and the light. The guys loved it up there. Unfortunately a park ranger told us on our return that he was having to tell people to head back as a fire had broken out behind the park. There have been a few since I’ve been here. Apparently a whole hillside, hundreds of acres, can go up in 30 seconds. Scary.


I’m the only girl living at Spring Creek – I share with 4 other guys – 2 Americans, 1 Portuguese, and 1 Mexican. They’re all good sorts and we get on really well, be it sharing stories over wine in the evenings, getting out and about in our spare time, or mucking around in the slim selection of night spots in Blenheim. While not the sorts of places I’d got to by choice, it’s been a lot of fun. Especially St Patrick’s Day at Paddy Barry’s. Country folk are so honest, transparent, uncomplicated. This guys from Gisborne was telling Barrett (my flatmate) and I about his recent trip to the States. Imagine a bunch of boys from Gizzy in the bright lights of Las Vegas...We all knew that someone had made an unsavoury smell – but you don’t say anything do you? You just hope that people don’t think it was you. Well, Gizzy boy just outs with a “Poooohweee! Ya smell that?!”. It was rather funny, not that he noticed. He also enquired as to whether Barrett ‘was my shag’...That really made me feel a long way from Wellington and it's jazz lounges - places that this homebody goes to when she gets out... Apparently there’s a jazz bar in Picton. We may just check it out! But 12 hour shifts start this week so I can’t see it happening any time soon.

A shot from the Grape Ride – a 100 km cycle that starts and finishes at Forrest Estate. Virgin riders jump into this vat and crush the grapes for the 100 Virgin Pinot Noir the estate makes especially from the rider-trodden grapes. They receive a bottle of it if they ride again the following year. I tried last year’s vintage..a lovely bouquet of sweaty handle bars, smelly feet and sticky cycle shorts. Kidding, it was quite lovely actually, however I came home with some of the Doctor’s Riesling instead. Happy to share it Lauren if it lasts till I get home!

Vine sampling – I went out with the ‘viti’ girls this week. Just before harvest we get in a lot of grape samples and test for ripeness – brix, pH and TA. I had quite a tummy ache after sampling a few too many pinot gris berries. Managed to find a pinot gris vine that had mutated back into pinot noir though...pretty cool. The girls also pointed out two giant white golf balls in the distance in the Wairau Valley, which are an American spy base. I think that's how Spy Valley got its name.


Finally, a shot of the folks at Kaiteriteri– they came down with me 2 weeks ago and we tiki toured around. Had some lovely lunches – thanks guys for everything. I was worried the other night that I had lost my cooking mojo. After all those lovely meals together my cooking seems to pale in comparison. So I bought myself the Edmund’s Cookbook the other day. And I think I’m slowly on the mend! It also helps when one of your flatmates is a Mexican who loooves to cook! I got home tonight and found Enrique and Hesus grinning..there was an empty packet of nachos on the table and 2 bowls which had been cleaned of the seviche Hesus started preparing when I left this morning for work.