Toast Martinborough - NZ Food and Wine Festival

13th November - Gerlinde picked me up from home to drive to Perth for the Portavin opening of their new 6,500 per hour bottling line. In true Portavin style it was a great event. About 50 customers and colleagues took a tour of the bottling line followed by a full sit down, white table clothed, fine food and wine affair.

Mike's Mum did the honours of smashing the bottle of champagne off the bottling line to officially open the line. Even though she thought it was "a waste" it made some impact as the champagne was bottled by Portavin's competitors.

We then moved onto an Indian restaurant in the city for dinner prior to Mike, Bullant and I flying on the red eye out to Melbourne. A 2 hour stop in Melbourne then onto Wellington, what a stunning city! We met Bird-Man, Rob and Urzela and enjoyed a lovely Italian meal in town. Early night in preparation for the Martinborough Food and Wine Festival.

http://www.toastmartinborough.co.nz/

What an amazing day, we caught the train from Wellington, about and hour into the vineyards where buses were on hand to take us from winery to winery. Each with their own uniqueness, food, wine and live entertainment. A blast! Wineries included Craggy Range, Te Kairanga (WHITEBAIT & ALASKAN KING CRAB FRITTERS- yumm!), Alana Estate, Tirohana, Escarpment Vineyard, Ata Rangi (GOOD PINOT & STEAK And KIDNEY PIES!), Vynfields, Margain Vineyard, Muirlea Rise, Martinborough Vineyard, Palliser Estate. Fine wine, food and music a perfect blend for a big day out!

We met some new mates on the train on the way home who joined us for dinner in a restaurant none of us can remember, good seafood chowder and more pinot!

Now sitting in a hotel in Auckland (The Oaks Residencees, 16 Gore Street, quite close to some late night girly bars of anyone is interested) after a marathon drive from Wellington yesterday. Dinner at NSP in http://www.nonsolopizza.co.nz/ in Parnell which was not as good as last time we went there, perhaps monday night is the B team? You know something is wrong in an Italian restarant when the pasta is not cooked properly.... Met up with Nick (GM Portavin NZ), his wife Anna along with Chris Kelly (Ops Manager) and her hubby Paul.

Looking forward to another quiety tonight before a direct flight home to Perth tomorrow.

August / September 2009 happenings

Images: My Niece Tia, Hamilton Island Race Week, The famous Chateau, North Island, NZ

After a successful boat show work we came home to our very under utilised apartment in Busselton, WA. We enjoyed a great few weeks at home getting back into the groove of normality (whatever that is??...)

We then had a stint in Melbourne before one of our favourite weeks of the year, the fun and some times debaucherous Hamilton Island Race Week. We had a great crew once again and took out a few trophies. We stayed with James my dearest 82 year old friend and Island local and his 92 year old sister who was visiting him. We were blessed to meet her and spend some time with her as she has since passed away. Very sad, she was one of lifes gems and will be very sorely missed by all.

We departed Hamilton via Melbourne and Adelaide and returned home for a whole 4 days before turning around and headed to Auckland where Mike is setting up a new bottling plant.

We also planned to slip in a few days skiing in Mt Hutt but again the weather was not so good so we chose to drive into the north island ski fields. Birdman and Caroline, Mike and I headed to Mt Ruapehu and stayed at the famous Chateau - simply stunning! http://www.mtruapehu.com/

Skiing was ok a little slushy being so late in the season but dam good fun all the same.

I then flew to the Sunshine Coast via Sydney to catch up with the family which was lovely. Met my new neice Tia, oh my she is the cutest thing on earth! see pic!

Mike met me on the sunny coast before we flew off to Tasmania for a weekend jolly with Jon and Rell Winkel! see above post for more.

Update on happenings

I have been extremely slack with posts of late, last entry July so here's an update on whats been going down....

We had a great week in NZ late July where we skied a different ski field almost every day. We flew into Christchurch with the intention of going to Mt Hutt to ski first. A group of 7 of us, Greg and Kel Boller, Pete and Nina Walker, Rob, Mike and I booked cars so we could change plans should we need to. The weather looked not so good so we took off to Queenstown and Wanaka a stunning bout 4 hour drive.

We stayed at the Mecure on the Lakes in Wanaka, stunning accommodation and had an amazing meal at the Belgium Butchers restaturant. The following day we skied Cardrona in hazey weather.

Back to our digs the next day us lesser skiers took off to Coronet peak while Greg, Rob and Mike skied Treble Cone which they loved. We also had a good day on the slopes at Coronet.

This night we stayed in Queenstown and dined at a stunning Italian restaurant Luciano's

which is located at 88 Beach Street, web address http://www.lucianos.org.nz/home.html

Top food and service.

The next day half the group enjoyed Coronet Peak again while the other went site seeing. We then drove to Mt Hutt for a meal at the blue pub and delightful accommodation at Terrace Downs Resort which was situated on a stunning golf course. We stayed in a 5 bedroom house / chalet which was amazing!

We all enjoyed an amazing day skiing Mt Hutt on the last day, a tour seeming to end too soon!

We ended the tour back in Christchurch where Mike and I flew to Sydney. I stayed on and worked for Fountaine Pajot at the Sydney Boat Show at Darling Harbour where we sold a number of swisho luxury catamarans.

Skiing New Zealand - Mt Hutt

Last snow, October 2008, we were lucky enough to catch snow late in the season at Mount Hutt - and the bonus was there were no crowds. 

We stayed in the town of Methven which is only 90kms from Christchurch. I scored a super cheap flight with Virgin from Brisbane to Christchurch for only $129 ozzie dollars. Our accom was a simple apartment style place with an easy walk into town for meals.

The blue pub does fantastic local fish and has a good selection of wine.

We hired ski gear from Jas's ski hutt and it was top quality.

Queenstown, New Zealand

During May last year we did  quick jaunt to Queenstown, New Zealand in hope of some snow. It turned out we were a little early so spent our days exploring Queenstown and the wonderful Centra Otago wine region.

The lake in the pics is Lake Wakatipu in the centre of Queenstown and the gloriuos mountains behind are just some of the ski fields.

M0re to come on skiing New Zealand soon.