Cloudier today. Wendy, Richard and I walked the dogs to the town/village (Martinborough) and had coffee while Keith mowed the grass. Then we went via the country route to Greytown and had delicious baguettes and coffee eclairs in the French Bakery before looking around the shops. Wendy succumbed to a skirt and matching top in a sale. In the evening we had a BBQ - or rather Keith cooked steak and sausages outside, with Richard supporting him with a glass of red wine in his hand - but we actually ate it indoors with salad and saute potatoes because the wind had got up and it was really a bit chilly.
20 March
Bright and sunny day - in fact, a bit too hot for a 10k walk, but we
did the whole thing - with Keith and Wendy and their friends, Colin and Di, who also come from Khandallah and have a weekend home in Martinborough. The charity "Round The Vines" walk/race raises around $NZ30,000 a year for the local school and is terrifically well supported, with lots of competitors wearing fancy dress. We came in not far short of last but we enjoyed the wine tastings and water melon/grapes en route! Afterwards we all went to Coneys vineyard for lunch, where we sat under an awning to shade us from the strong sun, and had an excellent wine tasting with the owner - great Rieslings - look out for them! We then chose a couple of the wines (of course) to have with a delicious, lengthy, lunch. What a great way to spend an afternoon!19 March
Took both cars up over the Rimutaka mountain range to Martinborough. Quite a few more homes in Cottage Grove than we remembered: and lots more vegetation in Keith and Wendy's cottage grounds - fruit trees and bushes of all sorts around the house, shrubs, and a very productive raised vegetable bed; plus olive trees in the adjacent section which they bought recently. After a bit of a play with them, we left the dogs at home and went to Vynfields - a vineyard producing only organic wine - for lunch. The owners' beautiful colonial style house was originally in Lyall Bay in Wellington but was transported to this site and re-erected, and they have created a very attractive garden and outdoor eating area around it. Luckily we found a table in the shade - it was very hot - and we had a tasting of six different wines - mostly rose or red - with a light lunch. Later in the afternoon we collected produce from the garden - baby tomatoes, raspberries, grapes, garlic and two types of beans. We played with the dogs and took them for a walk. In the evening we had a good meal in Martinborough at Medici.
