Day 339: Driving from the Kaikoura area to the Nelson-ish Area — A Stop at Cloudy Bay Winery
Yesterday a marine volcano in the Bay of Plenty (North Island) erupted unexpectedly with dozens of tourists on it or nearby. It more than 350 miles away from us. So far 6 are dead, 8 are missing/presumed dead and many others are horrifically injured, including several Americans. It’s a really terrifying and sad story.
More on traveling and fears/danger in the MISC below.
We pulled away from the Hapuku Treehouse Lodge around 11 am and made our way north toward Nelson — four hours away.
Before we move on from that place, though, worth noting a few of the characters staying there:
- The Indian dude and his three Russian girlfriends (see earlier post). (We befriended a server at the restaurant and on IG we messaged him saying one day when he leaves his job he has to tell us the insider story of that guy.)
- An older French guy who bore a striking resemblance to Albert Einstein ( Willa loudly announced the resemblance last night when he walked into dinner).
- The squeaky clean, cute, fit American 30-something whom Willa gleefully/mistakenly called “Dada!” yesterday afternoon (she still refuses to admit this happened. I heard the whole thing).
- The 30-year-old Bay Area honeymooners who nailed every Silicon Valley/elite MBA stereotype, but probably didn’t realize it.
But it was time to leave this crew and head to the last of our 7 stops in New Zealand!
First though: Lunch at Cloudy Bay. Cloudy Bay’s sauvignon blanc was introduced to us by Peter Thum at a dinner party in about 2010 at my old boss Alex Jutkowitz’s place. We’ve always enjoyed it.
The vineyard is pretty with a Cannes chic to it. Didn’t realize it was now owned by LVMH — explains the aesthetic (and the huffy staff).
We enjoyed a cheese plate, some entrees…but no oysters — rains made it difficult.
But there was petanque! James and Willa taught Beeps how to play. He won.
We were back on the road by 2:30 and listened to many a podcast while the kids listened to their audiobooks (Willa: Zootopia. James: Ramona The Pest). We caught up on The Daily, Dolly Parton’s America and heard Tim Ferris interview Ken Burns. There was a rambling interview of Wyclef Jean in there too that we cut short.
Meanwhile the landscape went from rolling Petaluma hills dotted with sheep, to pine-covered mountains, to Caribbeanm coastline to Palm Springs-like Nelson.
By about 5:30 we were meandering along faraway farm roads, an hour outside Nelson, wondering how the hell a travel agent finds places like this.
Eventually we pulled into Edenhouse. And stopped questioning anything.
Edenhouse is among the top three nicest places (perhaps the nicest place?) we’ve stayed all year. Yeeeeesh. This place is uuuuh-maaaaay-zing.
Peter (Australian) and Bobbie (a woman, and a Kiwi) left their life in London to retire on this piece of land in New Zealand. They built a new and fabulous house and turned the farmland into a dreamscape of English country gardens — wildflowers, hammocks, bees, lavender, vegetable gardens, roses, etc. Stunning.
There are only three suites. Ours is a cottage. For the last 14 years they’ve been hosting 6-8 guests at a time here, and the stay includes breakfast, dinner, wine and the chance to feel like you’re living in your own country estate with staff.
Oh! And maybe the cutest dog of the year? Her name is Chilli, and she’s a 13-year-old fat black lab with gray face. Snores a lot, loves cuddles…..very much a Molly.
Dad’s in an upstairs bedroom suite in the main house while we have our own “garden cottage.”
We met for cocktails on one of the many patios and chatted with the other guests, a British couple named Susie (aka UK version of Loby’s BFF Joyce) and her husband Phil.
Phil, when inquiring about the kids, referred to them as “the girls”…..twice. Teddy corrected him. Not the first time that’s happened. James’s shag and his lashes and tight tight leggings (and nail polish, now that you mention it!!), have misled more than one person.
Anyway, Susie and Phil were charming and we had fun chit chatting over hors d’oeuvres until dinner. Our family was seated in the dining room. All to ourselves, multiple courses, but feels like you’re in a fancy-yet-cozy private home.
We were curious about the kids’ takes on this. Teddy asked: “How do you know if a hotel is luxury?” Willa answered: “By the number of forks and knives on the table at dinner.” James added: “And the number of glasses!”
I promise they’ve learned a lot more than that this year.
Dinner was simple but delicious. We all went to bed around 9 pm.
MISC:
I feel like I can hear people back home worrying that we are in danger. New Zealand, small as it is, is still very big. We are 350 miles away from the volcano.
Yet if all you see is the news, you might assume everyone here is in danger.
Fretting is an unhelpful habit when it comes to travel. Irrational fears prevent you from leaving home.
“Don’t go to politically unstable countries! Don’t go where crime is high! Don’t go where the wildlife/environment is dangerous!”
Bad things happen everywhere.
We laughed at our own pre-trip travel fretting once we realized that our own neighborhood in Lower Manhattan — our home, our community, the place where we’re raising our kids — has seen Hurricane Sandy and the West Side Highway van terror attack in just the last few years.
Our fears of what could happen this year, we realized, were irrational.
To that point, we’ve kept a running list this year of “drama” (for lack of a better word?) that has happened in places before/during/right after we visited:
- A police station bombing in Bogota while we were there
- Another at the Great Pyramids a week after we left
- The two typhoons in Mozambique a month before we arrived
- The Hong Kong protests while we were there
- A 6.8 earthquake in another part of Indonesia while we were there
- A tourist shark attack on the Great Barrier Reef a week after we snorkeled it
None of any of this impacted us at all — which only reinforced our suspicion that the odds of being harmed by something out here in the big world (like a New Zealand volcano)…are very small.
Before you write someplace off because of a bad headline, do the research/ask the people on the ground there who really know what’s going on…and odds are, you’ll be fine.
