Day five: Romance

This trip finally got some romance.

Liza and I are presently bunkin up in a cabin for two in Martinsborough, a tiny town about an hour outside of Wellington. Despite being a cabin, it is definitely the nicest most modern looking place we’ve stayed so far, and I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones in the entire campsite. There is a duck outside our window, quacking away, and we’ll be sharing a bed for the first time. No predictions, but the mood just feels so right.

Now for a rewind. After returning from our vineyard adventures Wednesday afternoon, Liza and I split a bottle of wine on the terrace at our hostel, which was done in the fancy art deco style that she is “over.” We talked some more shit about our friends, and then headed out for dinner. The closest place to eat was a restaurant called Lone Star. Imagine my excitement! We skipped it though, hoping to grab a Shiner there later, which proved unsuccessful. Instead we grabbed a cab over to the Napier entertainment district, West Quay. Side bar, our cabbie, John, was a huge fan of Natty G (see below) and we spent most of the cab ride discussing local language editions. This was Liza’s opportunity to be bored by work discussion, and I quite enjoyed it.

We had dinner sitting by the fire at a place called Shed 2. Not sure where Shed 1 is, but my guess is that it’s in Old Zealand (OZed for short). We split an app (called an entrée in this country) of oxtail on polenta, and a pizza with blue cheese and salami. OMG…amazing. We then hopped to a couple bars, which brings me to another awesome thing about NZed: restaurant signs say they are open from “5 pm til close” which is just super helpful. Close also seems to ironically be as soon as the two of us walk in some place, but we try not to take it personally. After two beers and more shit talking, we headed home, and guess who should be our cabbie!? JOHN. More publishing talk, then to bed (but not before an awesome iTunes download session including, Duffy, Timbaland and Old Crow Medicine Show).

We got up bright Thursday and early and hit three more Hawkes Bay wineries. We had possibly the finest wine either of us has had so far at a place called Te Mata, New Zealand’s only Gimay Noir (!). There really is something special about hitting three wineries before Noon.

By far though, my favorite part of the day: lunch at the Te Mata Cheese Factory. We got ourselves a three-cheese plate with this amazing blue cheese and marinated feta. Unlike in the U.S., the portions were enormous, and we have the fart tally to prove it. While I was waiting to order a coffee for the road, our server asked if we’d like to do a cheese tasting. Um, is that a question? We had 3-4 additional bites of different cheeses, and that is when I found Jesus. Mom, really, I found him. He resides in the Bay Hill Blue Cheese, which was the creamiest, sharpest, saltiest cheese I’ve ever put in my mouth. I cannot imagine ever feeling again the same level of joy as that cheese brought me. In fact, the joy I felt an hour later when I burped it and tasted it again could probably equal that which I’ll feel on my wedding day to Jordan Shipley.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon en route to Martinsborough, which is about an hour outside of Wellington. It’s also another wine region, home to NZed’s finest pinot noirs (!). We were racing the clock to get there before most places closed, but still found time to stop at the Tui brewery outside Woodville. Tui is the Bud Light of NZed. For $15 we split a tasting of six beers, and got to keep the mug. It was quite a nice change of pace from all the wine. The Tui brand campaign is based around saying “Yeah Right,” so all their ads have things people say, followed by “yeah right.” Our favorite was “We really shouldn’t, we’re flat mates.” (COUGH, COUGH, COUGH). I bought a postcard that said “Worst Trip Ever” which seemed perfectly appropriate.

We arrived in Martinsborough with enough time to squeeze in two last wineries, bringing our total visited so far to 13 plus a brewery. We checked into our awesome cabin for two, played card games (with Liza’s Rochester rules, which as usual are bullshit), had a bottle of wine and then on to dinner in town at a place called Circus, a restaurant attached to a cinema where you can enjoy an art house flick with your meal. We split some chicken pate liver and a bacon-wrapped pork filet on a warm slaw. The romantic feelings I was feeling toward Liza before dinner were immediately transferred to my fork. So delicious.

When I sat down to write this all up, I had graded today a B+ day, mainly because the car ride got a little annoying, and Liza spent a large part of it giving me the silent treatment (jk). But as we gave it a thorough review over pillow talk, I’d say once again: A+.

And finally –

-We were able to make E-Roc’s cd work, and surprisingly we both really enjoyed her hipster shit. What we did not enjoy was Bobby’s “Fun 2010” cd. Sorry, Bobby…but what the F was that about? Baylor’s cd is in the player now, opinions to come.

-I still have not frolicked with sheep. We tried today, but they ran the other way. They were probably scared of the amazing zit I am working on at the moment.

-Just like in America, people get so excited when I tell them I work for Natty G, and then so disappointed when I explain what I do there. So I've started lying. I also should have brought more business cards because people love getting them.

-Plan for Wellington: a nice lunch (it’s restaurant week) and then cooking dinner for Liza’s roommates. Then tomorrow we hop a plane for Chirstchurch and the south island adventures begin.

This was an extremely long post for some reason. Sorry if you’re bored. Sorry if I can’t be as hilarious as you’d like. Sorry if you’re an asshole. S