Wolf Among Wolves

Three weeks ago I wrote one monster of a blog detailing the adventures of the past 16 months of my life. It was conveniently broken down by the major events (a month-long solo road trip up the Pacific Coast Highway, my life after moving to Portland, working the New Zealand wine harvest, and returning to Arizona) and contained enough "unbearably light" life experiences to make even Milan Kundera proud. But when I went back and read what I had saved, it didn't seem to do justice to those experiences (which, without wanting to sound like a grade-A cock, might only be fully captured by something akin to a short novel). Hoping to avoid alienating any potential readers with 5 pages of my first post in months, I have retracted that entry and written this (arguably) shorter one in its place.

Just between you and me, I'm not that much different these days anyway. I'm a little bit skinnier (over 30 pounds, actually). A little bit hairier in the face region. The music I listen to is increasingly of the folk variety. I find myself being drawn to dress in flannel (?) more and more. But personality-wise, I'm still sarcastic as fuck. My worldview is still that my glass is half full. I'm still the same old Brandon.

I have, however, had a few interesting life experiences... being that I have done my damnedest to eschew the typical post-grad (office job, marriage, baby, house) lifestyle. I really did get in my car and drive up the Pacific Coast for a month -- a journey inspired by (but hardly resembling the spartan nature of) a certain infamous book. I yearned to create a life from nothing, a blank slate, so I moved to a place where I didn't know a soul (sound like another book?). I pursued not jobs that were simply related to my degree, but ones that were dreams of sorts. And I got my dream job -- working my first wine harvest at Elk Cove in tiny Gaston, Oregon. There I worked with the soon-to-be chief winemaker at Mud House in Marlborough, New Zealand and was fortunate enough to be able to eke out a job offer to work their harvest earlier this year. In New Zealand I guess you could say I got a little homesick (for the US, and especially Arizona) and I stumbled across this random winery that was hiring harvest help in Northern Arizona, sent my resume, and got that job. I guess you could say that a lot of this past year or so hasn't been so much about personal discovery (although in many ways it has), but more about really achieving my dreams. And to that I owe a ton to everyone who has ever ushered words of encouragement and to, more specifically (and more electronically!), The Last Lecture. Sitting here today I can check off: an epic road trip, moving to Portland, working in the wine industry, and living abroad. Not too shabby for 16 months.

"AND NOW?!" you ask crazily and perhaps over-enthusiastically. I'm living in beautiful Sedona, commuting to work at Arizona Stronghold Vineyards just outside Camp Verde. I was recently asked to stay on full-time after harvest, and I'm thrilled to say that I have my first year-round winery gig as a Cellar Hand/Production Assistant. For someone that's never really known what they've wanted to do for a living, there's a tremendous weight off my shoulders realizing that I've found what I want to do for the rest of my life. And to be able to do it so close to friends and family is quite an opportunity -- I mean, American wine is so often associated with California, Washington or Oregon, but even I was surprised we had Arizona wine. Life in the Verde Valley is certainly interesting to say the least. The good thing is that Sedona is stunning... like more so than anything I saw in New Zealand. Here's a picture of just my backyard:

The other plusses are that I've got a great living situation, I'm loving my job (still shake my head every morning when I remind myself that I'm getting paid to learn how to make wine), and that I must be living near one of Sedona's good "vortexes" (or, vortices, which I dorkily remind everyone) because I don't think I can remember a time when I was this, well, content.

The downside is that there seem to be no good-looking girls my age (or anyone my age, period) in Sedona... this is becoming painfully obvious. On the upside there aren't many guys either, so when I do find a cute girl they won't have much room to improve upon. Ha! That's always a good reason to date someone. Also, Sedona's aversion to chain retailers means that anytime I want/need to buy something other than groceries I have to make a trek to Cottonwood (30 minutes), Flagstaff (45 minutes), or even Phoenix (2 hours)... yet I refuse to take a single step inside Wal-Mart even if it is on my way home from work. Thirdly, it's really easy to fall into a Verde Valley bubble and forget about the rest of the world (or strangely not hear about the sweatlodge deaths outside town until it makes it to national TV). But overall I'm in a good place (sweatlodge-free... that's what I always say) and I can come down to the Phoenix area on the weekends whenever I like.

And that's all I've got for this entry. I'm sure a bunch of the Portland and New Zealand stories will come up in future blogs, or say if you and I have one of those old-fashioned face-to-face conversations... how 'bout that? Oh, here's one before I go: I never realized that I love foreign girls until I went to New Zealand. Not so much the Kiwis themselves, but I think in retrospect I had a little crush on just about every non-American girl I worked with or met over there. Maybe it's the accents, maybe it's the charmingly broken English. I just love them. And before I settle completely down, I will definitely do a wine harvest in France.
 


Loudon Wainwright III - Swimming Song

The Last of the Interns

So I am deeming this the worst-run blog in the history of blogdom. It's not entirely my fault, however, seeing as how my power cord malfunctioned two weeks into my trip to New Zealand, leaving me with no way to charge my computer. Then, a couple weeks ago my wireless internet adapter quit working, so I've had little other choice than to squeeze in 15 whole free minutes at the local library (which is frequently packed and closes 45 minutes after I get home from work) or to try to plug into the internet at my new house via hard-line connection (which is in the homeowner's bedroom). My other choice is to go to the lone internet cafe in town, which is inexplicably owned by -- and filled to the brim with -- Brazilians. But seeing as how I just spent $320 NZD on a hospital visit (turned out to be a 4mm kidney stone), I'd rather access the internet for free and save some money in the hope that maybe... just maybe... I might be able to see a little bit of this country when I'm done.

Things have been going relatively well here, aside from the kidney stone (which has been every bit as painful as advertised). I am now the last remaining foreign cellar hand at the winery since Tom Jones took off on Saturday for a stint in Australia before returning home to England. Last weekend was a three-day weekend courtesy of the Queen's Birthday (God save the Queen!), so Tom and I headed out in his campervan and stayed the night at a campground at Nelson Lakes. Following a 90-minute trek, some pasta, and two bottles of NZ wine, we slept in the van during what must have been one of the coldest nights of our lives (heard it was -7 Celsius). The next day we headed to Abel Tasman National Park and vowed to stay in a backpackers. Abel Tasman was pretty awesome... it was far more tropical than I expected and I was often thought I was in Hawaii instead of New Zealand. We hopped on a fairly cheap water taxi in the morning that dropped us off at Anchorage Bay before 10AM. It was perfect weather for a hike, but since it's winter here we had the trail mostly to ourselves except for the occasional group of people and some loud California girls (effin' Yanks).

I'm in a new house now, which I really like. It's just me, the lady that owns the house, Mary, and a guy named Dave who works at another winery called Cloudy Bay... oh, and Boss, a 7-year old Jack Russell! Mary's a British transplant who's been in New Zealand for 14 years... and she has a pretty spectacular BBC-tinged DVD collection. British humor... ahem, humour... is a little different, but The Fast Show is definitely worthy of a Netflix rental or two. Dave's pretty cool too... my first weekend here we did some wine tasting together at St. Clair, La Strada, and Highfield Estates. Last weekend we made a trip over to White's Bay and Monkey Bay to take in the scenery (since there truly isn't much to do in Blenheim).

Blenheim isn't actually so bad... and I think I kind of like living in a small town. At least for just a little while :). For example, I think the last 5 times in a row that I've gone walking around town on my own I've randomly run into someone on the streets that I know. It's certainly been a little sad here post-harvest, and I'm definitely missing my Euros... and even the Americans. Fancy that! But it's been nice to get a little perspective on what it's like around here the rest of the year. Man, is it fucking cold here though. It's about 2 degrees Celsius now (just above freezing) and no one has central heating in the entire country, apparently. Why would they though? It's not like people catch a cold and die... oh, they do? Is that why the World Health Organization just came out and said 50% of NZ homes don't meet modern heating standards? It's 2009... W... T... F?

Then I spent yesterday in a blast-from-the-past hospital that was built in the early 1960's... and I'd say not much renovating has gone on since then. I went to work and about two hours in, I was doubled over in pain near the tank I was racking. It felt like someone was stabbing me in the lower-left side of my back with a knife while I was simultaneously being kicked in the groin. The pain was so excruciating that I threw up twice before seeing a doctor... Doctor Chad from Las Cruces, New Mexico (not even I can make this stuff up). A CT-scan, an x-ray, an IV-drip and one urine test later... and they told me I had a 4mm kidney stone that I would hopefully pass without much pain. I thought older people got kidney stones, so when I went home and wanted to fall asleep at 8PM I felt especially old.

Today I took the day to recover and to think about what I want to do with myself when I get back to the US. I'm still leaning very much towards an Arizona return by the end of July, but I would also like to do another harvest that's a little closer to home. It might be a little late for some of the Napa wineries, but I've found a winery in Northern Arizona between Prescott and Sedona that's hiring workers for the upcoming vintage in August. That would be amazing, and I could even come down to the Valley on my days off... or hit on the townies along Whiskey Row. But I think Napa would be a lot of fun too, and I will definitely be sending my resume to a few wineries and hopefully exhausting some of my contacts as well.

But for now I must be going. I've got to get those resumes out... and Mary's having a small dinner party tonight which I promised join. Hopefully I'll get a few more of these blogs out before I begin my brief travels in 3 weeks. Hope everyone is safe and sound (and kidney stone free!).

P.S. -- The Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra must be checked out. Their cover of the Kings of Leon's "The Bucket" makes me love life. Oh, and one of the ukulele players is Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords!

A New Journey Begins

So I've been fairly awful at updating this blog. To my credit I did work 87.5 hours in one week last pay period... and this past week we've had a few people leaving Mud House to either head home or continue their travels around the globe. Also, this past weekend has provided the night crew and the day crew with their first chance to hang out with each other since the beginning of harvest, so needless to say I thought it might be better to spend some time with them than stick my nose in my laptop with the little free time I've had.

Currently I'm at the Hotel So lobby in Christchurch using one of their four lovely Mac computers -- and I think I'm making the switch to a Mac the next time I have to buy a computer, but that's beside the point. I'm back in Christchurch because my plane was supposed to head back to the States at 4:30 this afternoon... and the reason I'm not on the plane is because I'm staying to work at the winery until the end of June. Long story short, I'm staying here in Christchurch because Christina and I had already made reservations at the hotel and even though I already told our winemaking team I'd stay through the end of June, I couldn't pass up a chance to get the hell out of Blenheim for a couple of days.

The timing is actually perfect for a couple of days off. Hell, anytime you have two days off in a whole month and you're working 12-hour days every day, ANYTIME is a good time for a day off. This past Saturday we had our end-of-harvest party, sponsored and paid for by Mud House, which ended up being a chartered bus pub crawl beginning in Havelock and ending back in Blenheim. We knew we were heading out early in the morning with Erik, his girlfriend Heather, and Kate, so Christina and I came back home and crashed after our dinner at Renaissance somewhere around 10:30PM (FYI: Kiwi beer is not great... save for Renaissance in Blenheim and Dux de Lux in Christchurch, which actually have a little flavor). The next morning the five of us woke up, said a few somewhat tearful goodbyes (mostly the Italian girls, which was incredibly cute) and got into Erik's little 4-door rental and took the seemingly endless drive into Christchurch.

Today we got up and headed to the Canterbury Museum, had some lunch, and then went to Dux de Lux for a pint of their ginger beer before Christina took the shuttle to the airport at 1:30. I've got to admit I was a little sad as I sat alone there in Cathedral Square, watching her shuttle leave as she begins her trek back home. And even though there was about a week there in the peak of harvest where I thought we were going to kill each other, I'll be a little empty in New Zealand without her. But the other truth is that I think the both of us have been entirely too dependent on the other -- I think, except for one week in December, we've seen each other almost every day over the last 5 months -- and that it will be a very different, if not curiously welcomed, stay in New Zealand on my own.

Tomorrow I wake up at the Hotel So, have approximately 30 minutes to eat my "brekky" and check out before I board my early morning bus back to Blenheim. I should arrive around mid-day before I begin my first shift on the "afternoon" crew which runs from 3:00PM-11:30PM. It sounds like a long day, but after working 12-hour days I know it will be a piece of cake. It will be fun to see how the new crews pan out... there's been this semi-friendly rivalry between day crew and night crew and now the "AM Jaguars" and "Nite Wolves" are mixing for a week or so before more people take off from Mud House.

It will be awfully sad watching everyone leave... I think only 3 or 4 of us from Mud House are staying into June. Although we do share a large facility with Jackson Estates and South Pacific Cellars, and a few sexy South African girls from SPC are staying fairly late as well -- which does me absolutely no good because my brain stops working whenever they are around and I can't muster the brainpower to talk to them. I did manage to tell them at a wine tasting we hosted for them at our house that I wanted to go to South Africa next year for the harvest and (mostly) the 2010 World Cup and they agreed I should come, so maybe I can find a way to make that happen. But for now it seems like small numbers of people will drop from our crew each week, until we're down to a handful of cellar hands and a normal schedule (Monday-Friday, 8:00-4:30!).

So my flight back to the U.S. is on July 14th, which gives me roughly two weeks of travel time to see more of New Zealand and/or somewhere in the Pacific like Fiji or the cheaper Cook Islands. Apparently Air New Zealand offers a free one-week layover in the Cook Islands if you are flying to the U.S. and just the other day they had flights to Fiji for like $110 USD! But I'm thinking of taking a cheap flight up to Auckland and renting a camper van to sleep out of for a couple of weeks while touring the North Island and the west coast of the South Island before I have to be back in Christchurch for the 3rd time this trip. It's finally starting to snow on the mountains and some of the sights we witnessed on our drive yesterday honestly made our jaws drop. The main reason I'm staying the next two months is because it would be a damn shame if I came all the way to New Zealand, worked my ass off, and didn't bother to actually see New Zealand aside from 2 days in Christchurch and one day in Nelson. When else in my life am I going to be able to take advantage of an opportunity like this? Well, except for maybe South Africa next year :)

But for now I think I'm going to head upstairs and catch some Harry Potter or There Will Be Blood on TV and decide what to do with the rest of my night -- which will realistically be a cheap dinner, possibly "MacDo" (which is French for McDonald's), Burger King, or a kebab! Don't give me a hard time about the fast food, I think I have a tapeworm so technically I could be eating for two here. It has to be a tapeworm, because I can't explain how my "trash compactor" eating habits have magically turned into noticeable weight loss. Anywho, the trash compactor is requesting more food so I must be going.


Other random facts/thoughts I have neglected to mention thus far:

-Mud House also makes wines for Astrolabe and Jules Taylor, which are two independent contract labels that do not have their own crush facilities. Astrolabe is apparently one of New Zealand's higher-reviewed labels. Who knew? Apparently a lot of "wineries" aren't really wineries but simply contract business at a large crush facility. As such, the romantic stories about how the winery came into existence on the back of the bottle are, as Kiwis say, simply "rubbish."

-Dog Point was the coolest place we tasted at in all of our Marlborough tastings. We called ahead and they gave our whole morning crew and a guy from SPC a private tour of their facility, including the vineyard on top of a ridge that has 360-degree views of the surrounding area. Also, their "crew" is made up of 4 disgruntled 50-somethings that got tired of large corporate winery work and decided to open their own winery. They make wine at their own pace and they listen to Jimmi Hendrix... definitely a different experience than most of the other New Zealand wineries we toured and... ahem... worked at.

- I got a haircut at a place in Blenheim and it made me look like a Spanish soccer player. Long enough on top to do a faux-hawk, but disgustingly long in the back that it started to look a little mullett-y. Christina trimmed the back for me and now according to Heath I "look like a million bucks." I miss the long hair poking out of my beanie, but it's garnered positive reviews so far.

- I am wanting to learn a new language and I'm starting to think French would come in handy.

- Really jealous I'm missing the NHL playoffs right now -- Caps and Penguins?!?!?! I'm sick of hearing about the goddamn All Blacks and I'd kill to see something other than rugby or cricket on TV.

That is all...

Still Alive

Hi everyone! We've been incredibly busy with harvest... I can only remember one day off in the last three weeks. And every single one of those work days has been at least 12 hours long. Really the only thing of note is that last night we decided to go to the local pub, Paddy Barry's, for some Blenheim nightlife.

I wish I had the mental clarity to write a full-fledged entry right now, but it's already 10PM here and we have to be up again at 6AM. There's no sign of another day off in the next week or so, but our last day of work is going to be May 1st, which is also the day of the end-of-harvest party. After that we have about a week before our flight home to the states, so a trip to Abel Tasman and/or Wellington might be in the works.

Since the last post:

- One of the guys on night crew had his wrist broken by the machine I operate. His jumpsuit got caught on this rolling bar and wound his clothes up until it snapped his wrist. It's easy to forget all the things that can maim or kill you at a winery.
- Had a day off, but it was Easter so everything was closed in town except for McDonald's and the pet store.
- Called home via payphone and got to talk to mom and dad for about 10 whole minutes! I intend to call again, but I can only use the phone two times a day... once in the morning at 6AM New Zealand time, the other at 8:30 at night when I get home (1:30 AM Arizona time). Hang in there, we'll talk soon.
- The owner of the house we are all staying at recently brought in 3 kittens that his mother-in-law found. They are so freaking cute!
- Worked 87.5 hours this past WEEK... already this harvest I've managed to save enough money to pay off my airline tickets and maybe do a small bit of travelling around the country before I go home.

That's about it, folks. Plan on taking my camera to the winery tomorrow, so hopefully I'll maybe... maybe... maybe... upload some pictures sometime before I come home.

Goodnight!

So... tired.

So we just finished our 9th straight day of 12+hour work (84 hour work week!) and I am absolutely exhausted. Right now I have about 2 hours of free time each day -- and about 30 minutes of that goes towards drinking a celebratory beer after work with the crew. The RDV's are kicking my ass... yes, there are two of them. The big one takes 10-15 bags to "cake up" (each bag ways 55 pounds) and the little one, about 7 -- each bag has to be lifted over my head and into the mixing tubs, so my back is incredibly sore. And all that's not even counting the hoses filled with juice that I have to lug around all over the winery. We're all getting a little tired and sleep-deprived, but the long days seem to be getting easier -- and I feel like I'm getting in shape from all the hard work. So A+, right?

Personally I'm getting a little homesick. And not for Portland. I miss my friends and family... and I'm frequently daydreaming of going home to Arizona once I return to the U.S. I'm really liking not having to live out some terrible desk job and I'd like to give brewing beer a try... I wonder if Four Peaks would take someone with a couple wine harvests under their belt? Even Prescott Brewing Company would be fun for a while. I'd also like to do some electrical work with my dad, and I could at least pick up an extra skill during the tough economic times.

Anywho... we have to wake up in about 6.5 hours for another day of work so I think I'll crash for now. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive and well. And that I still plan on calling home once I get a day off to buy some secret calling card one of the French guys told me about... I just don't know yet whether we'll get a day off in the next two weeks.

Goodnight!

And I'm Back!

The power cord for my laptop arrived today! It's nice to have full access to the outside world once again. I swear New Zealand is stuck in a time warp -- our local radio station plays all the "modern" hits like The Offspring, Eagle Eye Cherry, Nickelback, AC/DC, and tons and tons of U2 (every three songs, by my count). TV is even delayed by about a month... the "all new" episode of Lost was on last night, but it was the same episode I watched the week before I left the States.

Harvest is in relatively full swing and we've officially begun working 12-hour shifts at the winery. I am on the day shift (7AM-7:30PM) with Christina (US-Oregon), Heath (US-California), Erik (US-California), Jen (US-California), Lucien (France), Adeline (France), Paolo (Italy), Milly (UK), and Hiro (New Zealand via Japan). The other half of the cellar hands have been split off into the night crew. We only see them for about 30 minutes a day when each crew changes out at the winery... which makes it really awkward considering we all live in the same house together.

Christina and I had the day off on Monday and we decided to rent a car and drive to Nelson. Driving was an event in itself since they drive on the left side of the road in NZ... and since virtually all cars here are manual transmission (something I am clearly not familiar with) Christina agreed to take the wheel. After 90 minutes of idyllic New Zealand scenery (I think they really DO have more sheep than people here) and Christina's deft driving skills (that's right, "idyllic" and "deft" just happened in the same sentence) we arrived safe and sound in Nelson. More than anything it was just nice to get away from Blenheim... Nelson's still a small town, but it has vastly superior shopping, women, restaurants, and aesthetics in general. I was also fairly stunned to see several high-end apartments and condos going up along the beaches... while construction has pretty much stalled in the US, things appear to be quite on the up in tiny Nelson. My camera battery unfortunately died on the trip there, so I don't have much to document it, but next to our bicycle wine tasting adventures the trip to Nelson has been one of the New Zealand highlights so far.

At the winery things are pretty slow for harvest. I can't tell if it's because I'm used to a smaller winery and a smaller crew, where the same number of tasks are divided among fewer workers -- and thus each worker has a larger workload -- or because things are actually really slow and we have a dozen people to do all the work there is. Or maybe it's door #3... that I actually learned a lot at Elk Cove and I'm just taking everything in stride now. I'll go ahead and say it's a combination of all three... but that doesn't change the fact that we've had it relatively easy thus far.

Each person's work seems to be more specialized than what most of us are used to. Some only work the press lines all day... receiving the fruit from gigantic trucks, pressing it in the presses, pumping it from the juice trays into the tanks, and repeating. Some of us spend our whole days cleaning dirty tanks. Since Christina and I have worked with Nadine before, she has been kind enough to have Christina working closely with the lab in the mornings -- since she is considering Fermentation Science for graduate school -- and has entrusted me with the responsibility/neverending frustration that is the RDV. RDV stands for Rotating Drum Vacuum and it more or less takes the shittiest parts of the juice that we store in our tanks -- this brown, murky, mud-like substance we call the "lees" -- and through what I like to think is witch-craft, filters it in to crystal clear juice that we can turn into wine. Basically it's a shitload of work for not a lot of wine, but it's something akin to wine alchemy so I like to think it's slightly awesome even though it's a tremendous pain in the ass.

Other than that, it's not terribly different than making wine in Oregon or California or anywhere else in the world. We still work long hours and go home wet and stinky... some more than others (with a finger pointed straight at myself). And we have maybe two hours to eat dinner and go to sleep when we get home, or else we don't get anywhere near the recommended 8 hours of nightly sleep. Unless you're like me and you stay up till midnight typing blog entries.

So without further adieu I will crash for the night, since I have to be up at 6AM. Thanks for reading and keep the comments coming!

Much Love,

Brandon

Quick Update

My laptop's power cable is irreparably damaged and I'm on the last 14% of my battery, so this will have to be a quick entry. We're having a blast in New Zealand so far... even if harvest has gotten off to a slow start. The warm weather means that the grapes are staying on the vines, which in turn means that we have no fruit to press, which means that we only worked about 3 days this week :(

Fortunately we've had plenty of time to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, rent bikes in Blenheim and take them on a wine tour in Renwick, and even partake in a welcome-to-harvest BBQ at the intern house where we got to try rabbit, vennison, and goat. I still can't believe I ate rabbit.

Anywho, the computer's about to die so it might be a few days before I blog again. Hopefully we'll be busy with harvest at that point anyway.

Cheers,
Brandon

Greetings from New Zealand

Greetings from sunny Blenheim, New Zealand! I have just finished my first day working on the 2009 harvest for Mud House Wines and let me just say... what a difference from most of the Oregon wineries. Mud House is absolutely huge and some of the tanks are epically and almost inconceivably large. Just for sheer comparison, Elk Cove (the winery where I worked the 2008 harvest) processed a total of 660 tons of grapes this past year with 5 full-time harvest interns. Mud House is anticipating over 7000 tons this vintage alone, employing a whopping 18 interns. It's going to be a lot of work over the next two months, but luckily we have a lot of help on hand.

Making our task even more daunting, Christina and I just arrived in Blenheim at about 7:30 last night. Our journey began with a 20-hour flight from Portland to Christchurch (via San Francisco and Auckland). Christchurch is deservingly known as the most English of all New Zealand cities, so it comes as no surprise that while we were having a pint at a bar called His Lordship's Tavern a drunken Brit came up to us at a table, drunkenly expounded his love for Christina, and then proceeded to ever-so-awkwardly grab me by the head and kiss me on the ear. Ah, the most English of all New Zealand cities, indeed. We woke up early the next day and went to the beautiful (and free!) botanical gardens before taking a 5 and a half hour, supposedly air-conditioned bus ride to our final destination of Blenheim.

Our first day was truly more of an orientation/meet-and-greet sort of deal, but just the same we'll call it "work". With 18 of us interns, it was a job just remembering everyone's name. By my count we have 6 Americans, 5 Frenchies, 4 Italians, 1 German, 1 Chilean, and 1 Japanese-New Zealander. It's a pretty diverse crew and all but 2 of us have at least one harvest under our belt. The vast majority of us are living in the intern house about 15 minutes away from the winery. So far I'm in a room with three other guys: Tom from Brighton, England who is here on his first harvest, Gerard, who unbeknownst to Christina and I worked at Patton Valley Vineyards (literally 5 minutes away from us at Elk Cove in Oregon) and apparently took the same flight as us from San Francisco to Christchurch, and Heath, who escaped Dallas for the greener pastures of Napa over the last couple of years. It's exciting here at the house, but Christina and I might have the opportunity to stay with one of the winery's viticulturalists for free. We'll see...

In the mean time we are expecting a pretty slow start to the harvest because it's still super warm and sunny, which the vines are loving. So it looks like we'll be getting this Wednesday and Thursday -- and most likely this weekend -- entirely off. But hang in there with me, harvest will undoubtedly heat up over the next two months and I'll continue to post updates throughout my time here in New Zealand.

P.S. - I'll upload some pictures shortly!