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...