New Zealand's Vineyard, Antill Estate

We finally made it to New Zealand!  We flew in to Christchurch and into a cold, rainy and windy day.  Our mission was to get to the museum at the center of town where our first wwoof Host was meeting us.  On the way there we could see a large amount of construction and renovation taking place all over the city in the wake of the earthquake that devastated their area last year.

Antill Estate Pinot Noir Grapes (Adriana Weil)

Adrian, me, Adriana, Janice, Julian, and Roald

Our host drove us about an hour North of Christchurch to the Weka Pass and to their vineyard/winery called Antill Estate.  Here they produce a small amount each year but some of the best Pinot Noir wine.  They are focused on quality and have an intimate knowledge of the land and the grapes that they grow off of it.  Janice, Julian and Adrian are some of the best wwoof hosts one could have.  They are all friendly, intelligent, conversational and take a genuine interest in the people that cometo work with them.  They work alongside their wwoofers and give them the utmost respect.  On top of all that they keep us well fed and of course delicious wine is never in short supply.

Antill Estate Vineyard (Adriana Weil)

The Vineyard is not the largest nor the fanciest.  Around 1800 bottles a year come from this vineyard and all of the Pinot Noir variety.  At the moment they do not have a distributor abroad but they are looking and interested in selling to anyone with an interest.  If anyone would like to get in contact with these people or get ahold of a bottle of their wine just shoot me an email or leave me a comment with some contact info.  Keen to share their wine and their knowledge freely with the people they meet,  The owners of Antill Estate Winery would be happy to talk with you on any subject even tangentially related to wine.  From our first night here we have had some of the most detailed, engaging, knowledgeable and worldly conversations I have ever taken part in.

Antill Estate Vineyard (Adriana Weil)

Antill Estate's property

Praying Mantis and Fly

Looks just like the invasive weed Scott's Broom in Oregon.

Adriana "suggested" I take this picture.  She said not she would attack if I did not...

Sacred Kingfisher or Kotari in Maori (Adriana Weil)

Cabbage Tree (Adriana Weil)

The most scenic thing we have seen so far and this is the boring part of New Zealand

Maori rock art

Maori rock art 

(Adriana Weil)

Maori rock art

The "Cave"

...Oh wait... she did!

Sydney Opera House

We did not take too many photos in Sydney except at the Sydney Opera House.  It is a beautiful and incredibly unique structure inspired by the contouring and shapes of a shell.  I am sure all of these same photos have been take a thousand times but not by me so here are my versions.

I did not imagine the roof to be tiled like this until I saw it.

The Great Ocean Road

After our terrific time traveling Tasmania we flew to Melbourne and into a cold, cloudy and rainy day.  We picked up a car at the airport and drove west on the southern coast of Australia along the Great Ocean Road.  This road is full of scenic areas and unusual sights such as the Twelve Apostle rock formations, Loch Ard Gorge and Koalas.

Most exciting for Adriana and I were the Koalas.  We had seen most of the iconic Australian fauna up to now with the one exception of the Koala.  Along this drive on Grey River Road we saw tons of them.  They are inconspicuous and easy to overlook at first.  Just a ball of fluff located high in the air at the branching of spindly Eucalyptus trees.  Once we got a decent search image formed in our minds they started to appear all over.  Naturally they all looked to be in a near comatose state, as would you and I if our sole food source was also a potent drug.  Eventually one lively little fellow actually made the effort to lift his heavy head and open his weary eyes to take in the fast-paced noisy apes staring up at him.

While standing around to check out a few Australian King Parrots perched low in a tree we suddenly became swarmed by them.   They alighted on our heads and arms without hesitation.  People have clearly been feeding these birds for some time for them to have developed such a sense of security around humans.  Although not a great behavior for the birds to develop it was amusing to have a few hop around on us.

Australian King Parrot

Apparently a Parrot Rack

Crimson Rosella

A little further on down the coast we came upon the Twelve Apostles.  These are dominating formations of rock left standing in the ocean as the cliffs of the south coast fall away from the constant battery of the wind waves.  As we approached the area of the Twelve Apostles the sun began to break through the clouds and spit its rays in patches over the coast.  They had that dramatic lighting effect that comes only from those days with the strongest of suns in the sky yet still encumbered by the heavy clouds that can all but shut out its rays.  If we had more time and money we would have spent a day or two exploring all of the hidden gems set alongside the Great Ocean Road but after a few half a day we had to start moving Northeast toward our last stop in Australia, Sydney.

Some of the Apostles

Adriana loves the Great Ocean Road.

2 /12 Apostles

Near Loch Ard Gorge

TAZMAWESOME

It is now the day before we move on to New Zealand and an entire new adventure but here are a few more pictures from Tasmania, starting with some of the most awesome people who let us live at their house and come and go as we pleased and went far out of their own way to make our travels the best they could be.  Adriana and I are both so grateful to have met and been able spend time with everyone in this first photo.   The rest of the photos are of the other adventures that took place all over Tasmania.

In case you find yourself in Tasmania and in need of some builders of the highest caliber I would recommend you go to Ninedot straight away and talk to Mick Miller

Adriana and I with Bronte,  Josh, Alison, Mick and Terry in George Town, Tasmania

Halls Falls, one of the many we saw in Tasmania.

Tree Fern

The shoes we wore when hiking Cradle Mountain. Jason, Adriana and I.

Twisted Lakes Cradle Mountain

Jason cooking up some Wallaby burgers.

As poor people going on broke we took full advantage of the fruit growing around us including the blackberries.

Platypus!

A Tasmanian logo of the now extinct Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine)

Going to a movie in Hobart was a serious thrill and luxury to have the theater to ourselves.

What large claws they have!

Nothin but gourmet meals of course.

Taz-tastic

We had some real fun taking jumping pictures on the Henty Sand Dunes in western Tasmania.  We were all very... very sore the next day.

Picture #1 (Jason Hosler)

Picture #2 (Jason Hosler)

(Jason Hosler)

(Jason Hosler)

(Jason Hosler)

(Jason Hosler)

(Jason Hosler)