Wining

Another day, another rain storm. It was a beautiful clear sky when we woke up this morning. However as has been the way, rain clouds moved in, and we took to the road again.  We headed up past Auckland to the final area of our Kiwi exploration, the Northland.  We identified a nice sounding coastal area around Matakana, which had the bonus of being wine country. On arrival at Matakana we found a thriving little town, with a multiplex cinema, showing the Girl who played with Fire  early evening. So we made a plan - bit of culture, bit of luxury, then the big screen.  We went to a vineyard with a sculpture trail, had a good potter around there.  I particularly enjoyed a sound sculpture playing under a bridge which sounded quite spooky and evoked the Billy Goat Gruff story. We’ve got a recording on Flickr. Also a sculpture of plastic birds made to look like pirates. Sculptures are much easier to photograph than real birds.
We had our first wine tasting - one white, 2 red,  then a cheese and olive platter in the glass house looking out over a lake.  This was superb, the cheese was sublime, the olives some of the best I’ve ever tasted, and there were lovely touches such as quince paste and a dukkah to dip bread into.  God I’m such a foody snob! 

Then back to this amazing arty cinema where I’m writing this, sitting in the foyer which has a gas-powered real flame fire, arty seats and décor, and is incredible in a place the size of Stalham!  So incredible I shall write a separate post on it.