The Alex & The Eleanor + 1

Monday January 7, 2008
Fox Glacier to Queenstown
Rain rain go away! OK, it did.

The clouds from yesterday opened up overnight and it poured and poured and poured overnight. It has let up a bit but it is still fairly wet. We head out early for the drive over the Haast Pass to Queenstown. Although sun and warm is nice, the forest around us as we drive is very different in the rain – lots of waterfalls and raging streams. The pass itself is somewhat disappointing – after some of our drives, I was expecting all switch backs and tight turns – though there are certainly enough one lane bridges to keep us entertained. We get through to Wanaka in good time for lunch, and find a nice place for lunch. Wanaka is a really fabulous little town – supposedly just like Queenstown 20 years ago. Its actually exactly what I imagined as what all the small little towns would be like. Well, at least I found a cute town eventually, even if it took me virtually the whole trip.

As we drove on, everything I read and have been told was to take the Crown Range which is sort of a short cut from Wanaka to Queenstown. Its much shorter length wise, bu only a bit shorter time wise, which should tell you something. The first 40k were really easy, but then the twisty bits started, and it was easy to understand why it takes so long, and why its often closed in the winter. But it was really beautiful, sweeping views of rivers and lakes. Luckily we escaped the rain as we drove west, and the skies were clear (and our windows blessedly clear of bugs as the pictures will testify too) As it was still a very reasonable hour in the afternoon, we stoped at the one winiery we passed – Amisfield. It was very pretty, but none of the winers were really my style – the Pinot Noirs were huge, very masculaine wines. I hope this is not what all the Pinots are ike here, I thought this was really gonna be the one region that had solid reds.

We got into town and our very cute little hotel, and after some of the amazing gingerbread they had out for tea, headed out to the gondola/luge they have in town. It’s a cute little gondola up the mountain that is right in town, and then once up there you can do all sorts of things – have dinner, see a Maori show or luge. Its not really luge with lycra body suits and lying down, its little go cart type things and you take a chair lift up and then race down. Its about the adventure of mini golf or go carts. Its fun, but our three runs were more then enough. The view of the city and the lake though were really fabulous. The whole getting dark at 9 or, as we move south, closer to 10 thing is really nice as it means you can keep doing stuff till 7 then shower and head to dinner. Very civilizied, but so late! Its hard to try and see the stars!

We come done and head out to dinner at The Bunker. The Bunker is talked about in whispered tones in guide books, if that’s possible. Its all “everyone will hate me for giving this away…” and the door is supposedly unmarked and you have to call a week ahead as there are only 6 tables. Well, when we got in about 5 we asked the very helpful women at the hotel if we could try to get a table any of our 4 nights in town, and we ended up with a table tonight. And the door now has a little sign on it. A little disappointing in terms of hidden, unknown gems, but not on food. I started with a scallop dish (I have become quite fond of the Nelson scallops). It was thoroughly deconstructed, maybe not by NYC standards, but certainly by NZ standards. The six scallops were on their own, and there was 3 cubes of white farmer/feta cheese and 3 cubes of melon. The separate items did not mesh into one glorious bite as the best of the deconstructed dishes do, but the scallops were quite lovely on there own and the melon and cheese went well together. For my main I had a gnocci and crab dish (appetizer size thankfully) that was quite lovely – the gnocci had the consitency of mashed potatoes, but it worked as a whole. I quite enjoyed it the meal, and the service and the atmosphere were far less forced then Herzog, I am not quite sure which I would say is the better meal. Logan Brown in Wellington was the best meal we had in NZ though, by far. That hare…. Yum.

I’m very sorry I can’t really talk about the wines I drank as we have been getting everything by the glass and I just drink whatever Marlborough Sauv. Blanc they have. I should take notes and all, but haven’t really been any I really dislike. One’s I like better certainly, but I am a little cautious of falling to in love with any in case they aren’t available at home. You can be sure if you come to Chez 60W anytime soon, there will be an open bottle of Sauv. Blanc in the fridge and a pile more to try. I know it probably won’t work so well in the winter (as opposed to absolutely glorious hot cloudless summer days as it is now). I might have to detour to Reislings for a bit.