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BJ joined me at the winery last weekend where we spent most of the day picking Riesling grapes from the Drumlin vineyard right next door to the winery. It’s the only vineyard that the winery has in Gibbston. The remainder of the fruit comes from Cromwell, about a 30 minute drive down to a valley that has a bit more mild climate. Much to my surprise the grapes are actually quite sweet to taste. There were a few vines that were not quite ready for picking and the simple way of testing it was to pop a grape into your mouth. If it tasted good and sweet it was ready. If it tasted bitter and sour, we left it to ripen on the wine. The day of picking became a family affair and I think the kids ended up having the most fun in the end when they were allowed to go for a quick soak in one of the fermenters. The juice becomes quite warm as it starts to ferment, so it would feel much like a hot tub . . . well with a thick layer of grape skins on top.

I didn’t go for a “swim” but experienced the grapes under foot for the first time yesterday. It reminded me of the classic black and white scene of I Love Lucy when Lucille Ball heads to Italy to crush grapes (check out the video below). We had already pumped most of the juice out of the fermenter into a large tank which will eventually be transferred to barrel. What was left in the fermenter, all the grape skins, had to go through the press to extract every last bit of juice. My job was to scoop up the remaining grapes in the fermenter and transfer them to the press. The easiest way to do it was by getting up close and personal with the grapes. I took off my gum boots, washed my feet, and hopped in with the same strange expression that Lucille Ball makes when she first feels the grapes with her feet. It gave my arms a workout but it was secretly a lot of fun. Sometimes it’s the little things that bring the most pleasure . . . like standing in grapes and juice up to my knees, lugging buckets of grapes over the side of a bin, and slowly turning purple as the juice splashed back at me.

Last week we dropped Jean off at the Christchurch Airport. Her visit was a delight and we were sad to see her go after what seemed like a very short two weeks. I must officially thank her for taking over the blog duties. It was really nice to have some fresh words on here as I sometimes feel I get a bit monotone . . . if that’s possible when you’re writing and not talking. Although it seemed like we were on the move most of the time to see all that was on our long list of sites on the South Island, I felt like we got some quality relaxation time in, especially in Punakaiki on the west coast, and some good laughs . . . Dan Quayle. Thanks for coming to visit us Jean and we hope to see you again in about six months.

We have also had the pleasure of meeting up with Josh Miller and his girlfriend Pui, who spend most of the year in Chaing Mai, Thailand but are on a month long venture through what has ended up as only the southern half of the South Island. There is just so much to see and do down here. Together we experienced a new tourist activity last night and took the gondola (Pui had never been on a gondola or chairlift before last night) up to a restaurant that overlooks all of Queenstown and Wakatipu Lake. We didn’t really know what to expect at the restaurant but as we walked in with our pre-paid tickets to the all-you-can-eat-buffet, we had an overwhelming feeling that we had been dropped off by a giant bus tour. But the food, to our surprise and advantage, was great and we made many a trip back for our 5 course meal (the dessert bar being the favorite). We must have enjoyed it because we watched surrounding tables both come, eat, and go before we could even think about leaving. Josh and Pui only have a handful of days left in the country and will be driving on to the west coast today. Happy travels and see you in Thailand!

Guest blog entry by BJ’s mum, Jean Hansen . . .

A rolling stone gathers no moss except if that stone is located anywhere along the western coast of New Zealand.  As we traveled from  Franz Joseph further west, I noticed that moss was glistening off the top of fence posts and fence rails and hanging like shimmering veils from the limbs of the trees.  We had truly traveled to the rain forest regions of the west coast.  And per my last guest blog that was how we arrived at Punakaiki.

We actually spent three nights in that region because it was an area that no one in the group – BJ, Lisa, and of course not me, had yet to explore.  The Tasman Sea was fantastic with gigantic waves.

We visited the Pancake Rocks and were intending to go out this morning at high tide to experience the blow holes, but after staying up until 2 am to finish a book I had started, the bed was simply too enjoyable to get up.  As BJ and Lisa will most likely be living there for approximately 6 weeks before they leave NZ, they promised to take a video of it and send it to me.

BJ and Lisa both worked some over the past two days.  And I seriously doubt that you could in too many countries in the world, get up and work for ½ day, drive from the rain forest of the West Coast, over the Southern Alps via Arthur’s Pass, and back to the pastoral lands of the East Coast.

We were so taken by the first place that we stayed near Christchurch that we are back there again, with the Giant Schnauzers and the Clydesdales for my last night on the South Island.  Tomorrow, I fly to Wellington and then the next day I start my long journey home to the Tetons.

Every time we went exploring I would come up with questions about what I was seeing and asking why – sort of like traveling with a very inquisitive child and most likely, very annoying to my cheerful, helpful traveling companions.  But what could they say – after all one of them is related and the other is too much of a lady to dismiss me.

Actually, they were able to find answers to a couple of my questions, like how did sheep get to NZ and when did they arrive? The country has no native mammals.  And why does the ice in the glacier appear to be so blue?  But I have other questions to explore like why in the Canterbury portion of the South Island, the farms appear to have borders of evergreen trees that are trimmed like huge hedges?  And what motived the early settlers to plant portions of their ground to forests?

As you can most likely tell from this blog, I am one for exploring the countryside and not much of a city explorer. Just today, we experienced  an ocean and it’s beaches, a rain forest, high mountains, open plains and green pastures.  Yes, and the animals keep finding us – yesterday, we shared lunch space with a cat, a dog, and a Weka.  And today we interrupted a Kea who was eating someone else’s castoffs.

Now it’s back to work for me so I can  – hopefully – meet up with the traveling duo again – where ever, they may be – this fall.

Guest blog entry by BJ’s mum, Jean Hansen . . .

Here we are at day 9 of my visit to New Zealand and I can’t believe all that I have seen and done in the time that I have been here. I couldn’t ask for better guides and traveling companions than BJ and Lisa. Of course, I am a little prejudice –‘cause BJ is my son.

Today is a “layover day” which means that we are actually spending more than one night at one location. As I write this update, I am sitting in the upper level of a holiday home, looking out over the tree canopy at the Tasman Sea on the west coast of the south island of New Zealand. BJ and Lisa have gone for a walk and looking out at the rain falling, I expect that they will be coming back soaking wet.

The nonchalant attitude of the native New Zealanders and the pristine environment – seemingly unaffected by humans – is extremely addictive. From my first night in Christchurch where we were greeted by two giant Schnauzers and two Clydesdale horses, to the Albatrosses on the Otago Peninsula when we were staying in Dunedin, to the playful seal who raced to our cruise ship in Milford Sound so he could surf in the wake of the boat, to the friendly cats who hung out at the cottage in Arrowtown, to the Samoyed, Mike, in Wanaka , and finally here, Milly, the small black Labrador who earns her keep as a ski resort rescue dog – we have found “pets a plenty” during our travels. Even where we have been eating seems to have taken on an “animal” theme. Starting with the Three Cows in Christchurch, to the Fat Duck in Te Anau, to the Blue Duck at Milford Sound, and thought about eating at the Cow in Queenstown.

I have seen sheep, sheep, and more sheep, as well many deer farms. Just across the lake from where BJ and Lisa live is Deer Park Heights – an animal preserve of sorts and also the place where several scenes of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy were filmed. BJ and I enjoyed watching Lisa get mauled by the goats, thars, donkeys, and miniature horses as she was trying to feed them pellets out of her “little tin bucket”. As the goats were knocking her down, she was hollering, “BJ, did you get that” so expect some interesting animal interaction photos to be posted!

I have been fortunate to see in my brief time here, the Cathedral at Christchurch, Craft Market on the Square at Christchurch, the Moeraki Boulders along the east coast, the University at Dunedin (where BJ spent part of his junior year in college), the Otago Peninsula, the Farmer’s Market and Happy Hens in Portabella, the Larnach Castle, the bird wildlife park in Te Anau, watched the Milford Sound Movie, cruised the Milford Sound, and then a long layover of two days in Arrowtown.

BJ and Lisa had to catch up on work, so I browsed Arrowtown on my own during the days and we got together at night. I visited the local Museum, checked out the shops, and toured the Chinese Settlement. I did get to see where the kids live and met their flat mates. Their house was filled with flat mates’ mother and a new baby, thus the reason that I stayed in a great place in Arrowtown.

Then on to Wanaka where we went to the “chick flick” He’s Just Not That In to You with most of the teenage female population of the town. The movie theater was great. It was platform seating, but on each platform was a couch, a love seat or a recliner. Other seating options included regular turn of the century theater seats and a complete Volkswagen Buss Convertible. Apparently we didn’t’ think that I had spent enough time in airplane seats so we settled into our row of three airplane seats and watched the movie – complete with a twenty minute intermission. Time enough to have a pizza, ice cream, cookies or other meal items from the adjoining restaurant. I went from flying in an airplane watching movies on my trip over to NZ to watching a movie in an airplane seat while here.

I woke up in Wanaka with a fever, so the trip from Wanaka to Franz Joseph was filled with my sneezing, coughing, and blowing my nose. We did stop at Fox Glacier to see ice floating in the river and to get up close and personal to a glacier, then spent the night at Franz Joseph. I was feeling a little better this morning and had high hopes of taking a small airplane ride to the top of one of the Glaciers for a snow landing”, but the weather didn’t’ cooperate with us. So no airplane ride. I will have to keep that one on my bucket list for a little while longer.

I have eaten some new and interesting meals. But the most fun I had was Sex on the Beach in Dunedin. I thought about having it with a Nutty Italian, but I thought that the one drink was enough for the night.

So, here we all sit watching the waves and enjoying the slight drizzle and planning our adventures for tomorrow. Might try to get in a little whale watching and/or penguin viewing before flying out in just 5 days!!

Dreams From My Father is a beautifully written memoir about the self discovery years of a fatherless African American. It just happens to be the story of our current president as well. Barack leads us through the early years of his life growing up in loving households with his white mother and Indonesian step-father in Indonesia and with his white grandparents in Hawaii, where the color of his skin didn’t define who he was. But something was missing . . . his father. And because he isn’t there, Barack is left to create an image of his all knowing and powerful Kenyan father through the stories told by his mother and grandparents. As he gets older and eventually moves to California for college and then on to Chicago to pursue a career in social organization, he is faced with presumptions and expectations of who he should be as an African American. It isn’t until he is accepted to Harvard Law School and long after he hears of his father’s death that he decides to return to Kenya to discover his roots and meet the other half of his family that he has never known. In Kenya, he meets his many brothers, sisters and extended family and learns of the real struggle and hardships that defined his father, who felt the same disconnect and judgment from his own father. This is an inspiring story about self discovery and the drive to help others in need, shining light onto the events and experiences that defined Barack Obama as a young man.

That’s what my fingers looked like last night after 10 hours at the winery . . . completely purple. But apparently that’s just how it goes this time of year. The grapes come in by the truck load and we immediately start processing them, which means first de-stemming them. Don’t worry, we don’t do this by hand; I think my fingers would actually turn into grapes if we did that. We have a huge machine called . . . guess what . . . a destemmer. The fruit goes in the top and through a large tube where little rubber paddles spin around plucking grapes from their stem. The single grapes, juice, and broken skins fall out the belly of the machine into a bin or onto a chute and into a fermenter, which is basically a HUGE plastic or aluminum bucket. Because we are dealing with the pinot noir variety, everything that comes out of the destemmer is set to ferment together so that the juice takes on the dark purple color of the skins. This is really just step one and there are MANY more to go. “Plunging” will be step two, where we’ll use a giant plunger to push the skins down to the bottom of the fermenter over and over again. Picture a toilet plunger but with a really long handle and a bunch of holes in the actual plunging mechanism . . . It wouldn’t work well for the toilet but works great for plunging grapes. Okay, that’s all you get for this week and to be honest I don’t really even know what the next step is so you’ll just have to wait to hear about it until I find out for myself. It might be something really cool I haven’t even thought of yet.

On another note, we head to Christchurch this evening to pick up Jean who is flying in tomorrow afternoon. We will start our tour of the South Island with her along the east coast toward Dunedin and then head inland to Te Anau and Milford Sound before returning to Queenstown for a few days. She has come in the heart of fall. Leaves are turning brilliant yellows, oranges, and red and the storms that have rolled in are leaving just a bit more snow in the mountains. There is definitely a briskness in the air and the days are already getting shorter, but there is something wonderful about bundling up and drinking coffee as the days get colder.

This week was all about planning and preparing.

At the winery, we’ve been spending the afternoons making space and cleaning huge tanks to get ready for the delivery of grapes that we are expecting this coming week. The grapes will go through a de-stemmer and then a press. The juice will then sit in a huge tank with the skins until it is ready to be put into barrel. It’s been a learning process and I still don’t understand all of the steps but it’s been a fun way to spend my afternoons. I am genuinely excited for the fruit to show up this week.

At the home office, we went through a time change . . . the southern hemisphere’s “fall back.” Our normal 20 hour difference, which in my mind I think of as a 4 hour difference but a day ahead, has become a 6 hour difference. This means that our normal wake up time of about 7am is no longer 11am in Wyoming but now 1pm. So, we’ve been trying to wean ourselves off the long nights of sleep and get up just a little bit earlier each day. We’ve also been wondering how a work day will work once we are in China or even further west when the time difference is even closer. One thing is for sure . . . as the time change has come so have the turning of the leaves. It is fall in Queenstown.

Another area of planning has been Jean’s upcoming visit. With her help, we have been researching places to stay and go and see all over the South Island. She was a little shocked at the first itinerary we sent her which had us relocating every day. There is just so much to see on the South Island but we are embracing the idea of an actual vacation for Jean and staying for a little bit longer in a few places like Dunedin, Queenstown, and the West Coast.

One area that we haven’t been planning is in our travels and, therefore, are still unable to answer the question “When are you coming home?” We received a wedding invitation today from our good friends, Clay and Steph. They’ve known that we won’t be able to come to their wedding in Montana in June, but they took the time to take a photo of their wedding invitation and email it to us just so we could feel like we received one. We love you guys and will definitely be there in spirit.

We’ve been spending the weekend somewhat battling the rain and were able to escape yesterday afternoon for a short ride, a solid session of BJ’s hacky sack lessons in a park, and dinner and a movie in Arrowtown. Today’s outlook for rain isn’t much better but I am sure we will be able to keep ourselves entertained . . . even if it is a trip to the local pool or a café.