A roller-coaster drive courtesy of E to the next valley to visit a vineyard in which they have shares.
First stop was Cobblestones, an elegaic testimony to New Zealand’s agricultural communities of the 19th and 20th centuries. We walked through the old schoolroom (still used till the 1960s) and I played the pump organ in the church.
We stopped at a modern ‘reconstruction’ of Stonehenge which was being developed by astronomers in the hills. There was an audiovisual presentation followed by a tour and lecture of almost the same length and detail. It was interesting but just too much, especially for Pesti, who huddled up against the biting wind at the foot of one of the pillars.
We then drove to the vineyard but as we arrived so did the rain and a huge bus party, so our winetasting was done on the porch of the building, having moved the table to a more sheltered spot. We polished off a bottle while struggling to apply cheese to crackers with numbed fingers.
In the evening, a Chinese restaurant near the house with yet more wine.