New Zealand 4.0 Kaikoura

The name Kaikoura translates to meal of crayfish. That plus the snow capped mountains sitting next to the beaches with that outrageously blue water make us want to go back. Right now. Please. We spent December 24th and 25th there and I can say this was my favorite Christmas of all time. I'm a Jew so that may not be worth much but it was still an amazing couple days.

The place we stayed was really nice. Like really really nice.














The beach out front of our apartment













We had two meals here. They have seafood chowder and a bunch of seafood right out of the ocean.

Really good seafood chowder with big hunks of fish and mussles



Christmas Dinner

The potatoes come still dirty



This is Charlie...



...a now cooked crayfish (aka rock lobster)



Crayfish and green-lipped mussels




Second course, lamb, grilled and roasted veggies

Roasted cauliflower and potatoes

Grilled asparagus and onion


A big pile of lamb, two different cuts actually :)
Lamb with two sauces, a red wine reduction and a goop-y garlic spread... all served with our favorite red of the trip, Trinity Hills Gimblett Gravels Syrah

And a gingerbread kiwi for dessert


Warning, beach pics:

There was a seal colony nearby too...

New Zealand 3.0 Marlborough

Our two days in the Marlborough region began with a 3 hour ferry ride from the North to the South Island.






We stayed in Bleinheim, the biggest city in the area (population 30K). Our hotel was a real cool place within walking distance of downtown.

These were two amazing days of wine tasting. We started with lunch at Wither Hill




The cheese board as you can see was amazing. The little curry dumplings hidden in the back of the photo, not so much. But it was a gorgeous place to have lunch. Not bad for our first stop.

Highfield

Not our favorite New Zealand red, but a decent Pinot...




Spy Valley

I really liked Spy Valley's Sauvignon Blanc. We were determined not to buy a bunch of them, we wanted to see what else the region had to offer. This was the one we bought. To our surprise, we actually found one store in Lexington that sells it.

Herzog





Georges Michel



Wairau River






Nautilus




Framingham




Blanden








We had two memorable dinners in Bleinheim.

Scotch Wine bar was as hipster as Blenheim gets.



Fairweathers Bar and Andrea made some kind of special connection. They served up some great fish and chips.



I suspect it had something to do with this:



When was the last time you were at a sports bar that had pate??

And this is the best beer I've had in a long time. I already checked... even though Monteith's does export to select states in the US, they don't export Radler. Boo.



The fish and chips:



Green curry mussels:



Giant grape! And yeah, thats the pate in the background: