New Zealand Final Report

... the journey ends.

Thursday January 25th

The following morning, I was a good boyfriend and let Phil sleep in a little more as I walked across town to pick up the car. Our last vehicle was the big trip winner, and was a new fully-equipped Honda Civic, with AC and CD player...( of course, now that we had all those cassette tapes, the CD players wasn't going to be all that helpful! ) A comfort nonetheless! I picked up some coffee from the Brooklyn Cafe, which somehow seemed appropriate, and drove back to the hotel to make sure Phil had crawled out of bed!

We gathered the basics we needed for the day, and I grabbed the folder that had all of the wedding information in it. The trip to Martinborough was expected to be about one hour over the Rimutaka Hill. As we mentioned before, this so called hill is clearly a mislabeled mountain, and we realized quickly that it might not be the best idea to consider making this drive twice a day for the next 3 and a half days! In fact, the thought of actually trying the pass in the middle of the night sober, much less after cocktails, seemed a recipe for disaster, and the seed was thus planted for an early move out of Wellington to something closer!

Martinborough marks the center of the Wairarapa Wine Region, one of the country’s newest with some 30 wineries within several hundred yards of town. The region sits on the eastern slopes of the Tararua Range in the south east corner of the North Island.

We made it to town pretty easily and did a quick spin through the small town center. Though a tiny place, the town does have a certain old western charm about it, with old fashioned wooden buildings surrounding a classic town square. At the street level, we noticed a number of cute shops and cafes, but no obvious sign of said 30 wineries. We were a little confused! As we looked more closely at the wedding information, it also became clear that there were some very important details missing from the itinerary I had taken from the website, like the actual starting point of today’s adventure! What was worse, I realized that I did not have Vanessa's new cell phone number in my phone... SHIT!!! Panic-mode started to settle over us in a wave, as we found ourselves sitting in this little town without a clue as to what to do next! We thought about a blind drive around the region, but given the large number of wineries in the area and not the slightest inkling about what they’d be driving, we aborted that plan quickly… there was just no point driving around aimlessly! In a moment of desperation, we pulled up to the i-site we'd seen on the way into town, and walked in on a wing and a prayer!

The place was empty except for a man and a woman working behind the counter. I asked them sheepishly if they happened to know anything about one Vanessa-Jayne’s wine tasting plans for the day. Who knows, it’s a small town, maybe they’d heard something through the grape vine! All I can say is that the New Zealanders, yet again, truly proved themselves to be lovely people! They hadn’t heard anything, but without missing a beat they were online and on the phone digging up information! They called a friend, who knew a friend, who does wedding planning to see if there was anything scheduled for the day... nothing. Then they called a few of the wineries in town to see if there were any group stops planned... nothing. Curses!! I racked my brain for any other clues. I did not know Paul's surname, so they couldn't look there, and Vanessa-Jayne was not a resident! Ugh... As we went over my itinerary, they noticed a horse and carriage mentioned, and called the owner of the only one they knew of in the area. As they did that, the man let me go on their computer to check my email to see if I had her number in an old message or something.... thankfully, as if anticipating such a fiasco, Miss Vanessa had sent out a detailed itinerary some time in the last day or so and I was able to print out on site… at that very moment, the horse and buggy folks had Vanessa’s number in hand and the dynamic duo was already ringing her up! They handed me the phone, and as soon as I heard her voice on the phone, my anxiety started to fade away! She laughed at our, um, forgetfulness, and suggested we meet at the second winery since it was closer to where we were. Since they were running a little behind too, we decided to start at the beginning with them... after all, what better way to settle the nerves from the morning’s stress than to get as much wine tasting in as we could?!

We left town and quickly found ourselves in the middle of Wairarapa country living! The region is beautiful, surprise surprise, what isn’t in this country?! Once over the Rimutaka hills, the terrain becomes more rolling than rugged, with wide open fields of dry golden grasses surrounded by tall green trees, the occasional requisite sheep-filled pastures, and the geometric green rows of the vineyards scattered throughout. The softer lower hills were contrasted nicely by the rugged Tararua Mountain Range hovering over the region to the west. Our first stop was the Fairmont Estate Winery in Carterton. I met Vanessa-Jayne with a giant hug and introduced her to Phil, and she introduced us to everyone in her group. She was traveling with her bridesmaids Natalie and Julie, her brother Nigel, and her good friend Maxine. The quick back story on Vanessa is that I met her while doing a semester in London at Regent’s College during my junior year of undergrad in 1994. We have kept in touch throughout the years, sharing our life updates from time to time, and seeing each other a handful of times along the way. Despite the limited contact, she is one of those amazing people that you feel at once at home with. The kind of person, that no matter how much time has passed, you can talk to as if you just spoke yesterday! Lovely indeed! The group she had with her was a fun bunch, with a dry British sense of humor that we loved! We spent the better part of the day touring and tasting a few of her favorite regional wineries, including:

Kairanga Winery

Palliser Wines

Alana Estate

The Alana was the most beautiful of the bunch. You enter through a long narrow drive down a small hill with vineyards on either side, to a beautiful modern looking home. The grounds are well landscaped and there is a fine wide wooden deck wrapping around the facade with a stylish open air café set up out back. We enjoyed our last tasting here and then moved the party onto the deck for a fine meal. It was a most enjoyable time with good food, delicious wine, and great company. We got the quick and dirty on how everyone knew each other, holiday travel plans, and then just reverted to silly talk about entertainment and such. It was good fun.

The last stop on the trip was to a gourmet chocolate shop in the neighboring town of Greytown called Schoc Chocolate . It was delicious decadent goodness, but expensive! Poor Phil dropped $30 on 2 chocolate bars, a couple of assorted pieces, and one small bag of chocolate nuggets. It was the most he’d ever spent on such a small volume of candy! We laughed it off though. I mean you only live once, right?... and they were off the chart yummy!!

After saying good-bye, we did a quick tour through Greytown and Featherton, looking for any local artisan who might have a locally crafted cat. My mother likes to collect cats from around the word, and we told her we would keep our eyes open for something for her collection. We had only half-looked up to this point and realized that the clock was now ticking on the trip so we’d better get our butts in gear! We saw a great Jade cat in Queenstown, but thought that since the greenstone was so popular in the country we would certainly see another one along the way… Um… not so much. Finding nothing, we hit up the $2 store in the hopes of stumbling on anything! Well we found something… something special. We left there with a fabulous crystal beauty **cough, clears throat** I mean faux crystal glass mess we couldn’t say no to! It was kind of tragically sweet looking, with glued on bent wire whiskers, red nose, and black eyes… at least it was sophisticated enough to not have googly eyes! If nothing else, we knew my mother we pee laughing if that was all we could find! After a good laugh, we packed up or little gem, and head back towards the Rimutaka Hill and on to Wellington for the night. It was on this drive back that we decided that we had to get closer. The Rimutaka could not happen with even a hint of alcohol in our system, and we wanted to enjoy the last 2 nights with everyone!

That night in Wellington, we decided to explore the other recommendation our hotel concierge had made for dinner and then see about actually finding some “alternative” nightlife! We walked down to the waterfront area and actually felt like we were in a breathing city! The streets were alive and hopping with people, and it was after 6pm! We passed a number of fun modern trendy looking bars and restaurants along the way to dinner. Tucked down a quieter street, was Monsoon Poon, a pan-asian restaurant whose tagline “Love you long time” screamed eat here now! Could you say no to that?! The energy of the place was vibrant and fun. The bar area opens on to a balcony overlooking the street, and the main dining area is a fairly spacious modern looking room with large high-ceilings, fun lighting, and walls colorfully adorned with art from Southeast Asia. We were very pleased! The food was great, the service was fun, the energy alive, and the price was reasonable… we recommend it if you get the chance.

After dinner, we tried to find our way to Cuba Street to find a place called Our Bar, the city’s only 7-day a week gay bar. Sadly, my little print out map of the city’s downtown was deceiving, and things were actually a littler further than they looked! It was a nice night for a walk though, so we didn’t worry too much. Of course it ended up taking us much longer than we thought, and after an hour or so, the idea had lost some of its luster! Um, yeah, now I’m not saying that we got lost, I mean come on, look at who you’re talking to… puh-lease… I am just saying that we did have to ask the owner of an adult book store to point us in the right direction! Yeah, and ha ha, this is kind of the funny thing… the bar ended up being, um, right next door! Oops!! Our Bar is the core gay bar of the city. It is a nice clean modern space, but very sparsely decorated. A large dark wood bar was the centerpiece with several plain wooden tables and high tops scattered throughout the room. The bar also has a second floor that features a DJ and dancing on the weekend, and a small outdoor seating area. On this fine night there were probably about 10 people there! Not a real hot bed of excitement, so we stayed for one drink and called it a night. The city does have a few bars that do have gay nights on the weekends, so there is hope for one looking to cha cha... just make sure you’re in town at the right time

Friday January 26th

Friday morning, we got up early and did a quick online search for a place to stay in Masterton. We thought a relaxing B&B a few minutes from the wedding would make more sense for the last 2 nights, versus a couple more city nights and an hour-long drive through the mountains! We stumbled upon a very reasonable place called the Moata: located a few minutes outside of town. Our only formal plan for the rest of the day was to go to the rehearsal dinner at Café Cecille in Masterton that evening, so we decided to have a leisurely stroll around downtown Wellington before heading off to the country.

We checked out of the Kingsgate Hotel after talking to the owner of the Moata and head back down to Cuba St. (now that we knew where it was, it was easy to find!) and hit up a café called Fidel’s that Phil’s friend Elvira recommended from her time living there. Fidel’s is a very eclectic eatery both in food and clientele! They have a fun outdoor garden-type seating area in the back with old political posters and pictures of Castro on the walls. It was kind of fun. Given the U.S. Relationship with Cuba, we felt a little rebellious for even eating here! From Fidel’s we walked through the downtown area and window shopped for little mementos and the silly cat for my mother! To our astonishment, not a single F-ing cat in the country! They were all about the kiwis and penguins and such! =) After our unsuccessful shopping venture, we decided to pop into the Te Papa Museum. Te Papa is the country’s largest museum, and it focuses on the natural, cultural, and political history of the country. It is kind of a cross between the American Museum of Natural History and the Met (although all of the sculptures and paintings were done by citizens of New Zealand) It is a very nice museum, and one worth popping into if you are in the Wellington area.

After the museum, we did one more spin through downtown looking for a cat for mom, failed again, and hit the road to Masterton. The drive was pretty uneventful, until some teenaged New Zealand hoodlums in 2 loud obnoxious run down looking cars got pissed at Phil thinking that he was filming their driving shenanigans… okay maybe he was… but still! In any event they were none-to-happy… and got all ghetto on us, hootin’ and hollerin’ trying to tail us… good times really! Thankfully, my high powered machine was just too much for their tired clunkers…( or maybe they just didn’t want to go over the Rimutaka Hill ) but we lost them by the time we were comfortably in the hills! We stopped at the hilltop café, all that excitement having worked up our appetite, and had ourselves two surprisingly delicious venison burgers on the deck out front overlooking the pass.

Once satiated, we continued the drive over the hill and eventually found our way to the Masterton town line. The Moata B & B sits about 5km outside of the town center. We took a by-pass road just before town and quickly found ourselves in cow-country way off the beaten path. It was peaceful and scenic, and just what the doctor ordered for our last 2 nights. We turned off the country road to a long quiet dirt driveway up to the house. Cow pastures flanked us on either side of the drive, and a cattle grate marked the entrance to the Moata grounds. I guess they didn’t want the resident heifers eating in their gardens! The house sits on over 10 acres of well landscaped grounds, and as I understand it, is over 75 years old. It was acquired by the current owners, Ngaire & Ross, a lovely older couple, in the last decade or so. Their own kids have grown and gone off to college and/or have gotten married, so they decided to enter the B&B game. They also have an adorable Jack Russell Terrier as well, but sadly I cannot remember her name... I know, I know… I’m a bad vet. They were warm and gracious hosts and took very good care of us. Our bedroom was very spacious with a giant queen bed that begged us to take a nap! We didn’t have a chance really, and in short order we were counting sheep in dreams. After a few wonderfully restful hours, we were woken up by the sound of rain on the roof!

We took a nice warm shower, made ourselves look all purty-like, and set out to Queen Elizabeth Park and Café Cecille for the rehearsal dinner. It was pouring by the time we made it to the café, so we weren’t able to enjoy any of the outdoor seating, but no worries. It was a very intimate affair, with about 20 of Vanessa’s friends and family sharing in the moment. It was a lovely evening. We hung out with Natalie, Julie, and Maxine, the ladies we met the day before at the wine adventure, as well as some new fun faces: Rachel, Sarah, Lisa, Max, Marilyn, Paul, Ruth, and Terry… it was a nice time indeed! I was a good lad since I was driving, so Phil did more of the drinking for both of us! Maxine and Phil seemed to get along the best of the folks we met. She is a performer and singer in a theater group in London, so they had a lot in common, and their senses of humor seemed to gel perfectly! They got so comfortable the next day, that they took over the wedding entertainment! …but we’ll get to that later. After a few fun-filled hours, Paul made an appearance to escort his wife-to-be home in the rain, and we got a chance to meet the man, the myth… the legend… for the first time! Paul is a very gregarious, warm, and friendly guy. It was nice to put a face with the name, and by their interaction, I could tell they were a perfect fit! I was so happy they found each other! We followed the couple back to Paul’s house to meet his mother and father and to have a night cap. They were very gracious hosts, and we felt immediately comfortable there. Vanessa-Jayne turned in early, and we wished her a restful night’s sleep, and wished the bridesmaids luck in lacing up the back of the gown! We had one last beer with Paul’s father and Nigel on the porch after everyone had left and gone, and then decided we’d better get home and rest for the big day tomorrow!

Saturday January 27th

The wedding was at 3pm, so we allowed ourselves to sleep in a little. After finally deciding to crawl out of bed, we showered and head downstairs to the sunroom for breakfast where we found our host buzzing about the kitchen. She put out a huge spread of cereals, fruits, fresh-baked breads, muffins, cookies, homemade jams, juices, teas, and coffee for Phil!! It was magically delicious! After recharging, we decided to spend the early part of the day in downtown Masterton. Like so many towns before it, Masterton center consists of a long main road with various shops and restaurants lining the way. It is a bit bigger than other towns we were in, so the variety was better, and better still, if you visit at the right time, you might just catch the Annual Golden Shears Competition!! Sadly, we didn’t visit at the right time! After striking out in the Mom cat department for most of the trip, we hit the jackpot in Masterton. Every place we looked into seemed to have something better than the next. Of course, given the bad luck up until that point, we were a little careless, leaving each successful venture with a new cat not realizing another one sat waiting for us! By the end of the morning’s shopping, we had 3 more cats to add to the glass masterpiece from the day before! After a nice lunch at a corner café, we head back to the Moata to get cleaned up for our final bow in New Zealand, Vanessa-Jaynes wedding bonanza!

The wedding ceremony was held at St. Matthew’s Chapel, a small but lovely edifice on the campus of a local private Christian school across a wide field from Paul’s family home. It was perfect, as the reception was to be held on the grounds of the homestead, so guests could walk back to the reception with no fuss at all! The whole event was charming in every sense of the word, and it seemed to go off without a hitch. Though clouds covered the sky and a light mist fell from time to time throughout the afternoon, the spirit of the day was nothing but bright. We arrived in time to see the bridal party leaving the house in a handsome horse-drawn carriage. Vanessa-Jayne was radiant, with her beautiful long red hair curled to perfection and accented with fresh cut white flowers. She was beaming throughout the affair, and her love for Paul was ever apparent! The service was simple and charming. She was lead in by her two best friends, Natalie and Julie, and her brother Nigel was there to give her away. Paul’s mother Liz presided over the service and was eloquent and charming in her performance. After sealing their union with a kiss, the couple made their first public appearance beneath the steps of the chapel.

After the last of the guests trickled out of the chapel and made their way across the field to the reception, the fun really began. The grounds of the Greville home were beautifully appointed and the reception was a comfortable and casual affair. The party was kept running smoothly by the tireless efforts of the neighborhood kids Paul and his brothers grew up with! They are a very close-knit community, and everyone insisted on donating their time and services to help celebrate the happy day. It was wonderful. From the moment people arrived, the finger-foods never stopped coming out of the kitchen, and the drinks never stopped flowing. They were so persistent, (God bless them) that no glass was ever allowed to be more than half empty! Good times!

Paul’s sister’s fiancé, Richard was charged with the task of entertaining the crowd with some beautiful classical piano music. As the evening progressed, and people relaxed, things got more and more silly. Before the sun set on the day, the cake was cut, and various toasts were made in honor of the happy couple. Paul rounded out the lot, expressing his feelings for his new wife in a charming speech that was both humorous and heartfelt.

After the last of the formalities, people really started to let their hair down, and Phil and Maxine, who had been cavorting with a group near the piano, were starting to get pressured into singing a little something for everyone. Well anyone who knows Phil knows he is terribly shy, and he just couldn’t possibly be made to sing on demand… oh no, not him… he belted!! He was a hit, and Maxine was asked to follow! Though coy at first, after hearing her sultry rich voice, the crowd response eased her nerves, and before long she was sitting at the piano with Phil running through their favorite showtunes! You all saw this coming didn’t you?! In short order, people were surrounding the piano, and the cabaret duo was on!!! At one point, the couple was asked to do a first dance, and Phil and Maxine sang their song a cappella. As the booze flowed, and the hours passed, the duo turned into group sing-a-longs, which became group sing-and-dance-a-longs! By the end of the night, Phil and I were dancing arm in arm showing off our best 70’s airplane-esque dance moves much to the delight everyone around us. Vanessa and Paul’s family and friends are wonderful people, and we couldn’t have felt more at home if we tried! Before we knew it, it was almost 2am, and we had the sad task of saying good-bye to all of our new friends, Vanessa-Jayne and Paul, and New Zealand! It was all smiles and big hugs though, as it was a happy occasion, and we knew in our hearts that we had just experienced something wonderful… and I’m not just talking about the wedding… that was just the icing on the cake… I’m talking about the whole experience. Phil and I didn’t kill each other after 2 weeks together, and I think I can comfortable say that our affection and love for each other only grew as the time together passed. I consider ourselves lucky, or fortunate, or blessed, or whatever the right word is to describe that special something that happens when you 2 people just come together and fit.

Sunday January 28th

We woke up early Sunday morning to make the journey back to Wellington to catch a 10:30 flight to Auckland, and then an early afternoon flight from Auckland to home. Despite the early wake up, our gracious hosts at the Moata were up earlier to send us off with a full belly! Too kind indeed! The drive back over the hills was painless and beautiful, and we sat in comfortable silence savoring the last few hours on the ground of this amazing place! There are no words to truly convey our feelings (well, maybe a few, if you count this ridiculous 10 part series you’ve been reading through ) but suffice it to say the memories will be long-lasting! Thank you Phil for sharing… and making it so easy. XOXO