KT and Coffee

After the night shift

It was a most pleasant night shift, but you have to get the days activity level just right to aid recovery and your return to work on a day shift in two days. So you grab a couple of hours sleep, aided by a lovely cup of tea while snuggled in bed. Then while the rain, wind and sun battle it out for the headline act, you get in the car and go west.
We drive to the Kumeu wine region. New Zealand wine is lovely, just lovely, and what is just as lovely is visiting wineries, sampling wines, chatting with the owners and then buying a bottle or two. Maybe stop for lunch or a picnic. Today was a late start though as those few hours kip are really important.

We started at Kerr Farm Vineyard. This is great, you sit round the table, and Jaison guides you through the selection of wines, he knows when the grapes were harvested, actually he knows a lot, and while we know very little it's all good. Plus the great stories of how some of the wines got their names. We left (having forgotten to use the discount voucher - duh - that's what happens after a night shift), with two bottles of the rather delicious 2007 Pinotage, which the tasting notes describe as a voluptuous wine, to be enjoyed with the best of friends on the verandah for a cruisy afternoon. So come on round, we've got the wine in! Tragically it goes well with chocolate! Oh we also took a bottle of the limited release 2007 Chardonnay and their new venture - 2010 'Bella Rosa' Rose

Next stop was West Brook Winery. Last time we visited this winery, it was summer, there was a band playing and people picnicking in the grounds, lapping up the great view along with the wine. Today, in warm clothes and admiring the autumn colours it's still a great spot. I have to say I wasn't as sold on the wines as I had been in previous visits, until that is, the last wine we try, brought big smiles to both our faces. A 2009 Malbec, rather tasty indeed. I did however get a Rose as well just for good measure and I remembered to use the discount voucher.

Entrance to West Brook Winery

Last stop was Soljans, first planted around 1932, this is one the older wineries in this region. Popular place for lunch - the car park was packed when we drove past on the way to the other wineries, we arrive as the cafe is shutting, so just the wine for us then! Another relaxed and easy tasting, happily getting wines from the cafe that we choose. Out taste for the reserve wines stands out and it's the 2009 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for us. Adam was rather taken by the Malbec here as well, but it was a wee bit more expensive and he couldn't be tempted.

We head back after a great afternoon in some lovely countryside, with a car load of wine, stopping to pick up fresh bread and cheese for a feast of loveliness when we get home, then relax, it's all part of the night shift recovery.

The results of our afternoons efforts

Feijoa Cake

As the northern hemisphere heads into spring (where Easter makes sense), tis Autumn here in the land of the long white cloud and the rather glorious feijoa season. I say glorious, I don't just eat these fruit - which Wikepedia describes as a 'gelatinous seed pulp' with a 'distinctive aroma' but bake cake. Of course muffins can also be on the menu but this year I had a bit of muffin disaster so I'm sticking with the fantastic apple and feijoa cake recipe I found here. There are of course a whole host of things I could do with the fruit and as my neighbour has a tree I have a ready supply. Actually most people have a ready supply either their own tree or a friend, and you see bags to just help yourself too on the sides of roads, or the ingenious child selling them......tis an abundant fruit and a great time of year.

I've been slacking for sure in my photos of my baking, I still do, lots. The same can be said for the garden, had a bit of a clear out today in the rain (and my new wellies), but have been remiss in not taking pics of all the great flowers that have been blooming. I'm blaming my hosting duties. The garden has certainly missed out as I've played host and my days off are spent in tours and trips. These visits have made me realise what a great life I have and how much I love New Zealand. Though I do need to brush up on my tour guide skills - I am getting better so Jane, Ken, Rowan and March have had the full fruits of my knowledge and my feijoa cake!

Yep. Will put a pic of the actual cake before tis all eaten!

I am here

Untitled, originally uploaded by KTandCoffee.

Hurrah for Autumn, my bestest season! Its been busy lately, time moving fast, summer has been good in many ways but I've been struggling to find the words to type. They are in my head (as are the voices) but I don't make it here often. I shy away. But I am here.

Tongariro Crossing

Back in January blessed with clear sky and sunshine we took on the Tongariro Crossing as our welcome to 2011 adventure. Check out this blog for stunning pictures and artistic words of the same journey and check out my Flickr photos for a wee bit more information on the walk.

"Our earth is very old, an old warrior that has lived through many battles. Nevertheless, the face of it is still changing, and science sees no certain limit of time for its stately evolution. Our solid earth, apparently so stable, inert, and finished, is changing, mobile, and still evolving. Its major quakings are largely the echoes of that divine far-off event, the building of our noble mountains. The lava floods and intriguing volcanoes tell us of the plasticity, mobility, of the deep interior of the globe. The slow coming and going of ancient shallow seas on the continental plateaus tell us of the rhythmic distortion of the deep interior-deep-seated flow and changes of volume. Mountain chains prove the earth's solid crust itself to be mobile in high degree. And the secret of it all—the secret of the earthquake, the secret of the 'temple of fire,' the secret of the ocean basin, the secret of the highland—is in the heart of the earth, forever invisible to human eyes."

Reginal Aldworth Daly, 1926