Entering the Seventh Decade!

So, what did you do for your birthday, Daddy?

Well, I became a gardener for the most part of the day then became a gourmet food and drink reviewer :)

First we have to determine exactly when my birthday was. I was born on October 27, 1947 in Rochdale (scene of Mr. Kite's most famous appearance). So, if we're being precise I had not been on the Earth for 60 years until 11.30-ish pm Rochdale time. The wags amongst you may comment that Tsawwassen is 4 hours ahead of Wellington, Gambier is 7 hours ahead, Gilbert's Cove is 8 hours ahead and Rochdale is 11 hours ahead but, unlike the other centers, which are also a day behind, Rochdale is one hundred years behind. However, taking the cultural and technological lag into account we're talking either evening on the 27th in NZ or late morning of the NZ 28th before I entered, as one of my 'friends' pointed out, my seventh decade!

So, on the NZ 27th. I gardened. I did more physical work than I'd done for ages. More than walking 10k round a golf course whacking a small, white sphere at a brazillion miles an hour (just how many is a brazillion anyway?). I dug up small trees for transplanting and loaded lots of terracotta planters into the trailer. Then I uplifted two statues which are supposed to have lights on top but the lights have vanished. I then took all down the lakeside to get them away from Fernside before Bill and Toni move out. One of the tree-lings took flight on the journey down but I did get the rest of them down there.

The planters were unloaded; not an easy job by myself as some of them were full of plants and weighed a lot. The big snarly one is an aloe vera plant all ready for breaking off to rub into sore, cut hands.

Then I planted the First Tree. Hopefully it will dig itself in, 'take' and grow into a HUGE oak tree. I also planted a few other chestnuts of a smaller persuasion but this was number 1!

As soon as I'd finished planting it started to rain so that's a good sign - lots of good, healthy, antarctic water nourishing the hungry trees.

So back to Fernside. However, first I had to learn how to reverse the Discovery and trailer. I'd tried it before leaving for the lakeside but it's not an easy skill. However I managed to reverse the contraption in an orderly manner and was able to escape the lakeside and return.

So it was time to go out to dinner. All the five other Fernside guests knew where we were going but it was kept a secret from me. G'ma had sent some $$ so I'd 'invested' in a magnum of pretty decent Porters 1999 Steel Chardonnay and was fiercely clutching this to my chest as we rocketed (the driver was obviously in a rental car and, being from Auckland, enjoying the country roads) along paaast the sheep, llamas and emus in the Wairarapa paddocks. As we turned off the 'road' onto a gravel 'road' I recognised where we were and hurriedly laid the magnum on the floor in surrender. We were headed for the home of possibly the best wine-maker in the world, Neil McCallum; no point even trying to help out with the wine supply for that meal! Neil founded Dry River wines and used to employ Hammy's son, Andrew, who is now doing very well as the wine-maker at the DuMol vineyard in California.

So we arrive at the NZ Architect House of the Year 2007! The view was pretty awesome (but not a touch on RR) and the house design was interesting to say the least; the roof is a series of formed curves and I actually stood in Neil's wine cellar!!!!! The food was fantastic with the beef slowly rotisserie'd for four hours on the barbie. The wine, however ... well, the wine. What would you expect; absolutely historic. We started with a chardonnay (can’t remember the year), then a 1998 Syrah which was amazing, even historic. Also tried what Neil described as ‘an experimental Merlot’ and which I thought was not impressive at all. However, he explained to me it was 2007 and he was trying it as a challenge because no-one in NZ was trying Merlots. He was looking for an absence of all things NZ-Merlot-y so it could export well and pronounced himself well pleased. His opinion was that another five years and it would be where he wanted it. Finished off with a stunning Gewurz.

So that was Saturday's New Zealand birthday.

Sunday (Rochdale birthday) was spent packing stuff I have stored at Fernside so it can go into storage ready for transport to RR. Mid-morning I phoned the architect, Clint from Cunning Plans, and arranged to meet him late afternoon so we could 'finalise' the house plans; 'No biggie,' I said, 'I have no major alterations.' During the day I discussed the plans so far with a former President of the NZ Institute of Architects who was staying at Fernside so by the time I was due to meet Cunning Clint I had a gazillion changes. We played around with the CAD programme then planned to return after the evening out for more re-design.

The same eight from the previous night troddled off to Lake Ferry for ‘famous fish and chips’. The wine list had only Murdoch James stuff to which Neil announced he’d never tasted any of them and the in-your-face, attitudinal young waitress looked at him as much as to say, ‘You should get out more!’. We proceeded to taste them all.

Sunset was at 7.57pm and was a good one, going down behind the 'South' island (which is actually west of the north island) between an apparent cleft between two mountains. Unfortunately no-one had a camera because we saw the 'green flash'. Neil alerted us to it and said he'd been trying to see one for forty years. We all watched avidly as the last shiny bits sank below the horizon. Actually the sun doesn't sink at all, its the earth that rotates away from the line of sight, but I digress. Right at the last moment, maybe half a second before the last bit vanished it turned from yellow-orange to a bright apple green, then zap! Nothing. No more sun. It was amazing and will probably be another forty years before any of us sees it again. It wasn't a 'flash' as such, rather a bright glow but there it was in all its greeny glory.

We drove back to Fernside and then proceeded to punish all sorts of wines including the Porters 1999 Steel Chardonnay (excellent) until 2.30 am. A quick sleep and up at 6.30 to drive back over the Rimutakas and off to jolly old work.

That's what I did and I'm now well into my seventh decade :)