Day in Martinborough

Meeting up early at the Memphis to go out to the Wairarapa with Tom on a most inauspicious day, with gale-force winds and some rain. However being a newly inducted Wellingtonian I am impervious to the whims of the elements and am ready for the exit to the country to savour its delights. The weather is not so bad on the other side of the Rimutaka range of mountains and we finally get to a delightful village called Martinborough, the centre of the big Taste Fest a few weeks ago when sixty thousand   people, yes 60,000, descended on this country wine village to celebrate the taste of this wine growing region, meaning lots of wine and good food were consumed.

The house Tom was hanging curtains in was a newly built kit-home adapted to an electric wheelchair so it had some resonance with me having lived with Sue in a wheelchair for a number of years.

After hanging some lovely drapes, we repaired to the village and discovered an excellent cafe where we refreshed ourselves, Tom with coffee and scone, and me with a minestrone soup which was quite excellent. We then did a tour of the very wealthy area with fine upstanding homes which Tom insisted were holiday baches, even a semi 'gated-community', with beautifully designed homes in easy reach of the local golf club. These are the people who inhabit this extremely rich patch of soil in the Wairarapa region. They are some of the richest people of Wellington in their country homes.

Then home for a quick recovery nap and to prepare for the HU song tonight at Flashdog studios. 

Drunken teen and young people violence on Courtenay Place.

Tom arrives for a quick coffee...

While others stay longer...

Street in Martinborough...

..the local pub.

Arrived later at the Cuba Lighthouse to catch therelease of the Lance Armstrong biopic called 'The Program',which should be at least interesting.