Don't Worry Be Happy

As I was looking for activities to do in the area I came upon a wine tasting - with a difference. Rather than just sipping various vintages, this 'experience' allowed you to become "winemaker of the day" - to test and experiment with different blends. Scott, Ross and I headed out from Avignon towards the village of Orange to the Chateau Maucoil that had an odd looking statue. Anyone know who this is supposed to be (besides Scott and Ross)? A little wine information here:  Chateauneuf-du-Pape wines can be made from up to 13 different grapes but Grenache is the dominant varietal with usually 60% or more. Syrah is also commonly used. The wine harvest has begun although you can see by the photo above that it hasn't been completed. Most grapes in France are harvested by machine but Chateauneuf-du-Pape must be hand picked. The vineyards also look a little less tidy than the ones in the Okanagan. At the Chateau we were given various beakers and measuring tools, a...

Surprisingly, the only reason we came here is for the wine (ok so you're not surprised). And it hasn't disappointed. In the 14th century, when some of the French popes lived in Avignon one of them decided he needed a second castle so had one built nearby. This became the new castle of the pope , also known as chateauneuf-du-pape. This castle also fell into disrepair until WW2 when the Germans destroyed all but one wall. There are 180 wineries in this region and every nook and cranny in the narrow, sloping town seems to house a 'cave' for tasting and buying. Which we did. Although we only came away with a modest purchase of 2 bottles! View of the surrounding hills and vineyards from the top: The wines here depend a lot on the type of soil, from sandy to limestone to rocky. It still looks quite odd to see a vineyard covered in rocks. Each soil type produces different flavours (all good by the way). The portions for tasting were quite generous so our afternoon only c...

Here we are in a small house on Ile de la Barthelasse which is a rather large island in Avignon. The island is surround by the Rhone river and a short walk (10 min) takes us over the bridge into town. From the bridge we can see THE bridge that was made famous by the song Sur le Pont d'Avignon (at least that's how I know about the bridge but apparently some people have never heard the song) which for some reason only goes part way across the river. The bridge was built more than 800 years ago (1177) and started falling down a few hundred years ago. The flood of 1669 swept away a lot of it and apparently no one bothered to fix it. Right outside our front door is a lemon tree full of fruit and yes lemons can be green. Something that always impresses me in French villages are the beautiful storefronts and displays. It didn't take us long to find the wine store that has 32 different wines 'on tap'. First you purchase a card for, let's say,  €40. Then you ...

Murawai, Pakuranga, and Akarana. Those are the 3 courses we played and if my golf wasn't that great at least I learned how to pronounce (and spell) the names of the courses which was a bit of a challenge! Despite ending up somewhere in the middle of the pack (of about 120) the golfing was a lot of fun and all the participants were exceptionally nice. Most were from Australia, New Zealand or Canada with only a handful from anywhere else. One of the Vernon women made it to the final round - congrats to Nancy K. We've had a bit of time exploring some of the sights Auckland has to offer. It's quite hilly but has lots of nice vistas and tree-lined streets. Many of them have tree-tunnels like this: ANZAC day celebrations were on Tuesday (much like our Remembrance Day) which included a fly over with some (I'm going to guess) fighter planes. You can tell from the sky colour that our weather has taken a turn for the better. We had 3 glorious days for golfing. Lots of ...