Wairarapa Events 2010-11
Lots of events scheduled in the Wairarapa for the summer of 2010-11…..so many concerts to choose from; then there are balloons, vintage planes and air displays, Shakespeare, cars, food and wine, horse racing, fishing, cycling and the list goes on!
Before we moved over here we were largely unaware of the range and number of events that take place! And not all happen in Martinborough…..but for those that do, we have Tranzit Coaches who pick up from Gladstone and drop off again after the event (and if you book at the Summit Lodge for 2 nights, we provide this as part of the package). Ask about renting out our guest wing – you and up to 5 friends have the wing all to yourselves!
So – a taste of the events calendar:
( and for more details on these events – go to http://www.wairarapanz.com)
13 November ‘Remembrance Day’ WW1 Air Show at Hood Aerodrome
14 November National Iris Day – Te Ohanga Iris Gardens Open Day, Masterton
20 November Tauherenikau Christmas at the Races
21 November – Toast Martinborough
5 December – Wairarapa Women’s Triathlon – “Go 4 Your Life”, Masterton
5 December – Assisi Garden Summer Fair
18 December – ‘A Day On The Green’ with Blondie, Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders
New year’s Eve – La De Da Festival at Alana Estate
8&9 January – Castlepoint Fishing Club 16th Annual Fishing Competition
21-23 January – Trust House Wings Over Wairarapa 2011
26-30 January – Trust House Men’s International Cycle Classic Race
3-5 February – “Shakespeare in the Vineyard”, Gladstone Vineyard
5 February – Martinborough Fair
13 February – More FM Winery Tour with Brooke Fraser – Opshop – Midnight Youth, Martinborough
18-20 February – WBS Masterton A&P Show
19 February – ‘A Day on the Green’ with Crowded House & Supergroove! (Martinborough)
25 February – ‘Americarna 2011′ – Classic Cars to visit Masterton
23-27 February – 2011 NZCT Women’s Tour of NZ
3-5 March – International Golden Shears Competition, Masterton
5 March – Martinborough Fair
17-19 March – Trust House Balloons Over Wairarapa
19 March – Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival 2011
Winery Weekend in the ‘rapa
People who stay with us often comment that they wish they had stated for more than one night as they hadn’t realised how much there is to do in the Wairarapa. Over the next few weeks we will uncover some of the events, activities and places to explore around the Summit Lodge.
In the first of this series we will look at some of the Wineries close by. Everyone knows about Martinborough wines and many of us have experienced Toast Martinborough, TK Day and/or concerts at Allana winery. What is less well known are the many fabulous wineries in the Gladstone and Masterton area.
Since moving to the Summit Lodge we have had a marvellous time tasting local wines! Just a few kilometres toward Carterton are the Gladstone Winery and Fairmont. Gladstone has a great café and host some wonderful events such as Shakespeare and music. Coming in February are the Topp Twins, which having recently seen their DVD promises to be a top event! If you intend going it is on 11 Feb and if you want to make a weekend of it, book your room with us quick!
Fairmont wines, for the uninitiated, are very good – just try their Pinot Noir or their unoaked chardonnay. We recently opened a bottle of the latter – 2006 vintage and it was stunning.
A trip to Johner wines is well worth the drive! Although only a few hundred metres from Gladstone and Fairmont as the crow flies, Johner is a rather long circuitous drive at the end of Daikin Road. Last time we went, there were 14 wines to taste! If you like dessert wine just try all of the Johner ones – Pinot Noir, Savvie and Syrah, I promise you won’t be able to resist them!
There are several other wineries situated along Daikin Road but you do need to phone first before arriving – alternatively, drop into the Wairarapa Wine Cellar which is opening on 3 October in Greytown. Wineries to look for include Blairpatrick, Borthwick, Cottier, Urlar, Joseph Ryan.
A new winery that is based near Masterton Airport is Paulownia Estate – another irresistible dessert wine and one of the best roses I have ever tasted!
Further afield, north of Masterton is another cluster of wineries Little Vineyards , Lynfer Estate , Maggies Vineyard , Paper Road, Bijou Estate.
Another fantastic event is the Wairarapa Wine Harvest Festival – held in mid-March every year. An opportunity to taste all the fabulous wines, eat wonderful food and listen to great music. This might be letting one the ‘rapas great secrets out of the bag….it is much smaller and more intimate than Toast as it is all in the same place, shaded by trees next to the river at ‘the cliffs’ on Daikins Road. Get down there before it is ‘discovered’ – you won’t be disappointed!
So now you know – when are you coming over? We can even offer you a 20% discount on accommodation if you are a friend of the Summit on Facebook or linked to Tracey on LinkedIn – just mention this when booking!
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Stunning sunrise
well, sunrises like this making getting up early worthwhile! We often get great sunsets but this morning the sky was on fire….and, yes, cloud, high wind and rain in the distance are all here now!
In the foreground are the flaxes over the road of us.
Meanwhile our flaxes are continuing to thrive and most of the other shrubs and trees we have planted are growing quickly. As soon as the ground dries out a little we will be turning the wildflower meadow over to encourage spring growth and we will be commencing on stage 2 of our pond redevelopment.
A tunnel house/greenhouse is on the cards as an imminent purchase which will help establish veggies and other seedlings before planting out. It is so satisfying to start a garden from scratch – creating a mini-ecosystem and food for the table that you know has had no nasty chemicals near it.
Winter warmer
Winter is well and truly here but there are some benefits:
- you can curl up next to an open fire with a good book
- you can drink some wonderful Wairarapa Pinot Noir
- during the long evenings you can draw the curtains and snuggle up on the sofa and watch a movie or 2
- you can eat comfort food – lamb shanks, beef slow cooked in red wine…..sticky date puddings, anything with custard
- you can wrap up warm and enjoy bright, frosty mornings
- you don’t have to wake up too early to enjoy the sun rises!
- you can sit out in the spa and enjoy the clear night sky but be immersed in hot water
- on clear nights, the stars are unbelievably bright
Winter is the time when things go dormant – a transition time. For people it is a time to gather your strength, reflect on what is ahead and plan for new beginnings and growth…..and what better place to do that than here at the Summit Lodge www.summitlodge.co.nz ? Relax, unwind, be pampered, sleep-in late and then have a hearty brunch before heading off for a rural walk or some wine tasting maybe…..
Chooks and free range eggs
The coop completed we went to get our new chooks. They weren’t too impressed with the temporary accommodation we used to get them home – our cat cages! However, they served the purpose and on release, the four new residents of the Summit Lodge checked out their coop and clearly found it acceptable. Lady Gaga, Fergie, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston are new very much at home. They can roost in their coop or scratch around in the grass for grubs and things. A diet of mixed grain, bits of veggies and bread, dog roll for protein – life is good for our chickens.
We did have to clip their wings after Lady Gaga escaped for the second time – free range is fine, just not in the veggie
patch! We are hopefully for the reward of fresh eggs every day….in another couple of weeks they should start laying! Imagine, being able to collect eggs fresh from the coop for breakfast!
5 stars and sustainability
The Summit Lodge is now officially 5 star rated – Qualmark has recognised us as amongst the best accommodation in NZ. It makes all the hard work worthwhile – the landscaping and planting, the planning and designing, the painting and more recently the marketing and documentation.
We were assessed on several categories and criteria – the guest rooms and facilities, ensuites, our hosting, meals, the extras – such as the spa pool, home theatre and luxurious guest lounge, our processes and policies were also assessed as were our sustainability practices.
Being reliant on tank water has certainly made us more appreciative of this precious resource. We only have the water we can catch off the roof when it rains so we don’t want to waste it! To that end, all of the waste water produced from the lodge (both black and grey water) is processed on site in our treatment plant and is then fed to shrubs and trees via a drip line system – nothing wasted!
It is amazing how much difference the wool insulation, cladding, (insulclad) roof material (Landmark shingles) and double glazing makes to the feel of the house. Not only is it so much warmer, it is also so quiet – and it doesn’t move! The last house we lived in was built in the 1960s and it creaked , groaned and shook in every northerly wind. There can be a hurricane outside here and if the curtains were closed we wouldn’t know !
The other big advantage living in the country is that we can grow our own fruit and ved. The fruit trees are a few years off producing but when they do we will have apples, pears, apricots, plums, almonds, fejoa, quince, berries – yum! In the meantime we have already harvested several kilos of tomatoes – made in into relishes and puree for use later, zucchini have been prolific – did you know you can make them into cake (like a carrot cake) and also a form of lemon curd? We have had lots of sweet corn, leeks, onions, beans, the pumpins are almost ready for storing and we have a number of capsim ripening off. It all tastes so good! Meanwhile we have an acre in green mulch at the moment – another few months and that will be mulched into the ground in readiness for next season’s veggies.
Another project is to grow medicinal plants to make natural remedies, essential oils and skin creams. We have the copper still ready to distill the oils and we have the seeds – English lavendar, borage, lovage, calendula to name but some. At the very minimum they will look good in the garden!
Wine, sea and balloons
Phew – what a busy few weeks it has been. Several guests staying with us at The Summit Lodge – all needing breakfasts and rooms cleaning…..and, in one case, taking out to golf. Jim made the ultimate sacrifice and escorted them to the golf course last Monday. They came back in high spirits after great golf followed by wine tasting at Johner!
We have also been out and about with my mother and Eric showing them the sights of the Wairarapa. Lake Palliser and the Pinnacles were displayed at their best on a stunning sunny day; Castelpoint was visited on yet another warm, blue skied day.
Yesterday we went to the Wairarapa wine harvest festival which is held in March every year in Gladstone – just down the road from us. It was the first time we have had the opportunity to go and it was great fun. Laid back, lots of wonderful local wine to sample – many wineries we hadn’t heard of as they don’t have cellar doors and many pleasant surprises. Paulownia (next to Hood Aerodrome in Masterton) had a few lovely wines – try their rose if you can or their noble savvie. Urlar also delivered some wonderful wines – their pinot gris and pinot noir especially. Try Wycroft if you like pinot noir – it is what they specialise in and they do them very well. And, of course, wherever there is wine there has to be food and the food available was equally as stunning. We opted for the ciabetta and whitebait fritters in the end but there were lots of 
tempting options. As the festival is limited to only 2000 it is not too crowded and the trees provide shade. An annual event for the calendar for sure!
Not only was it the weekend for wine, it was also the balloon festival and we went along to see the night glow. Truly spectacular seeing all the tethered balloons lighting up against the night sky – something else I would recommend to all to see when you have a chance!
Great weekend!
On their departure we cleaned the room and re-configured the beds for Karen and Lucy – a last minute booking for the Alana concert in Martinborough. They joined Asharie and Sharalee who had been booked for a few weeks. After the last concert at Alana which ended up being cancelled right at the last minute due to strong winds this one had perfect conditions so Jim ferried the girls to the concert complete with the picnic hampers we had prepared. Meanwhile we prepared the room for our third set of guests – Lachie and Sarah who were staying with us for their wedding night!
Jim picked the girls up and they then settled down to watch a dvd in the lounge so we opted for bed and left them to it!
Breakfast in the courtyard on the Sunday….bacon by the tonne, sausages, eggs, pancakes….it was a little frantic getting everything ready at once but the plates came back clean! No-one seemed keen to leave so we visited the alpacas – they really like visitors! And then people started to leave – a successful weekend!
Cycle Races and other events
It was very exciting watching the Trusthouse Men’s Cycle Race last week. As we are at the base of the Admiral Hill the cyclist – and their many supporters – all went past our gateway. It was 27 degrees and pretty humid and the cyclists had around 12 kilometers of pretty steep hill to cycle up in order to win the second stage of the race.
There were approx 100 cyclists and it seemed like almost as many cars! At one stage there was a traffic jam going up the hill….something that never normally happens on Admiral Rd! Check out the photos – http://picasaweb.google.com/tracey.jim/TrusthouseCycleRace2010#
It’s amazing just how many events actually happen in the Wairarapa – cycling, triatholons, concerts, food and wine, ballooning……coming up in the next few weeks is Shakespeare at Gladstone Winery – The Merry Wives of Windsor; there is the Martinborough Fair this coming weekend (6 Feb) and again in March; there is the Wine Harvest Festival in March, the balloon festival, a couple of concerts in Masterton. So it might not be much of a summer weatherwise but there is certainly lots to do! Check out all the events and Wairarapa activities – http://www.wairarapanz.com/
Meanwhile we have been catching up with some classic films – Thelma and Louise, The Committments….even The Sound of Music! There is a reason why films make it into the ‘ classic’ range – well worth re-watching them!
