Detour

During the week of May 24-29th, the area from Central Otago to the East coast of New Zealand got between 8 and 12 inches of rain. It rained more or less constantly from Monday through to Saturday.

We drove to Dunedin from Ranfurly Friday night with the intention of having a nice meal and maybe seeing a movie. We would then get up Saturday morning, stop at the excellent farmer's market, in preparation for my early birthday dinner, then take a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory and head back to Alex. Well, we went the farmer's market and took the tour. Turns out the weather had other plans.

Sure it rained the whole drive into Dunedin Friday night, continued to do so throughout the night, and was still raining when we got up and went about our business Saturday morning. I guess it should not have been surprising, then that about 20 minutes outside of Dunedin we would be turned back from the police at a road closure. 'No chance, mate.' was the answer we got when we asked if there was a way to get to Alexandra.

From New Zealand

There are three different highways you can take from Dunedin to Alexandra, and all were closed. One due to flooding and two due to snow. We were disappointed, of course. We had hoped to make it back to Alex to start preparation for Sunday's birthday dinner extravaganza.

Despite the weather, our trip to the farmer's market had been quite successful. We picked up fresh baked bread, farm fresh lamb, bacon, ground pork and eggs, fresh picked carrots, celery and potatoes, and artisan cheeses. The weather didn't have any of the vendors down, if anything, the smaller crowd made everyone friendlier. We chatted with the crepe maker about the wood carving he had been doing that week, the baker about the awesome bread we bought from him about a month ago, and the cheese girl blabbered on about dirty pneumonics she was learning in medical school.

A trip to the beer store yielded a treasure of local craft beers I can't wait to crack into. They even had a fair selection of American craft beers, including Rogue, Sierra Nevada, Firestone-Walker, Flying Dog and Stone. I picked up the old stand-by Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA to cook with. A dozen green-lipped mussels from the local seafood shop was added to our stash.

The Cadbury chocolate factory tour has been on Ellen's list ever since we came to New Zealand, and we finally made it there on Saturday. On weekends, the factory is not operating, so a video serves as a substitute for a tour of the working factory itself. It would have been nicer to actually see manufacture of these goodies in process, but watching video of thousands of candies flying down conveyor belts, through cascades of shining chocolate, and being wrapped in plastic by machines we got the general idea. We still got bags of candy and were allowed to taste warm, liquid chocolate from the candy making process. We also were shown the 'chocolate waterfall'. For this experience, we were taken inside a tall silo and walked to the top up a dark spiral staircase. Once there, the lights were flipped on and an enormous deluge of glimmering chocolate fell from the ceiling, down 30 meters. One ton of chocolate in all, over 30 seconds. It was an interesting visual, but turns out it is not in any way part of the candy making process. It's just for show. Weird.

With aching bellies, we began our short attempt to leave town, until we were turned back. With the unrelenting rain, we assumed we wouldn't be able to get to Alex until the next day, so we made our way back to Dunedin and phoned the Speight's brewery for a booking. Why not another tour?

Speight's is the South Island's largest brewer and was once the largest brewer in the country. The tour guide here was quite a bit livelier than the guy at Cadbury, who seemed as though he could have been giving the tour in his sleep. He took us through the old brewery from top to bottom, which was a great way to get a sense of the process, since it is a so-called 'gravity driven' brewery. Basically, this means that the raw ingredients are hauled to the top floor to start the process, and then each step in brewing - from crushing the malt, to cooking the mash, separating the wort, fermentation and so on - takes place at a floor below.

From New Zealand

They've been brewing in this building since the mid 1800's and it's really an amazing piece of history. They are still using some of the original malt crushing equipment and gyles(open wooden tanks used for fermentation). Their gyles are unique because they are made from kauri, which is a gorgeous native New Zealand wood. You'll see more about kauris in the next blog. Their copper kettles are also beautiful.

From New Zealand

The tour also gets a big thumbs up because it is the only brewery tour I've ever taken that allows you to drink as much beer as you want at the end. Their 'Gold Medal Ale' is their signature beer. It's what you'll get at rugby matches and find at every bar you go to. It is lightly amber colored, smooth, sessionable, with a bit of a grainy sweetness and just enough hops to balance it out. It won't knock your socks off, but it is miles better than any large scale brew in the States. It probably helps that they continue to use 100% barley malt and not rice or corn or any of that nonsense. They also brew a selection called 'Old Dark', which is also moderately alcoholed, but a touch sweeter and toffee-like, with a darker hue. A 'boutique' line includes a porter, pilsner, and an English style IPA, all of which are respectable. We did our share of quality control and moved on.

From New Zealand

After we were pulled away from the taps it was back to the cold, rainy streets. We trudged down a few blocks toward the center of town and happily found that we were in time to catch the early evening showing of 'Boy'.

You may recall we tried to see this a few weeks back, but were turned away from a sold out theater. Now that the movie has been out for a while, we were easily able to get tickets, though it was still quite full. If 'Boy' comes to town, or out on video in the States, give it a look. It is set in 1984 on the rural eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The protagonist is an 11 year old Maori boy, called 'Boy'. Boy lives with his grandma, younger brother, 4 younger cousins, and his pet goat, Leif. His mother died when he was very young, and his father is in prison. He loves Michael Jackson and, poorly, tries to dance like him. He has wild fantasies about what a great man his father is, which are ultimately dashed when dear old dad comes for a visit with his new buddies, fresh from prison. I'm not sure I'm describing it very well here, but it is hilarious in parts, but also a good story, and quite touching. Think 'Whale Rider' meets 'Napolean Dynamite'. If it helps here is an awesome music video of a song called Poi E that is in the movie, which is the #3 song in New Zealand right now-if that tells how popular this movie is.

Later in the evening, we retired to our motel and tuned in to the season finale of Lost. Yep, it is the one US show that they get here that is almost current.

We woke up Sunday morning to no rain and clearing skies. The roads were open, so we high-tailed it back to Alexandra and began our food preparation. You see, Ellen set a precedent last year for how, in my opinion, my birthdays should go from here on out. She made me a multi-course meal in which virtually every offering was made with beer and was paired with beer. Since my 30th birthday falls on a Wednesday, during which we'll be out of Alexandra and I will be on call, we decided to celebrate this weekend.

Here's the hitch, Ellen was still in a cast, so her ability to prepare any food has been significantly limited. The solution, I would make most of the food myself. Ellen saw this as a tremendous disappointment, but I didn't think it was so bad. I love to cook and we ended up spending all day together. She just ended up doing mostly direction and supervision.

Prep took most of the day as we prepared 5 different courses. Our first course was a sampling of cheeses - smoked brie and a creamy blue - and chutneys, as well as a chicken and walnut terrine. There are several foods we have developed a taste for since we've been here, and one of them is terrine. We had never had terrine before, but we will be making them quite a bit when we go home to the States. For those not familiar, a terrine is made kind of like a meatloaf, but served cold, on toasted bread. It is often wrapped in bacon. Awesome.

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

The thing was dense, and it's taken us a week to finish it.

This was followed by a dozen New Zealand green-lipped mussels, steamed in white wine, butter, and garlic. This particular variety of mussel is not only huge, but also full of flavor.

From New Zealand

From New Zealand

I could have eaten several dozen of these beauties, but it was time to move on.

From New Zealand

These are a savory shortbread made with Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA and topped with melted blue cheese and crispy bacon. They crumbled, then melted in your mouth. They were unbelievable.

The main course was a leg of lamb braised in Fuller's London Porter. The meat was agonizingly tender, falling right away from the bone.

From New Zealand

Finally, for dessert, a red velvet cake. I've decided this is my favorite kind of cake ever since our friend, Scottie (Hi Scottie!) brought one over a couple years back. Ellen made one last year and it was amazing. Well this one did not disappoint, I guess you can't really go wrong with a cake that is about 60% butter by weight.

From New Zealand

It was accompanied by Hokey Pokey ice cream, a New Zealand favorite. All washed down with a nice black lager called 'Long Black' from a brewery on the North shore of the South Island.

Needless to say, we were preposterously, no, painfully full at the end of the meal. It was the kind of meal that makes you wake up with sweats in the middle of the night and by the time morning comes around you're still sickeningly full. It was wonderful. I now look forward to birthdays with a renewed vigor. I wish I could say I only eat like that once a year, but I would be lying. If I didn't exercise as much as I do, I would be enormous. Thanks to Ellen for an incredible birthday dinner. Can't wait til next year.

This past week was a short week at work. I worked Monday and Tuesday and then we took off for a six day trip to the North Island. Stories to come. Now we're back in Alexandra.