FIRE?!?!!!!!!!

As we were sleeping soundly in our little two bedroom home in the wine country, a very loud, powerful alarm/siren went off. It may have been inside our house somewhere, but it is also true that it could have been outside on a pole somewhere. All I can tell you is that it was louder than that obnoxious alarm that goes off when I cook dinner and announces to all of our neighbors that we have something burning at the Handron house, while Mike and I frantically open all the doors and window and fan the ceiling smoke detectors. This New Zealand alarm was horrible, made worse by the fact that we were in a strange house, it was 1:30 in the morning and we had no idea why an alarm was sounding.

Finding no obvious cause we climbed back in bed. Maybe ten minutes later we heard distant sirens, giving weight to our theory that we live in a town with a volunteer fire department that is alerted to a fire by a community-wide alarm rather than an automated phone dialing system. We never did find out what the alarm was, but it wasn't enough to keep two weary travelers awake to worry about it.

After leaving the Hawkes Bay wine country we went to Wellington for a night. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. Although it has only half a million people,it is a very cosmopolitan city. We were told proudly that there are more coffee houses per capita than any other city. Coming from the town that put Starbucks stores four to a corner we find it hard to believe that statistic, but it does make a point that it is a happening place for coffee affectionados or people out on the town. Keep in mind though, that kiwis version of out on the town differs completely from Europe. The streets roll up at 6:00 PM in most towns, and in a "big"city like Wellington you can expect to find places open until ten or so. So different from Spain where you won't find a restaurant open until ten.

Wellington was just an overnight on our way to the ferry from the North Island to the South Island. The ferry crossing is three hours long, and residents take their cars across. Visitors turn their cars in at the ferry terminal where Avis and Hertz conveniently have rental offices, then pick one up on the other side after crossing. It works well, as there are people f\driving to the crossing point from both islands, turning in their cars for pick up by someone coming across on the next ferry.

We had beautiful weather for the crossing (it has been outstanding all along). The top end of the south island is the Marlborough sounds, and it is gorgeous. A bit like the fiords, but the mountain sides are not as tall. Our Toyota was waiting for us and we took off. Less than an hour later we were in the middle of the Marlborough wine region, home of wonderful white wines. Having such success renting a cottage last time, we headed straight for the information office where we were able to get another cottage for $100 NZD per night, or roughly $78US. It is two bedroom, two bath sitting in a vineyard. It is immediately adjacent to our hosts'home, although hedges separate the entrances and provide us with privacy. Our hosts are two women who run an assortment of businesses, including the vineyard (they grow grapes under contract for one of the local wineries), a wine tasting tour company and other things we have not yet discovered. They have a white lab that they offered to loan me when I asked for advice on where to roam for my walk. That is real service...a dog to accompany you on your walk! They made reservations for us at the local hot spot and have provided us with lots of advice about where to go. Although we didn't expect any services to our unit during our two night stay, we returned to our cottage to find clean towels after a day of touring the wineries and chocolate factory (yes, MaryAnn, we are keeping up our medicinal doses of chocolate by visiting the boutique chocolate shops of New Zealand).

Chocolate in New Zealand is very creative and wonderful. Because we are partaking for purely medicinal reasons (similar to the wine drinking) we are only eating dark chocolate (except for an occasional venture into white chocolate by Mike to prove that dark chocolate isn't the only source of health). We have found dark chocolate flavored by wonderful additions such as coffee, ginger, cardamon, saffron....

Well, I have worked myself into a hunger. So, I will log off this internet cafe machine and go find some coffee, wine or chocolate to take the edge off.

Take care,
Deanne