Amberley Alert (Mar. 9-16)

While on the west coast in the first week of March, we got a call back from one of the places we’d inquired at about wwoofing. Not to complain about the travel we’ve gotten to do, but after the past few weeks of driving we, not to mention our wallets, were feeling like it was time to get off the road and to get a bit of rest from driving and sightseeing. With that in mind, we were keen to do some wwoofing to earn the extended accommodations, even if we did have to criss-cross back to the Christchurch area to do so.

Kieran and Belinda's big red farmhouse in Amberley

I was particularly interested in this wwoofing spot because the hosts own Brew Moon Brewing, a microbrewery in Amberley that produces a line of 4 beers: a pale ale, a brown ale, a stout, and an organic IPA. Given my interest in beer, this is pretty much the hot setup (as our official source for longrifles, Scott, might say) for me as far as wwoofing hosts go. Brew Moon is basically a one-man operation run by Kieran, a Kiwi bloke whose partner, Belinda, is also an accomplished winemaker at Muddy Water Winery. We suspect that my brother Adam (semi-pro beverage enthusiast) would be quite jealous of this arrangement, as he would likely be in heaven being able to stay with a couple like this.

The Brew Moon Cafe

Belinda and Kieran (hereafter B&K) live on a farm outside of Amberley, surrounded by other farms and wineries, which are multiplying like rabbits (or possums, rather, since this is NZ) throughout the north Canterbury countryside. The grape-growing fever probably won’t subside until growers are precluded from drawing aquifer water, or America’s taste for NZ Sauvignon Blanc is finally sated. It’s probably an even-money proposition at this point.

Their farm is a pretty little spot of farmland only about 10-15 km from the sea and has nice views of the surrounding mountains. They have chooks (chickens), cattle, and several horses, as Kieran is quite a horse enthusiast, having broken and trained racehorses for much of his life. Becky is much more familiar with the horses, but from memory I can recall Clyde, Jimmy, Blue, Wendell and Kermit. If I missed anyone, sorry boys. Come to think of it, my Uncle Bill, who raises racehorses as well, might also be envious of our wwoofing location.

Blue posing for the camera, while Wendell and Kermit look on

At the moment, Canterbury is ‘dry as’, and is often ridiculously gusty, at least to us, but until it starts slamming doors and windows it doesn’t seem to bother B&K much. On one of the nights we stayed here, Becky and I were literally (seriously, not figuratively) woken up every 15 minutes by the howling wind. If Rodgers and Hammerstein had been from NZ, the song probably would go: Cannnnnnnnnnn-ter-bu-ry, where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain…

Fortunately, unlike our first wwoofing experience (see the posts on Tony in the Coromandel), we’ve gotten along swimmingly with B&K. It probably helps that we have a few more common interests, but also that they seem to have neither a creepy streak nor a poorly disguised distaste for all things American. B&K actually lived in California with their children for several years a few years back and had a positive experience, as they appreciated country music, blues, New Orleans, and most shockingly for Kiwis, hot peppers! Compared to Tony, where we were ready to leave his house after a week - especially after we determined he’d never teach us to turn on the lights - we were quite happy to stay at K&B’s an additional week.

Kieran and Belinda pose by Old Glory

For much of our first week here, I’ve helped in the brewery while Becky has helped out doing odd chores on the farm. Brewing, transferring beer, cleaning kettles, bottling, labeling, standing on top of fermenters running hot water to melt the ice on a malfunctioning chiller, you name it and I’ve probably done it this week at the brewery. It’s been a great experience though, and very cool to see the practical side of making beer in a small-scale microbrewery setting.

Andrew stirring up a fine brew

Our first week here has been really pretty busy, with early rises and early bedtimes. As noted above, K&B have found many ways to fill our time. Not that we’re complaining; on the contrary, it’s been good to be busy and productive. After so much traveling, you start to feel more than a little decadent doing nothing but spending money and sightseeing, which takes away from the fun of it all. So wwoofing here has been good for us from that aspect. And we’d also feel badly sitting around while K&B worked hard around us. We should also mention that K&B seem to spend very little time idly; in particular, Belinda is a force of nature. Up at sunrise, biking to/from work, working all day, cooking, gardening on days off, riding her horse, administrative work on the computer, we get tired just thinking of all the non-stop work – Belinda we salute you!

The Brew Moon beerworks

Trying to be mindful that some readers aren’t into the whole extended post thing, I’ll try to wrap this up quickly. But this did try to cover an entire eventful week, so hopefully you’ll understand. In any event, we’ll probably have more about the rest of our time in Amberley later. Until then, this is A&B signing off…