North Canterbury Tales (Mar. 17 – 28)

So after our first week in Amberley, we’d had such a good time that we were keen to stay on longer and continue to help out at the farm and the brewery. Luckily, Kieran and Belinda were also happy to have us continue wwoofing as well, so we extended our time in Amberley for another busy week and a half.

Back at the big red farm house...

We should first mention that staying with a winemaker and brewer certainly has its merits. Seriously, Becky and I are now experts on the Brew Moon beers and most of the Muddy Water wines. Although I remain extremely suspect to suggestion when tasting wines, so hopefully K&B are steering us in the right direction there…

Add in the fact that we ate really well the entire time, and from a gustatory standpoint we had a fantastic few weeks here in the North Canterbury area. Dinners have been great, with plenty of vegetables from the garden, lamb, and pears, especially. K&B have a pear tree that is ridiculously laden with fruit, so we’ve been thinking up as many uses for pears as possible, with pears usually in dessert somewhere. Muffins, cobbler, crisp, poached pears in wine, we’ve really run the gamut for pear possibilities I think.

This display almost put me (Becky) off the meat again, but then dinner was so delicious...

At the brewery, Kieran and I did more brewing, cleaning, bottling, and labeling, and I think I acquitted myself well in the end. I must have appeared like I knew what I was doing in the brewery, since Kieran would occasionally ask me technical questions or my opinion on things. Hopefully my answers didn’t steer us too far afield! Although I must say I think I got the hang of bottling, as I’m now known as the ‘Automated Bottling Machine’ in certain parts of Amberley.

On the farm, Becky spent a lot more time in the garden, mostly weeding anything that moved in the garden. A few of the sections were her favorite type of weeding, pulling everything indiscriminately, so that you know you can’t make a mistake and pull the wrong thing. Becky also did heaps of other things on the farm as well, plaiting and planting garlic, feeding the chooks and horses, and trying to prevent Moses, Belinda’s parents’ dog who was staying for a few days, from buggering off back to their house a few km away. It was mostly a success; the chooks got fed, and Moses stayed at home more days than not.

He may look sweet and innocent (if a little bit scruffy), but Moses used to be a well-known chicken killer before he saw the light and mended his ways

I helped at the farm a bit as well, mostly in skimming some of the paths, basically ripping up the grass that had grown there. Take our word for it, the grass didn’t seem keen on being ripped up. Kieran and I also did some lumberjack-type stuff, cutting down a pine tree and splitting firewood with a hydraulic ram. It’s good fun and really the only way to do a heap of firewood; using an axe is for the birds. Taking down the pine tree also gave me a chance to drive the tractor down the road laden with huge logs. I’m not sure why Kieran thought I’d be good at it, but I didn’t lose the logs or ram anyone, so it seemed to go OK. And I now think that everyone should drive a tractor at some point in their life, so thanks Kieran.

An aerial view of the garden, sans weeds

We also worked the farmer’s market in Lyttelton, just south of Christchurch, for Brew Moon on a couple Saturdays as part of our wwoofing work. We have to say it was really good fun, giving samples and selling beer at the market, which was easily the best farmer’s market we’ve seen in NZ so far. We had absolutely gorgeous weather two weeks in a row for the market, which is quite helpful when you’re trying to sell beer. Our first day at the market also coincided with St. Patrick’s Day, and while it’s not as big of a drinking holiday here as in the States, was quite helpful in trying to persuade people to try beers samples before noon. We sold a lot of beer that day, and did pretty well the next week as well.

Andrew sellings his wares at the farmers' market

On a similar note, we also helped to sell wine for Muddy Water at the Waipara Food & Wine Festival on Sunday, a few days ago. We had a great time pouring and tasting wine, listening to jazz, and seeing people walk around in wine-induced stupors in the afternoon sun. How people can drink heaps of wine in 30C sunny weather is beyond me, but to each their own. To be fair though, I did really find it helpful to taste a number of the Muddy Water wines to really pick out the differences (Note to my brother Adam: please don’t take this to mean that I’ll be able to follow you when you’re talking about wines now).

Our sweet ride to the Lyttleton farmers' market

Whew, I get tired just thinking of all the stuff we did these past few weeks! All in all, we have to say we had a great time, worked hard, ate and drank extremely well, and learned a lot. Many thanks to Kieran and Belinda, who couldn’t have been more gracious or accommodating, putting us up and making us feel at home. You’ve made it hard to leave, but worry not, as we’ll definitely be back on our way up through the country later this year!