Honey, Fruit, and Ice Cream

UPDATE: Photos added!

Well, a little chill has settled over the area just in time for Halloween (not really a big holiday here, but it's catching on)! When we woke up this morning ( at 7 a.m. to catch the last bits of The Rally to Restore Sanity online) it was quite cold and rainy. Luckily, the weather in NZ is unpredictable, so it turned out to be a nice, though chilly, day!

We had to check out of our hostel by 10 a.m. but were not due to Neil and Sarah's until 4 so we kind of had to make up our day as we went along--and it turned out to be quite a pleasant one!

We started off heading towards an area on the coast called "Cape Kidnappers," but don't let the name fool you--it's a nice beach area that has the largest gannet (a type of native bird) colony in the world. We didn't quite reach down to the colony, as it was a long walk, but we took a little stroll down the stone beach (getting caught in a small, passing rainstorm) to take in the nice views.

After that we decided to drive into the closest town called Havelock North just to take a look around and maybe get some lunch. There wasn't much and many of the cafes were closed, so we grabbed a cheap bit to eat before heading to a nearby Honey factory/museum, called Arataki, that we read about it in one of our many brochures and it was free entry and free honey tasting!

It turned out to be quite interesting--you learned all about honey bees and how honey is made. They had microscopes set up with a variety of things to look at--bees, drones, workers, a queen, bees heads (cause they have 3 microscopic eyes that you can't see!), some bees knees (to be funny), honey combs, and the like. They also had a bee colony on the wall that you could watch to see how the whole process happens (and spot the one queen bee!) You also go to taste a wide variety of different honeys, some I had never tasted before, but they were quite delicious!

They also had there a special type of honey called "Manuka" that is found in a flower here in New Zealand and has amazing antimicrobial/antibiotic properties. They had everything from the actual honey itself to the extensive range of skin care products that contain Manuka--helping everything from dry skin, to eczema, to acne.

John decided to purchase a few small jars, including the Manuka, as a nice souvenir. 

The woman who checked us out was very friendly, asking where we were from and what our plans were for the day. We had intended next to go to a famous ice cream place in New Zealand called Rush Munroe's, as we heard it was delicious, 100% Kiwi ice cream. However, the woman at the counter noted that the company had changed hands in the last year and that, coupled with the general success of the brand, had resulted in a decrease in quality--at least she thought so. She recommended her favorite local ice cream that was actually located on a fruit orchard called Pernel and said we should go there instead--so we did! Turns out it was a great suggestion.

When we arrived we saw that we had just gotten there in time for the last tour of the day, though we were the only two who wanted to go on one--but no matter! We started the tour with a short video and a nice fruit tasting, including some varieties I had never tried before--like a pacific rose, a golden kiwi, and another type of pear. We were then escorted out to a big tour trailer pulled behind a tractor.

One of the owners, Philip, who is the third generation in the family to run the orchard came out to greet us on our tour. He started out asking a lot of questions about us: where we were from, how did we meet, why were we in New Zealand, why did we chose New Zealand, what we were up to in the area, and what did we think about Barack Obama? It was a great conversation to start, completely off topic, but we learned about d a lot of random things like sheep dogs ( as the owner had a black lab/sheep dog mix that also came out to greet us), different things about the area and New Zealand, as well as learning about fruit. We then got started on the tour and learned all about different varieties and all the complexities that go into a fruit orchard. Here is a picture while we were on the tour:

We then stopped at a small farm they had on site where they have free range chickens (in which they sell the eggs), two goats, a donkey, some pigs, and lamb and sheep. Some of the sheep were in desperate need of shearing! They were quite wooly. We were able to feed them some apples and pet them up close:

At a certain point in the tour the tractor broke down so we walked the rest of the way, but as it was sunny out at that point it was quite a nice stroll. We stopped by his brothers house, just off the property, and he picked two oranges off the tree in their yard to give to us. As the tour ended he told us to come back by in about 3-4 weeks as he may have some work available then (since we told him about our job search for some fruit picking) and to just mentioned whoever we talk to that we met Philip on a tour--nice guy!

We, of course, had to stop for some ice cream before we left. The way they make it is you combine either a vanilla ice cream or frozen base with frozen fruit. They had several choices to chose from--I had raspberry and John had a local fruit called fuijola. They put all the ingredients in a machine and I guess it squeezes the fruit to get the flavors and cuts it all up to blend it right in with the ice cream. It was delicious!

After that it was time to head to the Cardoness Lodge to meet Sarah and Neil Smith! Even though it has been at least 5 years, they recognized John right away. The lodge is beautiful, as is the surrounding scenery! We got a little tour of the place, got all set up in our (REALLY nice) room, and chatted a bit about what he had been up to thus far and the work we were hoping to get. They are so nice to accommodate us at their beautiful lodge--it's by far the nicest place we have stayed (and probably will stay) in NZ! There are two other people here doing the same thing we are and we look forward to getting to know them more when we work together tomorrow doing some thinning in the vineyard!

Here is a picture of our room and the lodge from the outside:

We look forward to being productive this week, doing some work while hoping to find other work to self-sustain us. We have had about 4 possible opportunities presented to us thus far from various people and hopefully some of them pan out! But for the week, we will definitely be enjoying ourselves (and working hard, of course)!