I decided, lacking a car (still), I should just hire a bike from the hostel I am staying at (which is, by the way, still the sketchy hostel...it was too much work to move, since I will be leaving tomorrow and needed to be at the vineyard this morning). The cleaning lady assured me it was worth renting the bike, even though the hostel had "freebie" bikes that looked just fine, cause the rentals are so much nicer in every way. This should have been a warning sign.
The bike I rented (the only one that fit me) was a little cruiser bike. The $15/day rental fee included a helmut, lock, and safety vest.
My first stop was the library. Already I noticed that the bike was taking far more effort to pedal than it should, but I stopped along the way to have the tires filled, and assumed this would do the trick. At the library, I also realize the key does not fit the lock I was given. Ok, I can deal with this...
After the library, and about 1/4 of the way to the winery I have an appointment with, I realize the bike is in the process of falling apart. But unlike my crappy bike I managed to destroy in a day in China, this one's death is manifest by a lot of resistance and drag in the running gears... so bad that I am needing to pedal down hills to keep my speed. At around 1/2 to the winery, I am dripping sweat and out of breathe from biking at what feels like a miserable crawl over flat ground. At one point I actually got off and walked, this being much easier and not too much slower than pedaling.
But I somehow made it to the winery in one piece and with enough time to straighten up before my meeting.
The winemaker turns out to be an Swiss man named Hatsch with crazy hair and an even crazier beard. But he is warm, and gives wonderful advice.
At one point, we are in the room where all the barrels of wine are aged, and he finds a cork on the ground... Puzzled, he looks around for the barrel that it popped from. Finding it, he sniffs and listens to the barrel. Pleased, he has me listen to the fizzing sounds coming from the cork hole on the top of the barrel.
"This one is really going!" he tells me excitedly. Checking the surrounding barrels, we find that two others out of the ten or twelve are also fizzing, but the rest show no sign of activity at all. They are all from the same press, with the same treatment, and Hatsch has not explaination for it, but does not seem concerned.
"Winemaking is all in the things that happen that you cannot explain. You see, I could filter and manipulate the juice so it does exactly what I want it to, and some do, but then it is stale and dead. The unpredictable is magic. Winemaking is about that magic. Without it, wine is just a beverage."
And I have to say, he did make some rather fine wine...
And in the end, I survived my trip. I have been trying to work out every other night to keep in shape while traveling, and I am afraid that between my workout last night and my ride today, I am going to be a very sore boy tomorrow. But all that is on the agenda for tomorrow is relax and await the train which will take me to Kaikoura and Kristin. :)
I really really need a shower...
~ matt
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