Winery tours, round one

So, today was a pretty mixed bag. It started off with me trying to figure out how to rent a car for the day, since I have failed to find a car worth buying for the amount I have to spend.

I called one local rental company, who informed me that the rental rate was $50 a day. I tried to get a small break, but no dice. Turns out that was the cheapest one day rate, so I call back, and the conversation goes like this:

"Hi! I would like to rent a car for the day."

"No."

"Umm...sorry?"

"Don't rent for a day, mate."

"I just talked to you 10 minutes ago, and you said you did... you told me it would be $50 for the day."

"I've changed my mind. Don't want to rent for just a day."

Sigh... I am glad that he did not decide this after I had gone down there. I ended up renting with another company, who charges $.35 NZD a Kilometer for day rentals. Turns out it will be cheaper if I just rent for 3 days, since the 3 day rentals get unlimited kms. Grrr... today was expensive before it was even 9:30 am.

But once I get on the road, life is good. Soon I am out of the city, and in some of the most beautiful hills ever.

The wineries were amazing. I toured Neudorf and Woollaston Estates. I am in love with Neudorf Winery. Small, well done, and with friendly staff that feels more like a family and world class wines... said by some to be one of the top 5 wineries in NZ. Woollaston is a bit too pretentious for me, but still a beautiful winery with a unique approach to sustainability. They have a huge facility built on a hill so they can gravity feed all of their wine through the various stages of the winemaking process, from the crush to the bottling. They say it helps their quality to not "beat up" the juice so much!

Only problem is that I just barely missed their pruning season, and they lay off all their workers from now till mid Oct. to save money. They both seemed impressed with me, just were not hiring. But they give great advice.

So, I learned today:

• That my timing is not great, 1 month earlier or 1.5 months later and work in the vineyards would be easy to find. I had not planned on the vineyards laying off their workers in downtime to save money. The bonus of this is that the owners/viticulturists have nothing better to do than give me private one-on-one tours of their vineyards. I am hoping this ends up being worth it.
• I need a car. Today would not have been possible without one, and for the amount I paid for the rental, I could just buy one for about 8 times more, and resell it in the end of my trip. And my likelihood of getting a job with these wineries is vastly higher if I show up in person. I am not sure I would have much of a chance at these world class wineries if I did not show up in person. The problem is if I buy a car, I will not have enough money to survive till Dec. without finding work. I guess, worse case, I could sell the car mid-trip.
• I need to remember my camera. I am a little upset that I forgot it on this day trip, and have no pictures to show off these gorgeous sites.
• I need to remember to bring my water bottle. Forgot that too, and ended up dehydrated and head-achey.

Also, for anyone who wants copies of my pictures, just email me which pictures you want, and I can send you a higher resolution image.

I need a shower...

~ matt