Blenheim with kids

 This morning we awoke at the hunters cabin to the unfortunate discovery that River has cracked the code on climbing out of his pack and play.  Hopefully its proximity to a bed he could climb onto was the defining change and we can continue containing him by simply moving the pack and play a bit further from the adjacent bed, time will tell.  

The boys and I went out first thing to explore a bit around The Jolly Poacher Property - spending some time checking out the sheep.

At 8:30 Dave brought over a tray of farm fresh scrambled eggs, fresh bread, honey, jam, marmalade & butter.  We were thoroughly pleased with breakfast and River helped himself to the largest portion of the scrambled eggs - something he typically doesn’t eat at home, so we were very happy he was so excited to eat them.

We then headed off to Pollard Park to get the boys some much needed exercise after a day in the car yesterday.  Over two hours later River was starting to nod off on the merry-go-round and we knew we’d achieved our goal.

Pollard Park was just a fantastic place.  The playground itself wasn’t all that spectacular, especially compared to the Christchurch playground the boys had just been to, but it was still plenty entertaining for both Reef & River.  What was so great about Pollard Park is that it is so diverse, and so expansive.  The park includes a 9-hole golf course, orchards, a flower garden, a creek and ponds with ducks, fun little rocky trails kids can explore- fields, it is just one of those places that should exist in every community.

With the boys energy now in check we headed out for lunch at a winery.  Our first attempt failed as the place was busy and required reservations, but our second stop, Allan Scott Family Winemakers, was a solid win.  It turns out Allan Scott is a pretty well known winemaker in the region and there’s actually an autobiography about him called Marlborough Man that they have on the shelf at The Hunter’s Cabin.

At the Allan Scott Bistro Sharyl and I opted for the chef’s lunch selection- a three course affair which included a starter of local clams in a coconut curry, a beef and potato dish, and a cheese platter.  All were excellent and paired well with the various wines that we got tasters of throughout.  The boys decided to expand their culinary horizons with an order of “grilled cheese & fries”, they are really branching out . . .

After Allan Scott we headed six minutes down the road to a small organic winery called Huia - named after an iconic New Zealand bird which went extinct in 1904.  The winery had come recommend to us by a New Zealand winemaker named Jo Wing who is currently living on Maui and has been teaching some wine classes Sharyl and I have gone to.

What a perfect winery to visit!  Huia is tiny by comparison to the first one (where we couldn’t get lunch without a reservation) and to Allan Scott’s Family Winemakers.  The winery only had five cars (including ours) in the parking lot and that’s about all the traffic they appear to see at any given time.  The place just had a friendly and laid back feel with the tasting taking place at a big picnic table outside next to the little gravel parking area.

Just before our first tasting glass was poured Sharyl got a text from Reef’s speech therapist asking if he was ready to start his session.  Suddenly we were presented with a defining parenting moment- do we cancel a speech therapy appointment for our son the moment it is to start because we forgot about it and instead drink wine?  Or do we cancel the wine tasting and have Reef complete his session?

Game time decision- we decided to have Reef jump on the zoom call in the car with a door open while we continued our wine tasting.  Gold star for responsible parenting ⭐️

It was the right call, Reef did great with his session (we actually checked in on him every couple minutes), and the wine was fantastic- our favorite was the Sauvignon Blanc - the wine style Marlborough is most known for, and Huia’s is the best we have had to date.

From there we headed back towards The Hunters Cabin, enroute we followed a unique farm vehicle for a couple miles that was obviously designed to harvest grapes by driving directly over the top of the vines.  The driver was perched right in the middle of the vehicle- probably 15 feet in the air with a channel in the middle of the vehicle directly under him for harvesting. 

When we arrived back, the “Angler’s Cabin”, next to our cabin had a retired couple sitting out on the front deck.  We got to talking with them and they are from California and have two boys exactly four years apart in age (now 35 and 31), and some grandkids including a two year old.  They said the four year age gap was perfect for their boys, who turned out to be best friends.  In an interesting small world twist, their oldest boy was artistic and into science, he became a Mechanical Engineer- having gone to Northeastern University!  The younger son was their athlete- so good in fact that he played college football at the University of Utah!  What are the chances?

After eating some surprising good burritos we picked up from a place called Little Amigos, Reef discovered that Helen & Dave have a trampoline - which they said the boys were free to use.  So right up until nearly dark Reef & River were bouncing out the last bit of their energy. . .