golden bay of plenty

Despite good intentions, I didn’t get an early start into town today. I dragged my feet with the snooze button, didn’t know where the bike was, and wasn’t excited by the rainy weather. I procrastinated long enough to catch a ride with Jane, who was headed into town for an 8:30 meeting.

After meeting Sarah and touring her flat, we picked up a car and some maps from Apex. One of the maps advertised a boutique chocolate factory with free tastings in Blenheim, which Sarah jokingly suggested we go to for ‘old time’s sake.’ And so we did, spending most of the way down there marveling at the fact we were willingly heading back to vineyard land.

Since I decided to try out this fasting thing, and will (hopefully) be careful about what I eat afterwards, I thought today would be the perfect time to eat and drink everything bad – and lots of it. So, after the tour of the one-room ‘factory,’ and after eating a chocolate-dipped citrus rind and vanilla truffle, we bought a box of 16 merlot truffles plus two larger champagne truffles.

Next stop: the Prenzel distillery. I’d been told it was over on the other side of the town, near the vineyards on the way to Seddon, so we drove over there. And it was closed for renovations. The sign on the door directed us to another location, which was of course right over next to the chocolate factory. This necessitated the consumption of 4 truffles each. On the way there, we stopped off at New World to get soda (L&P for me) and potato chips, 1 large bag each – my choice was parmesan, garlic and olive oil. I chose We drove back, had a great tour guide./sampling lady at Prenzel, and bought 2 bottles of avocado vinaigrette, of all things – turns out Prenzel makes great flavored vinegar, rice bran oils, dessert sauces and vinaigrettes in addition to every kind of liquor you can imagine.

Then we were off in the opposite direction, heading to Golden Bay. By now we were about 2.3 of the way through the truffles, and had killed the chips and soda. We stopped in Havelock, the green-lipped mussel capital of the world (but you knew that already, right? And it’s on your list of places to go before you die?), and ordered a plate of 16 grilled mussels on the half shell with various sauces – bacon & cheese, sweet thai chili, garlic & herb and honey, ginger & soy, and a plate of whole-wheat french bread, with butter served in mussel shells. Sarah, who’d never had mussels before but was determined to try, was quite brave, and finished her half of the shellfish with enthusiasm – and, with the aid of some Speight’s (I’d chosen to pair mine with sauv blanc as a reminder of those Taylor’s Pass days).

The drive up to Golden Bay was very wind-y, and surprisingly devoid of bay views although we’d been told we’d be driving along the coast. Despite a few little hiccups with the car itself (I’m quite good at driving on the left now!), we made it there before sunset, and took in the view from a beach in Collingwood.

We finished the rest of the truffles on the way back, and I dropped Sarah and the car off in town (after getting Magnum bars too!), then met the Pujjis, Donna and her mother, and Dean at the cinema for a movie for Dean’s birthday. We saw ‘The Lives of Others,’ which I thought was exceptionally well done.