January 24, 2023
“It's incredibly powerful and it's incredibly devious.”
– Former farmer and writer Rachel Stewart on the power of industrial dairying in New Zealand
We were surprised the first time we were asked.
”Would you like some milk?”, the hotel receptionist inquired. i haven’t been asked that since I last visited my Mom’s home years ago.
At first we thought it was a niche item for this boutique place to stay. It was presented in a cute little dairy bottle so we happily accepted the gift. But, then it happened again and again. Like Gideon’s Bibles we found milk in almost every place we stayed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good milk….but milk?
What we were unaware of is the dairy industry here in New Zealand is huge and a very powerful lobby. It is obvious they have some arrangement with the hospitality industry. This impact is not without controversy. The politics behind the gifts are too , shall we say. sour to deal with here.
We left Wellington yesterday aboard the massive intra island ferry. The huge ship, like a enormous Greyhound bus, takes hundreds of people and vehicles back and forth between the two islands several times a day.
Despite the convenience of this ship it is still a 3 1/2 hour passage through the Cook Strait. I guess this is as good as a time to mention how New Zealand came to be named. The Cook Strait was named after Captain James Cook, the famous British explorer who made three trips to Polynesia on behalf of the Crown claiming the territory for the Empire.
But he was not the first European here and the Maori had already been here since 800 AD.
The first European to “Discover” New Zealand was a Dutch explorer named Abel Tasman in 1643. From his discovery a Dutch mapmaker called it “Nieuw Zeeland” and the name stuck. Tasmen would go on to find Australia and eponymous Tasmania.
However, the Dutch failed to leave anything behind. The British did not make that mistake and left behind several marginal Fish and Chips stalls and so their claim held to the area.
The Ferry crossed the strait uneventfully with fairly calm seas. It isn’t always that way, but we were lucky. Then it turned inward to the Queen Charlotte Sound, a glacier fjord, for the trip to the natural harbor where Picton awaited.
Picton’s claim to fame is it is the ferry terminal and the main gateway from the North Island to the South. Picton was named after an officer who served with Wellington, who rose to fame by defeating Napoleon. Unfortunately, Picton was also a fairly brutal slave holder who made his fortune in that grisly business. So there is a move to change the name of this town.
The natural harbor is beautiful and next to the Queen Charlotte Roadway around the sound. The roadway is scenic offering a number of beautiful view of the narrow fjords. We spent the day driving along this road and stopping to take in the vistas.
The winding roads eventually lead to a flat valley of the Marlbourgh region of New Zealand. This is a world class area for fine wines particularly Sauvignon Blancs and Riesling's. We enjoyed some tastings, as much as I could tolerate since I was still dealing with that whole left side of the road thing.
Speaking of driving, there are almost no big highways here. Everywhere here are two lane roads.
Bill Bryson writes, “ What a difference that makes! You’re not cut off from the wider world, as you are on a superhighway, but part of it, intimately connected. All the million of details of the landscape are there beside you, nor blurred into some distant, tediously epic backdrop. It changes your whole outlook. There’s no point in hurrying when all it’s going to do put you in the feathery wake of a chicken truck……..and when you come to a town on such a road it is an event. You don’t fly through at speed , but slow down and glide through in a stately manner like you are a float in a parade. Slow enough to nod at pedestrians or see what is on sale on Main Street……It’s wonderful”
The constantly changing landscape of this country continues to surprise. As we drove through the vineyards you would swear you were in Napa Valley, California.
Tonight, with a bottle from one of the vineyards we visited, we will have dinner on the balcony and watch the boats coming into the harbor in the light of the fading sun.
Tomorrow, we start South.
Comments