Hawkes Bay, New Zealand

Just arrived here in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, today, and my what a day. Woke up tired as hell after snatching a few hours of patchy sleep between runs to the bathroom to piss out the mixture or alcohol and liters of water I was chugging to avoid a hangover. Didn't have a hangover but the exhaustion was just as painful. Was zombie-like packing up and making my way to the airport to head from Auckland, where I'd been for a few days experiencing New Zealand biggest, most multi-cultural city. Not much to say about my time there; went to a music festival and listened to a bunch of Kiwi (aka New Zealand) music, including Katchafire and Lady Six, my two favorites.

So after arriving in Hawkes Bay, the winemaker Adrian Baker showed me around the region, at first in his car then after a bit we picked up my rental car and I drove that. I'm not renting it- they are, for me. It's a sweet deal.

We ended our day with lunch at the winery. Rare venison with pomegranate for appetizer, then a gratis appetizer of pork belly, crispy on one side and fatty on the other, as well as this apple-pie like thing. Had a beer with all that, which I think took Adrian off guard; he would have expected me to get a glass of wine, considering the situation. I wanted to impress that I was a hard working bloke type. To his credit, he got a beer too. A very proper guy, very serious, but also friendly and I think down to earth. Anyway, the main was salmon with capers and tangerines for me, and a whole flounder (Adrian's 6 year old son loved the crispy part aka tail and the eyballs, and swallowed it all down with pink lemonade. Cappuccino to finish.

After he dropped me off I introduced myself to the neighbors. Jeff, Felicity and Craig. The first two were and old married couple, but Craig looked early thirties; turned out to be 36 but in amazing shape. I told them I was thinking of taking a hike up towards the local mountain, Te Mata Peak, and he said he'd like to join me. I puttered around until he finished what he was up to (shifting some cattle from the other side of the road back to the stable), then we headed off...accompanied by his 8 year old son in law. The kid talked constantly, never an iunternal thought. It was cute though, and I was happy for the company. Craig was much more reserved but still friendly. We chatted as we went up the hillside, but when it got hairy- and it did- I shut up and so did he mostly, except for some advice. For twenty minutes I knew (and Craig warned) that a slip would mean death or seroius injury. At one point I could not have made it up without Craig's help, or at least it would have taken awhile. But that 8 year old was doing it, only a little more slowly than me. At times, better. We all eventually got to the top and enjoyed amazing views of the entire valley, down to the river and ocean and Craggy Range and towards Napiers and then the hills on the way to Havelock North. He showed me some good hiking, and told me about the Three Peaks run, a sort of outdoors trail marathon, sounded fun. So then we went down, much easier than up becauyse we took one of the easier routes. We got back and Craig invited me over for a beer and we shot the shit a bit, while he showed me Jeff's egg sculpture, and Zavier (his son) showed me Jeff's full-size garage theater. It was awesome. I also met the daughter and wife briefly through the window ("Sorry, I'm in me Jammies, or I'd come down").

So then on the way out a beer bottle I'd picked up along the trail fell out of my pack and shattered. "Another smooth exit by Kevin," I joked. We cleaned it up quick like and I said goodbye again, walked home, made and ate dinner, did yoga, and here I am, exhausted but proud and happy and free in my newest home.