Mont Bell and Strawberry Champagne

For some reason, Iain and I have made Lindauer Fraise Sparkling Wine a theme to our trip in New Zealand. I can blame it partially on the extremely low price per bottle the first time we went shopping, but I think we are drinking it mostly because it's so ridiculous. The corks from the bottles are the decoration for the dashboard of the van, and at three weeks in we have a third of the length filled in. It's akin to Adam's 'Wall of Beer Cans' when he was 18, but more mobile!

When we left Napier we headed for Eketahuna, a beautiful little campground Iain had stayed at the year before. We had a plan to repaint the van while there, as he had had no problems with the owner the year before when he gave it it's initial coat of blue paint.

Eketahuna is a place that no-one stays. It is a tiny little town, home to sheep hearders, sheep farmers and transitory sheep shearers. The only reason for a traveller to stop there is because it's too late to keep driving and all the pull-outs along the highway were full. It was perfect for us!

To be fair, Eketahuna does have one other draw, an 18 hole golf course that very few people visit. It was the first time I witnessed the unique way New Zealanders have of keeping their golf greens nicely trimmed...SHEEP! Iain pulled over so I could watch, and sure enough whole heards of sheep were wandering over the course, they use electric fences to keep them off the putting greens which the golfers then have to step over to finish the hole. I spent a good few minutes wondering how often a ball hits a sheep on the head...

When we pulled into the camp site it was mostly empty. There was a German couple camped 10 ft from the toilet but otherwise it was a huge, empty, grassy spot, away from the highway and next to a small river. There was ton's of privacy, free hot showers, a stove to cook on and a covered area to eat, all for $5/night.

We parked and pulled out the tent to put all our painting and maintenance gear into and then cracked open the first bottle of strawberry champagne. It was all good until we opened the second bottle at which point we decided we were in the perfect setting to make a Mont Bell commercial (see the photos). The night started a lot better for me than it ended...I didn't make it to 8pm and Iain had dinner alone while I slept off the effects of too many bubbles. I am much more cautious now, just because it looks like strawberry soda, doesn't mean I can drink it like soda!

We spent two nights in Eketahuna and then moved on. The weather cooperated with our cleaning efforts but it was too wet to paint.