I had my first wine-making class Tuesday evening. There are about 11 students in the class, and it's being taught by a man who owns a successful vineyard in New Zealand. We are currently making Merlot (I know, delicious). He explained the entire process of making wine - from crushing the grapes, to adding all the ingredients, to the whole process of fermentation. To be honest, it was all very confusing. I couldn't follow it thouroughly. However, we're making 30 L - which will be about 2-3 bottles per person at the end of the semester. Exciting? Yes(!) We meet once more on Tuesday to check on the wine. Then we meet again in May, when it should be ready. During that time, we'll also come up with a name for our class wine and design labels, which Jeff (the instructor) will have professionally done and put on our wine bottles. I know, it's all going to look so legit and cool. We're making our wine completely chemical-free and preservative-free, so the wine will probably only last up until 6 months or so after it's complete. It would have been nice to save the wine for a long time, but I think making it completely natural will be worth it.
We've been having extra choir practices this week. This is because we have four (yes, four) concerts coming up this weekend (yes, this weekend). Friday we head out to Timaru for a concert. Saturday we get back to Dunedin for another concert. Then on Sunday, we have two concerts. I should also add that for two of the concerts, we are singing the second half of The Messiah choruses as well as the Coronation Mass. Yes, rehearsals have been crazy. I feel like I can barely keep up (especially since I haven't sung with a choir in years, and I can't read music). Choir turns out to be one of the highlights of my week, though. Rehearsals are always upbeat, relaxed, and fun. It's an enjoyable experience.
This weekend was exciting. Last night (Saturday), my flatmate Anna and I went out to an Indian restaraunt on George Street (it was amazing), and then went to the Bollywood concert that was put on by the Indian Student Association at Otago. I had never been to any concert like it. The band consisted of Indian students from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. It was their first performance together. I decided I love that Indian style of singing. It's remarkable - the way their voices fluctuate so suddenly and quickly. Combined with the language - it sounds beautiful. It's a style of singing I don't think I could ever have the ability to do. It was a fun time.
Today, Anna and I headed out on a bus to Moeraki to see the famous Moeraki Boulders. They are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along the Koekohe Beach in Moeraki.
Maori legend says the boulders are the remains of eel baskets, calabashes, and kumara washed ashore from the wreck of a large sailing canoe.
They are really quite remarkable. Some of them are nearly perfectly spherical. It's quite a site to see these huge, round boulders sitting along the beach.
After hanging around Moeraki for several hours and walking many kilometers along the beach, we boarded another bus and headed north further along the Otago coast. We had decided to go to Oamaru, even though we weren't sure exactly what the town would have in store for us.
We arrived at about 2:30PM and, being a small town and Sunday, nearly everything was closed (except the bars and the supermarkets - well, there were two supermarkets). We walked around the town center for a bit admiring all the beautiful, historical buildings. Also, there are blue eyed penguin and yellow tailed penguin colonies in Oamaru (one of the things it is highly noted for). We tried to head out to Oamaru's little peninsula area to see something cool, but we weren't allowed (without paying a lot of money to go through a tour). It was okay because we did see this excellent street sign:
The sign was absolutely hilarious to me, but I had to make myself realize that it is completely serious - penguins really do cross there! People need to be careful and look out for them (especially during early morning and early evening).
We wanted to head out to the lookout point on the pensinsula, but that required hiking a massively steep street (I'm thinking this is a recurrent obstacle in New Zealand), and our feet begged us not to, so we listened. We also wanted to look around the Oamaru Public Gardens (it was huge on the map and I could bet it was probably beautiful), but we didn't have time as our bus back to Dunedin was coming soon and we were desperate for food. So Oamaru wasn't as exciting as we had hoped, but it was still a nice, well-needed adventure.
Getting out of the city area of Dunedin feels so good. The bus ride to and from Oamaru was about 3 hours of breathtaking hills, fields, mountains, lakes, and beaches. I constantly had flashbacks to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Everything is so beautiful here. It's amazing.
I know my feet are going to ache for a few days (and my face is going to hurt from the sunburn), but the pain is well worth it.
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