We had a fabulous day at the Gisborne Wine and Food festival on Sunday 23 October. Sadly the weather changed from a glorious sunny morning to an overcast and rather cool afternoon – and there were some scantily clad people who wished they’d packed some extra clothes around!
Barry (unsurprisingly, as he seems to know a large proportion of the population of Gisborne) bumped into a number of people he knows at the event, and took the opportunity to promote his upcoming ‘home brew and more’ shop that’ll be opening in November. James Milton of Milton's Winery in Gisborne, listened intently as Barry enthusiastically talked of his plans. Barry can’t compete with their organic and biodynamic wines - my favourite is 'Muskats at Dawn', which in 2011 has a slight sparkle and is absolutely divine.
The day was a sell-out of 5,000 tickets with around 1,500 of them to folks from out of town. For the third time this year we socialised with our niece Emma, Matt and their friends from Wellington which was cool – especially as they had packed a picnic rug so we could share that when we wanted a rest!
The venue for the day was the Waiohika estate, which has two natural amphitheatres and is also the venue for the huge New Year festival called Rhythm and Vines which accommodates an amazing 25,000 people, and won the 2010 Best Festival/Event NZ Tourism Award. It seemed just right with 5,000 people, plenty of room for everyone, but it must be buzzing with five times that amount of people – almost the same as the total population of Gisborne!
As dusk fell, the crowds moved to the smaller amphitheatre to watch the big match – and what a tense, breathtaking final it was! There was a time when I was thinking I should’ve bet $100 on France, rather than just $20 (just to soften the blow if the worst happened!), but was thankfully ecstatic to lose it. What a shame there weren’t more tries though as the whole crowd rose to it’s feet and roared at the All Blacks only try - electrifying!
So it’s all positive for New Zealand and great for our economy. Hopefully that ‘feel good’ factor will also help Barry’s new business to get off the ground. We have the keys and Barry has put up most of the shelving now and will be putting his first order in tomorrow – very exciting! Here’s a few snaps of the up and coming shop …
The logo we chose after much deliberation
The shop is on the end of a line of premises, on Peel Street, Gisborne
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