After my non-stop dash around the South Island, I have now arrived in Masterton – once again, my timing is tight – giving myself just a day to get settled into my new house before starting at Matahiwi Estate on Monday…

My house – another arranged-before-I-got-here from Gumtree.com has seen me land on my feet once again! I’m sharing with Victoria, a trainee nurse and Matt, a journo for the local paper and the house is great! With the added bonus of a pool, shared with the neighbours – a perfect place to cool off after spending the day in the hot sun out among the vines.

Masterton itself, the main town in the Wairarapa province seems to have plenty going on, one week in and already I’ve been to a toga party, and have just spent the day in Wellington with Victoria’s brother in law, watching England get beaten by the NZ black-caps in a one-dayer at the ‘cake-tin’ (aka. the Westpac stadium – usually the home to the Welligton Hurricanes rugby club).

My trusty steed ‘ZeeZee’ is getting a bit more rest nowadays too – just a short drive out of town to work, which happens to be right over the road from famous NZ film director Peter Jackson’s house – which is more like a mansion from what I hear, with it’s own hobbit-holes, moated castle, and railway (yes, a full-size railway!)

Have I had much wine since I got here? Well actually there was a rather yummy bottle of 1992 Palliser Estate Botrytis Late Harvest Riesling in Belinda’s stash at her toga party, which had a lovely developed character of brown sugar and baked apples along with a nice tang of acidity – although this is purely from memory – which was a bit shakey the next morning!