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I’m American, so of course I like hunting and obviously whether you know me or not, you know I like wine. I’m from the Seattle area, home of grunge music and former LEGEND Kurt Cobane, so Wellington seemed like my cup of tea. To go hunting for exotic deer and wild animals, check out the Wairarapa and Martinborough, drink some breathtaking savoury old world-style Pinot Noirs and then spend some time in the windy city of Wellington seemed better than paradise, and I was right.
It’s important to stress that we don’t like to “kill things”, but if your going to eat meat then it is important to see what is involved in the harvest of it. I personally could not imagine going to a slaughterhouse, and I really would rather never experience that so if I can avoid eating that kind of meat I do my best. But rather than eating mistreated farm animals I am willing to go on a hunt and do the work that was intended for us to eat and I feel its better going after an animal who has a fair chance and lives a good free and wild life. In a way it takes back to the old days of the hunter gatherer societies.
The winemaker of Martinborough Vineyard joined us on the hunt, Paul Mason. So himself, Jo and I and the whole WINERAM production crew got geared up in our Macpac gear, outdoors boots and all the weatherproof gear had and met up with Tim & Frecks Armstrong along with our guide Jason at Glen Ora Hunting adventure and then we took to the bush. Just before going out Jo and our Director of Photography Rupert seemed to be nailing the target practice at 200 and 300 metres, where I, “the experienced hunter”, only got 100 meters! Bloody good eh?
The Wairarapa is a region and place like no other in the world. Just east of Wellington Martinborough is a sub region within the Wairarapa with great Pinot Noir, but it also has astonishing beauty and good hunting. It is so beautiful I will never forget it. It might just be why Avatar and Titanic Director James Cameron just decided to move there to retire and also make movies. After this trip I can safely say there is no other feeling like being on the back of a bulky 4×4 dune buggy on the top of the Wairarapa hills looking as far as the eye can see. Occasionally we would stop and “glass” around for wildlife. (Glassing is your hunting slang we learned for looking through binoculars). There were amazing times sneaking up on animals, crawling on all fours, trying to breath quietly, calm our adrenaline filled bodies before taking shots…but I’m not going to spoil the hunt for you as you can see that on Episode 4. Lets just say we not only saw Awapara Ram, Red Stag, and Fallow Bucks; but we came home with meat as well, none of which went to waste.
Paul took Jo, the crew and myself back to Martinborough Vineyard after a weekend of hunting and did a bit of a “tour” of the winery. The range was outstanding and it was even an exciting time around the vineyard when we visited as it was harvest and time to crush the fruit! I knew that these guys were world famous for Pinot Noir, and even had a 1998 Reserve Pinot Noir that was winning awards against $5500 USD French Burgundies, lets just say I made it a bit of a goal that Jo and I could try this before leaving the vineyard, but Paul didn’t let us get off easy and put us to work crushing grapes and we went in “feet first” before finally getting a tasty drop of Martinborough Vineyard Pinot Noir…