New Zealand
New Zealand: Culture, Out & About, and Food & Wine.
Where it all began
Marlborough sauvignon blanc put New Zealand wine on the map. Demand for the region’s tropical, lifted white wine has been extraordinary and by the end of 2014 almost two thirds of the nation’s vineyards were dedicated to the workhorse grape. But there’s far more to be found on the shaky isles than sauv’ blanc.
Marlborough has one small strip of land planted to a variety well-loved in Australia: shiraz (or syrah, as the Kiwis tend to call it). Marlborough shiraz is more elegant than the examples you’ll find in the Barossa or McLaren Valleys, showing a blend of game meat flavours, spice, higher acidity and lower alcohol.
There are only handful of wineries who work with shiraz in the region, and Fromm’s La Strada Syrah is among the best of the bunch.
Southern upstarts
New Zealand’s next best-known wine region is Central Otago, nestled in the tail of the South Island. This is world-famous Pinot Noir territory, and deservedly so.
The wineries of Central Otago have been playing with the “Burgundian” style long before it became trendy. Built for sipping with food, they are bright, elegant, and surprisingly grippy wines that reveal layers of savoury complexity and structure when given time to breathe. If you don’t want to shell out the big bucks and buy an example from one of the benchmarks of the region like Felton Road or Burn Cottage, grab a more affordable introduction from Rockburn or Nanny Goat.
The big chill
Central Otago’s frigid temperatures and rocky soils also lend themselves extremely well to white wine production, although sauvignon blanc is far less common here than elsewhere in the country. Instead, the region has emerged as a world-class source of aromatic rieslings with a decidedly German bent.
Rather than the crisp, lemon-tinged wines Australians enjoy from the Clare and Eden Valleys, they show a floral bouquet, and a round, slightly fuller mouthfeel lifted by a flinty acidity born of the region’s rocky schist soils.
Central Otago has also been an ice-breaking region when it came to producing sweeter styles of riesling outside of Germany. Many vineyards now release what they call an “off-dry” white, where some of the grape sugar normally converted into alcohol is left unfermented, lending the wine weight and viscosity, along with candied fruit flavours. If you’d like to see why so many sommeliers go gaga for these slightly sweeter wines, Mount Edward’s riesling is an affordable, archetypal example of the style.
Yes, they can do reds
Further north, Hawke’s Bay is home to a range of fantastic, fuller-bodied reds. But there is one ribbon of vineyards within the region that stands out.
The Gimblett Gravels district lies along the path of a massive ancient riverbed that today appears as a large, deep tract of stones and pebbles slicing through Hawke’s Bay. Those stones accentuate the otherwise unusually warm weather of the region (by forming a massive solar-powered blanket on the ground), and allow winemakers to successfully grow varieties that couldn’t ripen elsewhere in the country.
This is perfectly suited to producing stellar cabernet sauvignon blends. Think extremely smooth, full-bodied reds that combine cassis fruit, mint, and cedar flavours with fine dusty tannins. Great cabernet blends are all about many flavours in perfect harmony, and that’s certainly the case in Gimblett Gravels, with wines that evolve in the glass but remain dangerously drinkable. Trinity Hills have a range of excellent cabernets, but if you want to try the Rolls Royce wines of the region, Unison Vineyards have a sterling reputation for a reason.
The isle of wines
If you’re a fan of cabernet sauvignon, or full-bodied reds in general, there is a second, far smaller, and quirkier option. Waiheke Island lies in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, just a forty-minute ferry ride from Auckland. Notable producers include Man O’War and Mudbrick Vineyard, but there is only one wine that made it a region on the radar of wine aficionados around the world.
Stonyridge Vineyard was founded in 1981, making it one of the first on the island. Since its inception, the winery has been focused on only one thing: making the best cabernet blends (what they and many others would call a Bordeaux blend) possible. Today, that means that their flagship wine, Stonyridge Larose, has attained cult status among collectors and sommeliers far beyond New Zealand’s borders and recent vintages now fetch well in excess of $300 a bottle on the secondary market.
If you want to get your hands on perhaps the most unique and sought-after piece of New Zealand’s increasingly diverse wine industry, it’s surely worth the short hop from Auckland.
With strong influences from Pacific islanders and Maori cultures, the New Zealand art and cultural scene is fascinating and certainly worth sampling,
Festival frenzy
One of the biggest cultural events in New Zealand and the South Pacific is the Pasifika Festival, held at Auckland’s Western Springs Park every March.
Touted as the most significant cultural festival in the South Pacific, visitors can experience the food, art, music and dance of island culture at 11 ‘villages’ representing Aotearoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Tahiti, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Hawaii.
Held biannually, the Te Matatini National Kapa Haka Festival is New Zealand’s premiere indigenous cultural event and the world’s largest celebration of Maori traditional performing arts.
Also biannually, the Auckland Arts Festival is a 19-day event showcasing many of New Zealand’s top performers and artists, with theatre, dance, visual arts and music all on the menu.
The artist who talks only in pictures
One of New Zealand’s most fascinating artists is Susan Te Kahurangi King, who stopped speaking when she was a child.
Since the age of six, King, now 64, has communicated solely through her art. During the 1980s King, then in her 30s, suddenly stopped producing art without any explanation. Then, just as mysteriously, in 2008, she started again.
Te Kahurangi King gained attention in the United States earlier this year after being displayed at the Outsider Art Fair in New York, receiving a glowing review from New York Magazine.
“Included are strange abstract combinations or knitted-together landscapes of cartoon parts, notably Donald Duck, arranged in ways that echo Willem de Kooning, Jim Nutt’s meticulous piecing together of body parts and distortion, Roy Lichtenstein’s stylized cartooning, and Carroll Dunham’s deft space and line,” wrote critic Jerry Saltz. “Much of her work could hold a museum wall next to these artists’ work.”
King’s work will be showing at the City Gallery in Wellington until November 8.
Canterbury’s revival
The city is recovering from the devastating earthquake of 2010 and aftershocks in 2011, and with it there is a restoration of Canterbury’s arts sector.
The city’s Centre of Contemporary Art is reopening this year while other smaller institutions like Arts Central are already up and running.
Arts Central boasts of it leading a cultural revival in the middle of the “demolition site” – aka the CBD.
At the nearby University of Canterbury, arts and crafts from New Zealand and around the world are being painstakingly restored.
Traditional art and performances
One of the best places to view traditional Maori and Pacific island culture is the Pataka Art & Museum in Porirua City, about 20 minutes north of Wellington.
There are many exhibitions each year showcasing contemporary art and culture, as well as exhibitions from all over New Zealand, Asia and the world.
On the North Island, Auckland Museum features various exhibitions featuring Maori carvings, monuments, canoes and taonga (treasures). It also hosts four daily cultural performances that culminate in a haka – the famous ancestral war cry of the Maoris.
The national religion
In New Zealand rugby union is worshipped so intensely it is practically a religion.
In February, Kiwis will be demonstrating their fervor for the game at the Hertz Sevens in Wellington. Like other legs of the world tour, it’s a huge weekend of frivolity where supporters celebrate the occasion by dressing up in elaborate and amusing costumes.
A major highlight of New Zealand’s sporting calendar, the Hertz Sevens is hugely entertaining – both for the sporting spectacle and as a vibrant cultural event.
Hike and paddle through underground caves.
You don’t need a load of skill to abseil, walk, climb, paddle and ride a flying fox through this underground watery cave, lit up like a cosmic light show by glow worms. You do need a sense of adventure and fun, and a head for heights. A basic tour takes three hours and departs twice daily.
Roll down a hill in a giant plastic bubble.
The remoteness of New Zealand and adventurous spirit of its outdoor-loving inhabitants has led to some weird thrill-seeking ideas, the most famous of which is bunjee jumping. This one is just as fun, but less scary. You climb inside a giant transparent plastic ball and it rolls down a grassy hill. The pictures of people who have done it says it all - this is smile-inducing, pointless fun. Fun fact: The world record for the fastest 100m in a Zorb is held by cricketer Andrew Flintoff, performed in London in 2012 as part of a charity event.
Hike a glacier
The rugged icy blue wonderlands of Fox and Franz Josef glaciers, on the west coast, are a short helicopter ride from nearby towns. Choose a hike that suits your level of skill and fitness, but don’t miss out on seeing these vivid, sculptural frozen landscapes. Fox is 20km long, and Franz Josef is 12km. Both descend from the Southern Alps to just a few hundred metres above sea level. Hikes are usually 1-2 hours, and can include caves and tunnels. Ice climbing is also available.
Climb an extinct volcano in a suburb
One Tree Hill is an extinct volcano, which last erupted more than 28,000 years ago, on the edge Auckland, now maintained as 220ha public parkland, and has lovely views of the city.
Stay on top of a mountain
Spend a night in the Whare Kea Chalet. Located 1750m up on Dragonfly Peak in the Mount Cook National Park, and accessible only by helicopter, Whare Kea Chalet is one of New Zealand’s most spectacular locations. Built to withstand the most extreme weather, your group of up to six will be warm and comfortable as the staff, who stay in an adjacent bunk room, prepare delicious meals and arrange your daily adventures. Go heliskiing, hiking, sightseeing or simply take in the spectacular mountain views.
Visit the sets of Hollywood movies
New Zealand has become a major location for Hollywood films, such as The Chronicles of Narnia and The Last Samurai, but the biggest by far are the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The Hobbiton movie set is of Bag End, where Frodo and Bolbo’s adventures began. Specific locations include the Green Dragon Inn and the Party Tree. Even the drive to the set is amazing, taking in the Kaimai Ranges.
This content was produced in association with Princess Cruises. Read our policy on commercial content here.
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