Down at the Wairapara

Recently, we went to the lower North island to the Wairapara region, and spent some time in and around Masterton, Carterton, Featherston and Greytown.

It's a stunning part of the country, and showed me why New Zealand is the land of the long white cloud, the cloud literally sits in the mountain tops... like so... and this was in the middle of the day!

 

 

While in the region, we visited Assasi Gardens, built with love by a retired couple over the last 10 years, their dedication is wonderful, and they have an astounding location for their endeavors.

The house is actually built in a semi-circle and has a panoramic view over the valley, a lot of the sculptures they have built themselves and they tend to the garden themselves.

 

And of course, a visit to a winery, we went to Gladstone Vineyeard. The had the nets over the vines as the grapes were almost ready and they didn't want birds taking them away. 

The house on site was lovely and brought in from Masterton, and while we were there they was a display of local artists sculptures - the most intriguing being the bug car.

 

 As interesting as the bug car was - and yes, each individual bug was hand crafted from metal, it had nothing on the 'ghost house'.

This house is on a hill with a lovely outlook east of Greytown, and has been abandoned for 30 years... the owner was going to pull it down, but has decided to let nature take it's course... I'm not sure if this is brilliance or laziness, but it definitely makes for an interesting sight!