Wanaka

Rippon Vineyard Wanaka

Wine Country in Autumn

 

Rippon Vineyard Wanaka

The Clutha River runs, as if a fairy-tale theme, through Central Otago's stunning and famous country side where Funny French Cars can give you a very memorable day out in this unique landscape! Central Otago also hosted many locations for the Lord of the Rings movie triolgy.

 

Paradise Ducks near Wanaka

Paradise ducks "patrolling" near the Clutha River.

Thursday, April 29, 2010  

winter fun

Hi Here once again in the rain, we seem to be getting our annual rainfall in a week, rivers flooding and sandbagging in wakatipu lake to stop queenstown flooding; i love the way humans try and control mother nature. anyway we have been re establishing some gorgeous locations and sights and of cause some wonderful characters to forfill a spectacular days sightseeing with funny french cars. Over winter the winetasting quietens down but the wonderful fun wine tasting tours are still available. we just want to increase the options to you to enjoy. with our knowledge of the region we can bring to our tours opportunities to head into gorgeous scenery not generally available to the public, often off road, not quite 4wd but be prepared to push no 2cv,s dont get stuck, depending on your idea of a fun day we can offer visiting a small petting farm visit the animals , visit stunning works of a variety of artists at their residence, see their work before it goes into the open market. check out a shop for those who love patchwork and all related with materials sewing cardmaking ec. with the famous photograhers works above, whilst inbetween destination we can visit wineries, cafes or restaurants(even bring a picnic) to sample the goods,we can sample local produce including rabbit and vension, go goldmining at the mighty Kawarau river, if the warbirds or transport museum appeal we can call there , a special treat is to visit little brown house, a unique gift shop and chocolaterie , featuring many gifts from France, and designer clothing , special books and such a fun and interesting shop to see, if old interest you we can offer a farmlet of horders of the horsedrawn area, you,ll need to stroll around to find the many masses of treasure from the horsedrawn area. see a couple of rare Norwegian fjord horses and a 19hh shire horse *( unfortunately hes for sale ) of course visit the gorgeous winnery on the shores of lake wanaka such a stunning location, many wedding parties go their for photo,s we can offer the history of the region and really you might need to join us for a week to get thru the possibilties. whatever your requirement we will do our best to show you the parts of central otago that you will enjoy whether it be a wine tour a sightseeing tour or a combination of both. looking forward to showing off our gorgeous region and our lovely wines cheers julie and deane funny french cars.

posted by Funny French Cars  # 9:47 PM

 0 Comments

 

 

Saturday, April 24, 2010  

all go with funnyfrenchcars

Hi jon has repaired our emails so alls go again and we are recieving emails from funnyfrenchcars webpage. more rain again today, but still we are in drought.
the vineyards throughout most of the cromwell and bannockburn region have harvested their grapes, and this is a very exciting time, passengers lately have been able to sample not only the wonderful wines but the bunches of grapes in the vineyards, they are sooo delicious , quite small compared to a table grape but intense flavour and have a thicker skin and a seed, this is a treat to be able to sample both grapes and then wine from the region. we continue to have the most interesting and enjoyable passengers from all walks of life join us on our tastings and we always manage to squeeze in as much as possible with opportunity to visit some of the stunning and special places/ sights here, thats if guests wish to explore as well as winetasting. the autumn colours are just glowing and with the rain and hopefully no wind will hold for some time yet. old cromwell town is often on our list to visit and today we had a gorgeous cafe lunch at the seed and grain cafe well worth checking out in old cromwell town, Although cromwell region is lucky to have so many great cafes, havent found one that i wouldnt be happy to recommend yet. we often lunch at the bannockburn cafe because it is also a special and delicious cafe, with a selection of cool giftware and local made or grown produce, we always try and support local , Bridget at the goldfields mining cafe has an amazing selection of rabbit venison and cardrona merino on her menu all local and all well worth the experience if looking for different and local produce. we are gearing up for our off season where winetastings are still on the go but we also branch out more into sightseeing and offer tours to see the special places in the region and meet some of the characters that make up our community, with winter our ski community moves into town and there is a festival atmosphere all about
so dont hesitate to contact us if we can create a day special for you to hold in your memories and show u the special sights and the gorgeous wines of the region. enjoy and have fun julie

posted by Funny French Cars  # 8:55 PM

 0 Comments

 

 

Sunday, April 18, 2010  

problems with email

for the last month we have been experiencing problems with emails coming into funnyfrenchcars, simply we have not been recieving any mail. we have our web designer working on this problem and hope to have it fixed very soon, . we apologise if you have contacted us and we have not responded. please phone us to make an enquiry if you dont get a reply from us in 12 hours from an email, as we check our emails twice daily.
we are operating daily and are entering both the harvest of the grapes throughout the central otago region as well as the splendid autumn colours that are just starting to turn and are so stunning and beautifully breathtaking.
our wineries are all very excited with the fruit that is coming in to begin the process of becoming delicious wine.
quartz reef winemaker was nominated as 1 of only 6 winemakers chosen for a major german award for winemaker of the world 2010 and the only winemaker chosen from the southern hemisphere. an outstanding achievement showing the huge dedication tipical of the wineries and winemakers here, and Rudi came home to be awarded the agricultural societies easter shows winemaker of the year. Rudi like other wineries are reaching the top of world winning awards with wines from the central otago region.
we have been enjoying some great adventures whilst winetasting, recently we have had requests to fo gold minning and we had great success panning and all came home with a few specs of gold in our tiny jars. have ventured up the backcountry nevis road to experience off road and show how capable the 2 cv car can br. our wine tours are flexible and varied so everyone has an enjoyable and special experience that is of interest to them. lunches with us are an extra as we have such a wonderful range of culinary delights we dont want to restrict anyone to just one menu and price. we will discuss with you and suggest a few culinary delights that best suit your pallet. we are always happy to offer ideas and suggestions so feel free to contact us for anything regarding our beautiful central otago region.

posted by Funny French Cars  # 10:17 PM

 0 Comments

 

 

 

Archives

October 2008   November 2008   July 2009   December 2009   January 2010   April 2010  

Thanks to Blogger for powering this site

Subscribe to
Posts [Atom]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newsletter

Please feel free to leave comments below - we'd love to hear about anything you have to say.

 

You can also contact us by email