Thursday January 31
We enjoyed this place so much on our afternoon visit that we reserved a dinner spot for the last night in Christchurch before our tour of the Southland. And as an appetizer, we booked a romantic punt ride on the Avon - of course, taking along a bottle of Savvie (Sauvignon Blanc to you, pardner) and a couple of glasses. It amused the ducks, and our Edwardian-costumed punter got a sip as well.
Once at the Curator's House, we were seated in the bow window, looking out over the lawns of the Botanic Gardens to the Peacock Fountain (named, presumably, for its complete lack of peacocks - though there are storks). We didn't want to repeat the tapas we'd already had there, so we started by splitting an appetizer of "fish cakes," the fish having been given more body by admixing "tuna of the land," i.e. chicken. (As we'd later find at the Bush Man Café near Harihari, "chicken of the forest" is possum in these here parts). With it, we had a bottle of Earth's End Pinot Noir, which has on its label a move-by-move depiction of the All Blacks' famous haka (and if you don't recognize any part of that, feel free to Google).
One main course we chose was a "Zarzuela" of seafood - mussels, those genuinely "giant" prawns, clams, and tender tranches of various sorts of fish in a subtly seasoned tomato broth. Sort of a Spanish take on bouillabaisse. The other was "cervena" - lovely rare slices of roast venison among delicious vegetables. There is a "Cervena Council" here in NZ, and it seems to mean something different from place to place - venison yes, young and tender yes (it's apparently required to be from an animal less than three years old) but from red deer, or elk, or some crossbreed of both?
No room for dessert, but a nice stroll through the gardens as the sun set, about 9:30 PM. Summer near the South Pole has its advantages.
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