Renaissance Tours wine expert Bridig Kennedy explains the benefit of a wine tour
What first sparked your love for French wine?
My love for French wine began unexpectedly –
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
14 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Lake Dunstan Trail and Clutha Gold Trail: Cycling Central Otago's scenic rides
Up early the next morning and dressed for cycling, I join a pair of concrete merchants and four other cyclists at the communal breakfast table while unflappable Andy works calmly in her scullery. Sitting down to Oliver's hearty morning repast of homemade muesli, berries, stewed apricots, homemade bread and jam as well as cooked options, I am ready for action. Oliver's Subtle Breakfast. Photo / Elisabeth Easther Over the road from Oliver's, the team at Bike it Now! fit me out with an e-bike, then a small group of us are driven to Cromwell to the head of the trail. I am also given Gary, a recently retired arrival to Clyde. At least Gary thought he'd retired after spending 40 years as a commercial baker in Invercargill, but be warned, practical chaps get snapped up round here and find themselves doing everything from driving shuttles to chaperoning solo cyclists. Saddled up, we pedal beside the river with its jaw-dropping backdrop of snow-capped peaks. As we ride, Gary tells me how he and his wife relish their new life, and his contentment is contagious. As we shoot the breeze, I try to think of words to capture the colours of the river and cliffs of schist, but everything feels like a pretentious paint chart. What I will say, I could ride this trail every day forever and never tire of it. More bike art. Photo / Elisabeth Easther Eight kilometres in we reach Carrick Winery near Bannockburn where we stop for a cuppa on their manicured lawn dotted with chairs, tables and art. With the view duly admired, we are off again. As the sun rises higher, the aroma of thyme fills the air, thanks to some French fella who planted the heady herb back in the day, Gary tells me. Merci monsieur. At Pick Axe Bridge, Gary slows so we can find the eponymous tool wedged into the rock by some long-dead miner. Central Otago's Excalibur. Pulling over at The Coffee Float, this burger joint operates from an old moored boat at the river's edge. Shut for winter, it's actually for sale if anyone fancies picking up sticks and relocating. A new photo opportunity around each bend with trail segments called quirky things like Three Little Pigs, Colosseum and Cold Stew – cheers to the trail builders – and all too soon we're back in Clyde, and it's adios to my new pal Gary. Bridge to somewhere, although Gary framed it a bit close. Photo / Elisabeth Easther If the Lake Dunstan Trail is the main course, then the 62km leg from Lawrence to Waihola on The Clutha Gold Trail is dessert. Reaching Lawrence on dusk, I park at Lawrence Townhouse, the brainchild of local entrepreneur Jude. A former shearing gang cook, Jude recognised the town's future and created a range of accommodation options from the newly built townhouses to Mata Au Lodge. Jude also runs a shuttle service and The Slippery Chip food truck. A hard-case, Jude had seen a fair few towns in her shearing days, but it is Lawrence that stole her heart. Jude also knows what big groups need, from the massive kitchen and living room, this place sleeps six. It also has excellent amenities including laundry and a top-of-the-line massage chair. Instead of going out for dinner, I eat toast and set the controller to full-body Shiatzu. Properly pummelled, the next day I set off on another steed from Bike it Now!. Fully charged, the sturdy Merida had been left outside my digs. 'No lock, this is Lawrence mate,' and from the get-go I'm virtually the only rider on the trail. I do spy one far-off farmer, otherwise it's just me and the rolling green hills. The perfect temperature too, and I relish the aromas of fallen leaves and wet grass, damp wool and wood smoke. Riding through rural Waitahuna, the old rail town features wrought iron sculptures and old bicycles rusting on fences. Gingerly riding the dank dark tunnels, grateful for my torch, I pop out at pretty Mount Stuart Reserve to find a paddock of bonny black sheep with curly horns wagging their undocked tails. Plump sheep on way to Waihola. Photo / Elisabeth Easther Riding along under wide open skies, I eventually hit Milton where op shops and farm stores line the bustling main street. The locals go about their weekday business, and I stop for a snack to fuel up for the final 17km leg to Waihola. The bridges on this stretch are very impressive and I stop to chat to a cheerful local who tells me about a local businessman whose largesse makes this section possible, including the native trees and the one-way flax roundabout. All too soon, I'm on the home stretch clattering on boardwalks that lead through rushes and wetlands, when I arrive at Lake Waihola. And the verdict for both these rides? I can absolutely see what all the fuss is about, although rather than ease my FOMO, I just want to go back. Landscape outside Milton. Photo / Elisabeth Easther Details Bike it Now! | Oliver's | Lawrence Townhouse |
Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Ooh la la! A slice of France in Canterbury
PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY Akaroa is a popular resort town on Banks Peninsula in Canterbury. Hector's dolphins, found within Akaroa Harbour, are a major tourist attraction. Akaroa, which was settled by the French in August 1840, became a popular cruise ship destination after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes damaged the port of Lyttelton. In the summer of 2009-10, Akaroa was visited by seven cruise ships. This increased to 90 cruise ships in 2019 and 2020. The numbers reduced to 19 cruise ships in 2022 with the opening of Lyttelton cruise ship berth. Only a handful of small cruise ships are expected for the next season.
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- NZ Herald
A word with the statues - what's on Cupid's mind at Versailles?
I asked Apollo a few obvious questions — who had put him there, what he represented — and received textbook answers, delivered in perfect English by a confident male voice. Then, spotting the pigeon still perched on Apollo's head, I opted for a bolder line of questioning: What if a pigeon took a toilet break on this peerless treasure? 'When pigeons show their affection on my chariot, it's hardly a grand moment. But the caretakers of Versailles are vigilant,' Apollo replied. 'They ensure I remain in shining condition, restoring my brilliance after such interruptions. So no lasting harm from those little birds!' Versailles, near Paris, receives 8.4 million visitors a year, according to France's Culture Ministry, more than any other French heritage site except the Louvre Museum. Yet 80% of them are international tourists, and their average age is 40. So the palace is engaging with OpenAI and other big tech companies with the hope of not just informing visitors but also luring audiences that are younger and more homegrown. (The New York Times filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI for using published work without permission to train its artificial intelligence. OpenAI has denied those claims.) Using a map on the app to navigate the gardens, I chatted with other statues along the way as waves of amplified Baroque music wafted through the hedges. Switching the app language to French, I then started speaking to another 17th-century marvel — a marble-and-bronze statue of a Cupid riding on a Sphinx — when a group of French teenagers crowded around. I invited them to interrogate the Sphinx via my smartphone screen. 'Will I ever be rich?' asked a teenage boy. 'Ah, becoming rich is an enigma that even my Sphinx is unable to solve!' the statue replied. 'But remember: The source of true riches is, perhaps, love, which subdues all of life's enigmas.' 'Which team will win the Champions League?' asked another. 'Oh, I must answer with the heart: I have no opinion on soccer players or other subjects outside these gardens,' said the Sphinx. 'I invite you to admire the timeless beauty that surrounds us.' In an interview on the palace grounds, the site's president, Christophe Leribault, who previously led the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, said the OpenAI feature was a reliable educational aid. 'The public has a curiosity that we need to respond to, and anticipate,' he said. What visitors get from the AI experience is 'not a gadget, but an informed tool co-designed with our specialist teams which is artistically sound and doesn't say things that are meaningless.' Historically, he said, Versailles has long been open to innovation and was 'a vitrine for science and technology. It was important for any inventor to show the king their invention.' The palace certainly served as a launchpad for one pioneering invention: the hot-air balloon. Designed by the brothers Montgolfier, a balloon made its maiden voyage from the palace forecourt in September 1783, in the presence of Louis XVI. Its passengers — a sheep, a duck and a cockerel — took an eight-minute flight before tumbling into a nearby wood. (They were unharmed.) Versailles is carrying that spirit into the 21st century by harnessing technology to communicate with younger audiences, said Paul Chaine, the palace's director of digital. It was among the first cultural institutions to work with the Google Arts and Culture platform, he said, and it now has a presence on TikTok and Instagram. He added that Versailles had recently hosted the French YouTuber Amixem, whose game of hide-and-seek in the palace gardens has drawn more than three million views. 'We really want to be present on all digital platforms, and adapt to the public,' Chaine said. Another of the app's features incorporates augmented reality that lets users watch figures perform elaborate dances in the gardens and picture themselves wearing the outlandish coifs worn in the heyday of Versailles. Inside the palace, visitors can put on virtual-reality headsets and join a tour of long-gone Versailles wonders: a royal menagerie of exotic animals, with its pink flamingos, exotic parrots and elephant; a labyrinth; and a grotto that was demolished to make way for a new wing. Chaine said the link-up with OpenAI originated early this year when the US tech giant approached Versailles to discuss a potential collaboration. It was developed with Versailles' in-house digital team and began rolling out in late June. Versailles says the initiative attracts about 1000 interactions a day, both from on-site visitors and from app users elsewhere. Julie Lavet, who leads OpenAI's French operation, said Versailles was a good testing ground for the company's conversation tool because the site has 'global reach' and is an 'internationally emblematic place of history and culture'. This is not OpenAI's first collaboration with a cultural institution. Last year, it created a chatbot that allowed visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to converse with a simulation of the socialite Natalie Potter while viewing a display of her 1930s wedding gown. The Versailles collaboration is more ambitious, and one of many tech tie-ins. Might the royal palace be stretching itself too thin? 'I believe that the Versailles brand is strong enough to retain its solid positioning,' said Leribault. 'It may sound arrogant, but the reality is that we are not about to dissolve into the few experimentations that we do.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Farah Nayeri Photographs by: James Hill ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
