Greytown, New Zealand's most creative corner
Last updated 14:06, August 3 2017
The landmark White Swan on the Main Street of Greytown.
Greytown is an unlikely place for jihadists to run amok.
But the turban-clad warriors are fighting a fierce battle inside the former bootmaker's shop in this quiet corner of rural New Zealand.
Joining them in the tussle are the Camel Corps, spear-carrying dervishes and even a gun-toting Winston Churchill astride a horse.
"That's the Sudan and the Battle of Omdurman, which Churchill was in," says David Cowe. "We actually make Churchill and the 21st Lancers. But we're always selling those."
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Imperial Productions can be found in Greytown.
The five-centimetre high figures, painstakingly modelled and hand painted by Cowe, line the walls of his Imperial Productions, a tiny wooden shopfront just off Greytown's main thoroughfare.
In the display window, the Napoleonic Wars are in full swing with the 1st Foot Guards preparing to fire on French infantrymen as Polish and Dutch soldiers on horseback trot past.
"These women here," he says, pointing to other figures, "raised money during the Boer War."
Cowe began making toy soldiers for his children more than three decades ago. His exquisite craftsmanship won the attention of collectors around the world from Bob Dylan's manager to the king of Spain.
A wall of his workshop is covered in handwritten letters sent from customers, young and old.
"Those are letters we used to get, but email killed all that," he says. "It used to be nice getting stamps and things from other countries."
Murray Langham from chocolate studio Schoc Chocolates in the village of Greytown with some of his creations.
The spectacular one-hour drive to Greytown on State Highway 2 winds around steep, forested valleys up to the Remutaka Pass before descending rapidly to the Wairarapa.
It is an easy day trip from the capital, but spare a thought for the poor soldiers made to march over the mountains during World War I to reach a training camp in the town of Featherston.
The camp was later used to house prisoners of war in World War II and gained notoriety after more than 100 Japanese prisoners were shot in 1943.
Paul Broughton from the wonderful C'est Cheese in Featherston.
The Rimutaka Rail Trail traverses the mountain range along the old train line before continuing as the Rimutaka Cycle Trail past Lake Wairarapa to Ocean Beach and then along the Wild Coast to the mouth of the Orongorongo River.
The flat, green pastures of the Wairarapa are grazed by flocks of romney and suffolk sheep and angus cattle.
But these days the district's dairy and sheep farmers queue for soy lattes or quaff pinot noir alongside visitors from Wellington and cinematic luminaries such as Sir Peter Jackson and James Cameron.
Each town has a distinctive personality: Greytown's Main Street is lined with antique stores, galleries and restaurants, while Carterton is home to a replica Stonehenge.
Featherston is home to the world's only remaining steam-powered, mountain-climbing Fell Engine as well as the gourmet shop C'est Cheese that would make a Frenchman go weak at the knees.
The main square of Martinborough replicates the Union Jack in homage to Mother England. More importantly, the town is home to more than 20 family owned wineries and renowned for producing some of New Zealand's best pinot noir.
The Wool Shed museum in Masterton is full of woolly tales about sheep farming and shearing. The town is also home to the annual Golden Shears shearing and woolhandling competition.
Just outside of Masterton is the Hood Aerodrome, with its astonishing collection of vintage aircraft from World Wars I and II that take to the air in February for the Wings Over Wairarapa air show.
Made of cloth and canvas and barely half the weight of a car, it is little wonder pilots referred to their flimsy-looking aircraft as kites.
The 115km Rimutaka Cycle Trail begins in Wellington and follows the Hutt River north before heading through the Rimutaka Ranges via the historic railway route and entering the Wairarapa Valley at Cross Creek.
Further afield is Palliser Bay, with its picturesque cliffs, historic lighthouse and the North Island's largest colony of whiskery fur seals.
Like almost every part of New Zealand, the nearby Putangirua Pinnacles have doubled as a film set for one of Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies.
Cameron, meanwhile, makes a crust from cultivating cannabis at his farm near Featherston.
It's not to get high (so we're told), but to produce organic goodies such as hemp seed oil and hemp capsules that are sold at Food Forest Organics.
The organic store and delicatessen housed in Greytown's colonial-era Baillie House sells all manner of dietary surprises, with vegan cheese and yoghurt, and gluten-free flours and cereals.
If pork belly and pinot are more your style, the two-storey boutique hotel The White Swan is worth a visit.
Food Forest Organics, in the historic Ballie House on the Main Street in Greytown.
Incredibly, the hotel used to be a railway administration building in Lower Hutt. But in 2002, it was chopped into six pieces, loaded on the back of trucks and carted over the Rimutakas to begin a new life serving sirloin and slow-cooked lamb washed down with craft beers and locally produced wines.
Meanwhile, Martinborough's vineyards are mostly within walking or cycling distance of the town centre.
Tirohana Estate is one of the more notable wineries, not least for its Cosmo and Pab drop named in honour of two members of AC/DC's crew.
Needless to say, the gents know their wines although their taste buds might be shocked by the curry-flavoured chocolate concocted by Murray Langham.
In a tiny cottage that was the original confectioners shop, Langham's Schoc Chocolates features more than 60 flavours, including cardamom and carrot, lavender and lemongrass, smoked paprika and sweet basil.
Langham is a convivial host, encouraging sweet-toothed visitors to forget diets and try every flavour, including his two curry-flavoured creations: a Tropical Curry white chocolate and the Curry and Pappadom dark chocolate.
Lime chilli is the best-selling flavour but Langham admits: "Sun dried tomato and basil [was] not a runner."
TRIP NOTES
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STAY
The White Swan has seven themed rooms (New York, English, hunting, the brothel style Ruby Suite) as well as a studio and garden apartment. Prices start from $100 for a Park Studio. 109 Main Street, Greytown. See thewhiteswan.co.nz
Andrew Taylor was a guest of Tourism New Zealand.
Traveller.com.au
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