The life of luxury

I never thought that I'd be able to say that I've shared the same bed as Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow. But it's true. And here's photographic evidence. This is the bed that Gwyneth slept in for two weeks when she was filming Sylvia in Dunedin a few years ago. It's wonderfully comfy. And it's all mine this weekend. In fact, I'm sitting in it now, tapping this out on my laptop while warming up my toes after a day gallivanting around gardens.
I'm staying in the Scottish Room at the lavishly luxurious Corstorphine House. How lavishly luxurious? Well, my room here (actually three rooms) is bigger than my house at home, which I've decided is going to be the yardstick by which I judge all hotels from now! One of Otago's exquisite historic homesteads, Corstorphine House was built in 1863 and has been lovingly converted into a marvellous boutique hotel. I could definitely get accustomed to swanning about its corridors, marvelling at the chandeliers and clinking crystal glasses of champagne with the other guests...
I'm here with Juliet Nicholas, our South Island photographer, checking out Dunedin's annual Rhododendron Festival. Unfortunately, we've had a bit of a frosty reception from the weather. It was 6.6 degrees when I flew in last night and it hailed this morning. The sun's out right now but it's definitely a coat and scarf sort of spring day. Anyway, enough of the weather... I'll be accused of being a soft Aucklander if I don't stop going on!
We started the day with a tour of Corstorphine's magnificent grounds with its two gardeners. They grow almost all of the fresh herbs and veges they serve in the kitchen in the gardens here and they're part-way through the organic certification process. Juliet and I have been salivating over the globe artichokes (and scheming about how we could end up with a few in our suitcases!), not to mention the herbs in the potager, and the blackcurrant bushes that are smothered in flowers. I'm picking there will be a bumper blackcurrant season at Corstorphine this summer! There's a lovely old conservatory too, which is now a fine restaurant, but it's the glasshouse that shares the conservatory wall that I've been eyeing up. It's wonderful - and wonderfully productive, with rows of young tomato plants, courgettes, pots of lilies, sweet peas and sunflowers coming along nicely. I want a glasshouse now. In fact, maybe I could extend my self-sufficiency project for another year and attempt to grow mangoes in my own tropical microclimate...