Waiheke Island is only 11 miles from Auckland, but it feels like it’s worlds away. Because of some arrangement of land and sea, it averages 2 degrees warmer than the mainland and has 40% less rainfall. This makes the island feel noticeably warmer and sunnier than Auckland, and it feels special from the moment you arrive.
Of course it’s not just the weather that makes this place special. This island is all about good food and good wine, and the good way of life that goes with those things. One visit to the local market in Oneroa, Waiheke Fruit and Veg, sums this place up. It looks like any ordinary town market from the outside, but inside, they have many special foods, including a French section with pate and tubs of duck fat, an extensive Asian section, and an impressive Mexican section. There are breads from the master baker, Ringawera, top quality produce and cheese and any number of gourmet goodies that you didn’t know you had to have until you came here. I have never seen a small market like this; it is unique to Waiheke.
There are several ways to visit to this wonderful island: You can come in your own boat, you can take a passenger ferry from Auckland, or you can take a car ferry from Auckland. If you’re visiting for the day and want to explore the island, we highly recommend bringing your own car. You can drive off the ferry and spend the day going where you want to go. The car ferry leaves around 8am from Half Moon Bay, a little south of Auckland, and you need to make a reservation. (The number is +64 9 367 9111). It left Waiheke around 5:30pm, giving us a full day there.
If you’re coming in your own boat, you’ll find anchorages all over the island, but the best place to start is the bay off Oneroa, the main town. Oneroa bay is large and a good place to be in all but northerly winds. It’s a beautiful place with a long crescent of white sand beach. You’ll have to make a beach landing and get your dinghy above the high tide line (this can be a long walk at low tide), but it’s no problem to leave your dinghy there.
Once you’ve secured your dinghy, go to the road above the beach. You can’t see it, but the town is above you. Locate one of the paths that go up the hill to the town (not a long walk but steep). Once you reach the top, you have arrived. The town is about 3 blocks long along the main street; so you can walk and stop in at one of the numerous coffee houses, cafes and restaurants, or make plans to explore the island. There is an i-SITE Center where you can buy a map for a dollar that shows the entire island.
If you want to explore the island and/or do some wine tasting, you have a few options. Here they are in order of our preference:
1. Best Option: Rent a car. You can rent a car from Rent Me Waiheke (09 372-3339) for just $60 a day. Call ahead if possible as rental cars are not plentiful here. (There are other places that also rent cars, but they might be more expensive. You can find out about those at the i-SITE Center, who actually arranged our car rental for us). The advantage of renting your own car is you can see more of the island and go where you want. The disadvantage is your designated driver will have to be careful how much wine tasting they do.
2. Other Best Option: Sign up for a wine tour. The tour operator we went with on our first trip offered three wineries and a choice of where to have lunch. We joined a group that had cleverly picked out three wineries and then lunch at a fourth winery (where of course we tasted). Our tour was done by Ananda and cost about $110 each, but it included the price of the tastings (see note). I’m sure the i-SITE Center also has info about tours.
The advantage of a tour is you don’t have to worry about drinking and driving or futz around with a map trying to figure out where things are. The disadvantage is some of these tours don’t go to the wineries furthest away. Still, it’s a good, stress-free introduction to the area. (The number for Ananda is 09-372-7530 or ananda.co.nz)
Note: I will add in here that unlike Northland wineries, some of the wineries here charge for tastings even if you buy wine. I have noticed the closer they are to Oneroa, the more likely they are to have a non-reimbursable charge for tastings. Personally, we noticed that often the better the wine, the more likely the tastings were free with purchase. This was summed up with the pourer at Passage Rock who cheerfully told us to put our money away, wanting us to taste first. I know why: he had excellent wines and was confident we’d buy at least a bottle. He was right.
3. Option Three: The Waiheke Vineyard Hopper, or wine bus. You can actually book this along with your ferry ticket, but note they only operate on the weekends after February 9. The advantage is you don’t have to worry about having a designated driver. The disadvantage is they don’t go to all the wineries, and they only pick up about every 40 minutes, which could be a long time to wait after a fast tasting. Plus you have to carry your purchases everywhere.
4. Option Four: Hire a private cab. We looked into this, and it’s very expensive. I don’t remember how much, but it was way, way more than we’d be willing to spend!
5. Option Five: Rent an electric bike. We have some friends who did this and very much enjoyed themselves. I have to wonder how much wine you can drink before you become a road hazard to humanity on these bikes? This might not be a good option for some of us.
Update: During our last visit we did try the electric bikes, opting to visit the Ostend Market (a Saturday farmer’s market) and two wineries. The bikes were fun but more of a workout than we bargained for! Waiheke Island is hilly, and in making sure to have enough battery life to get back to town, we ended up doing a lot of pedaling to help the bikes go up the hills. (In fact Rich’s bike couldn’t carry him up without help from the pedals.) By the end of the afternoon we were pretty wiped out. Biking also puts a serious crimp in the wine purchasing–you can’t fit many bottles in the little basket. There is the advantage of not having to worry about drinking and driving, but the wineries are so spread out over the island that you’d have to be as fit as Lance Armstrong to get to more than a two or three.
6. Option Six: Go check out the new Enomatic Tasting Stations at the Waiheke Wine Center. You can now taste a nice sampling of the wines on the island right there! The advantage here is you don’t have to worry about drinking and driving. On the other hand, many of the wineries are beautiful and well worth visiting. The best option is to do both.
7. Option Seven: Walking. You can pretty easily walk to a couple of the wineries from Oneroa. In fact there are some spectacular walks here in general. Here’s our post about the two walks that we took that were amazing.
Final Note: This island not only produces incredible wine, but also incredible olive oil and honey. Some of the wineries put out cubes of bread with olive oil and honey to taste. There is even an olive oil estate: Rangihoua Estate. We didn’t go, but they do tastings during their harvest.
There are two wineries we didn’t get to: Saratoga Estate and View East. Saratoga Estate was closed during our visits, and we never saw a sign for View East and didn’t make the effort to look for it.
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