December 21, 2013
We headed ashore in the morning and picked up our rental car. Our first order of business: Coffee! We went to Waiheke Espresso, a very pleasant cafe that managed to have have terrific views in spite of being on the inland side of the street.
After coffee, it was time to begin our Waiheke Island tour. Rich would drive and I would navigate, probably increasingly badly as the wine tasting went on. Thankfully Rich didn’t mind tasting less and being the designated driver. I had four maps to work (or confuse myself) with, my list from Cuisine magazine’s 2012 wine issue, and somewhat of a plan.
One complicating factor with visiting Waiheke Island’s wineries is that many don’t refund the cost of the tasting even if you buy a bottle of the wine. They say it’s because of the cost doing business here, but every (and I mean every) other wine area in New Zealand waives the tasting fee (ranging from $5 to $10) if you buy wine. In our case, we knew this might affect how many tastings we’d be doing.
Our first stop of the day was a winery we’d visited and loved on our first trip: Kennedy Point Vineyard. In our opinion, this was Waiheke’s most charming winery, a wood cottage with a vineyard and olive grove, nestled amid big trees with peeks of a coastal view.
Since we knew what we liked here, we didn’t do a wine tasting but did try their extra-virgin olive oil, which was amazingly good. We bought a bottle of that, a couple bottles of our favorite wine, and a jar of their manuka pohutukawa honey. At this point we didn’t really care for New Zealand’s thick manuka honey, but then we tired this one which was also made from pohutukawa blossoms, and that gave it a wonderful flavor!
Our next stop was the Waiheke Ostend Market, the island’s main farmer’s market. The area of Ostend covers a chunk of Waiheke, but the immediate area around the farmer’s market has the feel of a village. In spite of being small, this popular market draws people from around the island and even from Auckland. We braved the crowd as we headed in to check out all the food and artisan booths. In the end we chose to sample the Argentinian sandwiches and Hungarian fry bread with garlic. Both were yummy, especially those sandwiches!
Our next stop was a famous winery called Te Whau, the most high-end winery on the island. The wine was supposed to be good, but it was their location that was the big draw. It was off the beaten track, a drive down a long peninsula, but the cellar-door building and its views were said to be stunning. As it turned out, everything we’d heard was true. The location at the end of a peninsula took in views of other peninsulas, coves, and nearby islands; and the wood and glass building overlooking the water was an incredible spot from which to take it all in.
We were greeted at the door by two beautiful Burmese cats, fitting for this setting. We went inside and tasted four vintages of their Bordeaux blend. They were very nice, but the prices were pretty high. Since nothing blew us away, we didn’t buy any wine, but it was well worth the price of the tasting to try the wine, pet the cats, and to get to enjoy this beautiful place, worth seeing even for those who don’t like wine! (Note: Sadly, it seems this winery has closed since our last visit.)
Our next stop, Wild on Waiheke and Topknot Hill Winery, was a combination brewery, winery, and amusements. A place with so much going on was not our cup of tea, but we thought we’d try the rum they were rumored to make. But then we pulled into their parking area amid people doing clay shooting, archery, and god knows what. This wasn’t wine tasting; this was drinking and shooting at things, never a good combination. We left quickly.
Next up, we decided to visit another winery from our previous trip: Stonyridge Estate. But just after we finished parking, a big busload of tourists pulled in. A girl came out of the winery with a large tray of glasses for the group to start tasting outside. The winery was handing the busload well, but we decided since we’d been here before, we’d avoid the crowd. We headed on.
Nearby was Te Motu Vineyard; one I’d been anxious to try. The grounds looked nice, and their Shed restaurant was pretty. So we were a little confused when we tried to locate their tasting room and found a plain white room that looked like a vacant office. A man was in there, busy talking to someone in another room. Not wanting to intrude, we stayed outside the open sliding glass door until he’d finished his conversation and we could get a chance to ask where the tasting room was. The man finally turned, looked at us and asked, “Well are you going to stand out there or come in?” Right there, we were both put off. I think he was trying to be funny, but it fell flat for us.
We went in and asked if they do tastings, and he said no, they don’t do that. Thinking he was serious, I said, “Oh, ok,” and was turning to leave when he said, “I’m not serious; of course we do tastings!” Again, we were both put off, and even though I was starting to feel this was not going to work out, I went ahead and asked how much the tastings were. “Well, it’s $10 for their basic wines, and $20 for the more upper crust stuff.” Rich said something about $20 being high and $10 sounded better, and the man replied, “The good wines (the Bordeaux blends) are in the $20 category.” Great, so now he was telling us we were going to drink the crap stuff if we did the $10 tasting, all while being looked down on for being cheapskates who wouldn’t shell out for the “good wine.” We didn’t need this; so I made some excuse that we were going to check out restaurant first, and we got out the heck out of there.
After these not-so-great experiences, I decided to add to my list a sure thing, a place who’s wine we’d already tried and liked: Peacock Sky. It wasn’t easy to find, but we managed navigate our way down a winding neighborhood road and then out onto an unsealed road to the winery. The hostess there was very welcoming as she signed us up for the degustaion tasting where they pair food with the wine so as to bring out the best in both.
We had a short wait outside while the tasting was set up, admiring the hills and vineyards that surrounded this winery. Soon we were brought inside to a table with four items of food placed on a menu describing the wine they’d be paired with. Our guide would point out what we should notice as we tried the wine, then the food and wine together.
Our tasting started with chardonnay and cold pumpkin soup, and we noticed that indeed, the wine affected the flavor of the soup while the soup in turn toned down the acidity of the wine. Next was chili shrimp and pinot grigio, and the pinot grigio really did bring out the chili flavor in the shrimp, which then brought out the sweetness in the wine. Next was a merlot-cab blend with fruitcake, and the wine brought out the cinnamon in the fruitcake, making it taste like a cinnamon bun. Finally we had a cabernet and a chocolate brownie. I have to say I didn’t really taste the mutual effects of these two except that I loved that wonderful brownie!
In all, this experience easily won the fun award of the day, and for $10 not only did we get a tasting but a small meal! As it happened, the wines were very good and we did buy a couple of bottles.
Now it was time for us to head to the east side of the island, sparsely populated with unpaved roads, too out of the way for wine tours and buses to come to. We drove over golden grassy hills with frequent views of the island-filled Hauraki Gulf, just beautiful! Below, a photo gallery showing photos taken from the car on both sides of the island.
Next, I was excited to visit a winery we’d heard wonderful things about, Man ‘O War. Right away we could see there was something special about this place. It sits on a calm, east-facing bay lined with pohutukawa trees. The tasting room is in a wood cottage with a large, shady verandah and expansive lawn where activity-minded guests can play games like lawn cricket or croquet. Lazier guests like us can sit at a covered table and enjoy a cheese and snack platter along with some wine. The whole scene had a feeling of happiness, serenity and beauty.
We went into the tasting room, and much to our amazement the tastings were free! This was a first! Their feeling was if someone came all the way out here, they should be able to taste the wine. So we tasted, and it was fabulous and worth the splurge to buy a couple of bottles. After tasting wine, we walked across the lawn to the beach, thinking it would definitely be worth anchoring here in the future.
Our next stop was on the north side of Waiheke, the beach at Onetangi Bay, a long white stretch of sand. It wasn’t quite as pretty as our beach at Oneroa, but pretty impressive all the same.
Next, we went to check out the Mediterranean-style Miro Vineyard and its accompanying restaurant, Casita Miro.The building was beautiful, all glass and wood. We went to enter and found a sign on the old wood door saying it was a very old antique and to please wait for a staff member to open it for us. There was no bell; so we stood and waited, looking in through the window like a couple of dogs waiting to be let in the house. We could see people eating and staff working, but no one saw us. Finally someone came over and let us in.
We were led to the bar, but the first thing we noticed was the high noise level created by too many hard surfaces, people eating and talking, and loud top-40 music. We went to the bar and asked about wine tastings, but they didn’t really do those but did have sherries we could taste. We might have stayed and sampled those, but the noise level made this beautiful place an unpleasant place to be. What a shame.
With Miro a failed experience, I decided to add in another winery nearby called Obsidian. Here we found a Quonset hut in a hilly setting of green grass and trees, with a covered tasting area, and numerous wine barrels that made the whole place very atmospheric. The tasting was refunded with a wine purchase, and complimentary snacks were brought out for us that included cheese, olives and almonds.
Not surprisingly, the wine was wonderful. In fact we were starting realize that wineries with the truly best wines were the ones who refunded the tasting fee with a purchase, maybe because they were confident they’d be selling customers more than one bottle of wine.
This would be our final winery of the day, but we still had a couple of beaches to see. One was Mawhitipana Bay which was known as a nude beach. Today the bay was loaded with families, and everyone was dressed. The nude beach was probably a thing of the past; I think it was just too easy to get to.
Our final stop was the beach at Little Oneroa, not the prettiest beach of the day but very nice and low-key.
After we returned the car, we finished our big day with a terrific dinner at Fenice, the little Italian restaurant we’d discovered. Then finding Little Wai, the ice cream shop, closed for the evening, we went to Waiheke Espresso and had a very nice banana split, a rare treat in this part of the world.
In all, it was a great end to a great day. While it’s true it had been a day of hits and misses, the successes were so nice that the misses just didn’t matter at all and in fact felt like part of the day’s adventure.
Below, a photo taken from where we had beached our dinghy.
Once we got back to the boat, it was fun to check out our haul from the day.
We had one more treat in store when, on the boat that evening, we heard the popping of fireworks. We sat outside and watched the show. This would be our final night of cruising for awhile, and it was a nice note to end on. –Cyndi
Note: You can click to enlarge and scroll through photo galleries in this post.
