January 18, 2014
Our plan for today: Waiheke Island! And this time, by taking the car ferry, we’d have our own transportation!
It was early when we boarded the first ferry to the island, but we could already see it was going to be a glorious sunny day. The ride over took about an hour and give us some great views of islands of the Hauraki Gulf.
After landing we made the winding, hilly drive to Oneroa, the main town. Since Linda loves beaches, I began our tour by leading the group down the slope to Oneroa’s beautiful bay and white sand beach. The bay was still and calm, boats quietly anchored in the sparkling water. Waiheke was putting her best foot forward today!
After the beach, I next wanted to take everyone to the town’s market. I believe that to see this little grocery store, its wide array of international foodie items managing to fit into one small place, is to understand this island. Our friends were a bit confused as to why I’d be so anxious to go to a market, but when they saw it, they understood. We all bought bread, warm loaves being delivered just after we got there.
Next up: breakfast. We headed to our favorite cafe overlooking the main street and the bay, lucking into a shaded table on the patio outside. After excellent coffee, eggs, and for Rich and I, bacon and egg pie, we were ready to start touring the island.
I decided to start with Rich’s and my very favorite place on this island rather than saving it for later; so I directed Rich to drive us to Man O’ War Vineyard. Rich was a very cooperative driver, especially considering that my inner tour guide often fell down on the job as a navigator (unfortunately, she is prone to ADD and tries to pay attention to too many things). Rich’s inquiries as to “Which way now?” tended to be met with, “Huh?” “Uhhhhh…” The problem was my paper map was much less detailed than real life, and Google, at that time, was not quite up to snuff here. No matter; we’d always figure out how to get back on track.
The drive took us over the beautiful rolling hills and past expansive Hauraki Gulf views. We made a a couple of stops for photos; then the road took us down the hill to the magical seaside cottage of Man O’ War Vineyards. Once again we headed to the beach first. With its brown and white gravel it has a very different look from the island’s white north-side beaches, but it has its own peaceful and quiet beauty.
After taking in the bay, we headed to the tasting room to sample their wonderful wine and olive oil. One of the joys of playing tour guide is to watch others fall under the spell of a place, and Man O’ War has a powerful, wonderful spell. I wish I could bring everyone I care about to this place!
Below, a few photos from our Man O War Vineyard stop (click to enlarge and scroll).
It was time to head on and see more of the island. I had bought a map for our friends so they could follow along as we drove, and this turned out to be fortuitous in that Bob asked about a winery called Passage Rock. Rich and I hadn’t been there and it wasn’t on my list for the day, but hey, why not? So we headed to the cellar door (tasting room) and instantly were taken with the lovely scenery, the winery and the people doing the tastings. As it happened they had excellent wines, and we all bought at least a couple of bottles, plus a bag of locally grown plums.
We headed back to the car, feeling good. Grape vines, good wine, gorgeous scenery and warm sunshine. Does it get any better?
Next stop was a winery I’d been wanting to try: Poderi Crisci. We made our way there, finding a nice looking vineyard and restaurant, the vines nestled amid the hills. There was a restaurant, a beautiful vegetable garden, and what looked like a nice grassy walk through the vines. But then a man came out to ask what we were doing there, and we told him we’d like to do a tasting. He explained how he doesn’t do tastings unless it’s during the week, by appointment, because he’s running a restaurant and can’t possibly do that and do tastings. Uh, OK. We didn’t bother to point out to him that pretty much every other winery on the island does just that!
Still, we understood where he was coming from; yet we didn’t like feeling he was about to run us off the property before suddenly getting distracted by an arriving van full of lunch customers. His distraction gave us a chance to look around a bit and take some photos before heading off to the next place. Meanwhile, his remark became our joke of the day as we’d recite it (“You can’t possibly run a restaurant and do wine tastings!”) every time we passed a winery with a restaurant or cafe.
Next up, I managed to direct Rich to Peacock Sky, the winery we so enjoyed on our last visit that paired specific wine and foods together so the taster could see how they interacted with each other. We knew our friends would enjoy this as much as we had, and today we a got bonus tasting as they let us try their limoncello and a wonderful orange brandy.
After that wine experience we headed to spectacular Onetangi Beach, sitting on an embankment to enjoy a baguette and pate while watching Linda comb the beach for shells. I had a couple more places in mind to visit, but we’d done so well today that I wasn’t worried about seeing anything else.
Not far from Onetangi Beach was one of our favorite wineries, Obsidian, an especially lovely place to sit and enjoy tasting some wine and enjoying some nibbles. It was an easy choice to bring our friends here next!
After our Obsidian visit, the afternoon was getting on, and I had to make a choice between two more places. I chose Kennedy Vineyards, the charming winery that also makes incredible manuka pohutukawa honey and olive oil. We arrived to find it had closed for the day, but we now had time to do my other choice: going back to Oneroa to a place called Little Wai for Te Ponu’s incredible ice cream, especially the salted caramel flavor. The ice cream was a big hit with our friends so I was glad we’d been able to fit this in.
We now headed back to catch the evening ferry back to Auckland, tired and happy after a whirlwind day on Waiheke Island. Below, a few photos taken during the day, including a photo of Rich, Bob and Linda on the ferry ride home.
We didn’t have any plans together that night. Bob and Linda would enjoy some sightseeing in Auckland on foot (their hotel had an ideal location near the multitude of shops and restaurants on Queen Street and charming Elliott Stables), while we’d relax on the boat. We’d all bought several bottles of wine today; so enjoying Waiheke Island wine was something we’d all be doing.
The next day would be our friends’ final day here, and we planned to go to the Saturday car fair as they were in the market for a new car. I hoped to take them to La Cigale, the French market in Parnell, before we did the car thing. I’m not sure anyone was doing back flips at the idea of being picked up at 9am, but I assured them it would be worthwhile. –Cyndi
