Waiheke Island

Since we had another full day left in Auckland, we decided to take the ferry to Waiheke Island. The ferry left every hour so after breakfast, we walked down to the marina, purchased our tickets and hopped on the 12:00pm ferry. It was a 35 minute ride which gave us an amazing view Auckland.

We considered renting bikes but once we saw that you could get an all day bus pass for $9, we figured that was a better deal. First, we wanted to do some wine tasting. The island has 23 vineyards and the hot, dry microclimate is supposed to create amazing bordeaux reds, syrah and rose. There were three wineries conveniently located next to each other and right near a bus stop, so we chose those to visit. The first one was "Wild on Waiheke" which also had their own microbrewery and offered archery and skeet shooting along with your drinking. I really wanted to do both until I realized that you weren't using real bullets or arrows which made it just stupid. The wines were all $2/taste so Alyssa and I each ordered three to start with. It was hands down the worst wine I've ever had. We ended up drinking them like shots just to get them down and then paid our bill. It was a beautiful location but I can't understand why anyone would drink that wine.

We walked down the road to the next winery which was "Te Motu". It was a beautiful walk through the grapevines which we loved.

This was was clearly a much smaller winery and we did the tasting standing at a small bar in the restaurant. The guy who did the tasting was very nice but not that knowledgeable. The wine was better than the last winery (but really what wouldn't have been) but I still didn't really like any of the three we tried.

The third winery was "Stonyridge". We purchased our tasting and lounged on their sunny deck overlooking the rolling hills below. This was definitely the most upscale of the three wineries and people kept arriving via helicopter which we thought was pretty funny. The wines were a bit better but there was still nothing I'd want to buy a glass of and certainly not for $18/glass.

Since we weren't overly impressed with the wine, we decided it was time to head to the beach. We grabbed the bus and headed to "Onetangi Beach". It was a beautiful beach and thankfully it wasn't too crowded. We spent a few hours sunning and reading before deciding that we needed another drink. We headed to the little beach bar overlooking the beach. Alyssa got a glass of wine which she actually liked and I tried one of their local "Hop" beers.

It was getting later in the day, so we decided to make our way back to the harbor to catch the ferry to Auckland. Luckily the bus times are synced with the boat so right when the bus arrived we were able to get on a ferry and head back. The walk back to the hostel was a little chilly since the sun was setting, so we wrapped ourselves in our towels for warmth which made us appear a little homeless. We had stuff left over to make sandwiches at the hostel so once we got back, we made dinner and went to our room. That hostel has a very weird vibe. It's not the hostel's fault, it's the people who are staying there. No one seems friendly and they are very cliquey. Once upstairs, Alyssa read for a while but I was still feeling really jetlagged so I went to bed although it was barely even 10:00pm.

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