Auckland, New Zealand. Day 1.

After few days in the sea, we docked in Auckland, NZ.
Our plan for today is to explore Waiheke Island. This island is located 30 minutes ferry ride from Auckland.
Waiheke Island is the most populated and the second-largest island in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand. Waiheke is the second-largest island in the gulf, after Great Barrier Island.
Waiheke has become known as New Zealand's "island of wine." It has close to 10,000 population in the winter and it is 30,000 in the summer.

So, we were promptly outside of the ship at 8:00 AM and short walk to the ferry. We purchased combined tickets ferry plus hop on hop off bus. By 8:40 we were on the island. First bus came at 9:40 and to our surprise not wheelchair accessible, so I had to take the wheelchair completely apart to fit it in the bus. Well, no problem. We got off after one stop to see the village and to our surprise discovered that one of the knobs for the wheelchair attachment broke after I screwd it on. Now we could not fold the wheelchair and put it on the bus. We were told that one of the HOHO buses is double decker and is wheelchair accessible. We decided not to wait for it, but take a city bus which is acceptable. Our next stop was a cluster of wineries. Although it was any 11:15, we decided to taste wines and have a bite. The setting was beautiful and we had delish pizza and wine samples. After spending there nearly 2 hours, we got on HOHO double decker bus. Our next stop was gorgeous beach and charming little village with lots of restaurants. Again we spent 1.5 hours on this location, walked on the beach, enjoyed ice cream and surroundings. The bus came late and it was different bus. It was huge tour bus. We were told the double decker had an accident and 4 broken windows and they replaced it with a accessible tour bus just for us. Hooray!!

Our next stop was the highest point on the island. The view was beautiful and in addition to that the place had beautiful winery. Since we had to kill 1.5 hours to the next big bus and all hiking in that area was pretty hard for Boris, we went to the winery and spent a lovely time talking to a woman from San Francisco and a local man with a cute dog.

One and a half hours later the bus came, but to our surprise it was a small bus. The big tour bus had an accident also that brock windows. The wheelchair can not fit on small bus. Luckily after tacking wheels off we could put the wheelchair on the bus w/o folding it. We decided not to press our luck anymore and go straight to the ferry to Auckland.
After ferry we walked to pharmacy to get some supply.
Tomorrow we will have another day in Auckland, but we are taking a tour and Boris will not need a wheelchair.
To see the pictures of the day, please go to this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ohrtkUe23PrRN34n8Read more