Wine on Waiheke

Today we borrowed Nicky and David's bikes and hopped on the passenger ferry from Half Moon Bay over to Waiheke island in the Hauraki Gulf.

Waiheke is known as the island of wine with about 25 different vineyards situated round the island.

We started the day off by cycling to Ostend for the Saturday morning market where we got some delicious homemade chorizo sausage rolls and a coffee to fuel our cycle to the first vineyard.

We set our sights on Te Whau winery for our first stop as we'd been told of the exceptional views from the cliff top location on the Te Whau peninsula, on route we had our first experience of Waiheke's punchy hill climbs, we made it to the tip of the peninsula only to discover the winery was closed for the day and turn around.

Undeterred we headed back inland, having fun on our borrowed bikes. I had Nicky's lovely Trek road bike which fitted almost perfectly but did lack a suitable gear for those steep hill climbs, standing up and mashing it seemed the best tactic. Ben had David's Marin touring bike, complete with kick stand, which he was having great fun trying to wheelie around.

After a slight navigational error (the first of many) we reached Batch Winery for our first taste of Waiheke's many wines. Then onto Stonyridge Vineyard before heading over to the Spanish feeling Casita Miro for a delicious tapas lunch, very friendly hosts and some more samples of some of their best wines.

After lunch we had a longer cycle to the other side of the island past Palm Beach and through Oneroa to the famous Mudbrick winery, we sat outside drinking wine in the afternoon sun admiring the views back across to Auckland before jumping back on the bikes for one final mad sprint across the island to the ferry terminal. We made it!

Time for a final glass of wine and and an icecream on the ferry back to Half Moon Bay as we watched the sun set over Auckland city and Waiheke island disappear behind us.

55km, 850m climbing, lots of wine, wheelies and laughter = another fantastic day in this beautiful country!!

ChristineRead more