Waiheke Island, New Zealand

On our second day in Auckland we met our tour group to head out via boat to Waiheke Island and wine tasting. We had to walk from the ship to the next pier. Easy right? NO! Auckland has tons of construction so we had to cross a major intersection and cross over one pier and back across a major street to stand in line and get on a commuter ferry. At least the weather was delightful as you can see from the photo.

• 

• 

Its not quite Palm Beach in Florida but it was really beautiful and had much more vertical relief! We took a drive around parts of the island and stopped for tea/coffee and scones/muffins in a quaint town near a more accessible beach. Larkin and I were able to gather our requisite sand for our collection! Our next stop was for wine…make that our next two stops!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Our first winery was Stony Ridge which was the second winery on the island in 1978. They like their yoga and buddha’s. Michael looks like an American Buddha! The wines were okay – their whites were enjoyable but their “the rose” wine which was a very expensive cabernet malbec etc. blend was very under ripe and green and after paying $18 New Zealand dollars for a taste wasn’t even decent. Glad Larkin and I didn’t bother – but I did have a mini sip of Michael’s!

• 

• 

• 

Bach(pronounced Batch) in New Zealand means a small vacation cottage. They are all over New Zealand. They named this winery after the Batch as well as small batches of wines and one of their labels is Thomas’s Bach meaning this winery is his little vacation cottage – ha ha ha!

• 

• 

• 

After the ferry ride and the island tour we were back in time to sit in the hot tub. Okay so I did and Larkin and Michael took naps. It was delightful after a day of sitting. My next post will be on our fabulous trip to Hobbiton from Tauranga, New Zealand. Happy Belated Mardi Gras. Most of us are happy to be on the ship and not dealing with the Corona Virus fears at home. Sydney is tomorrow and we will have a face to face as we disembark to enjoy a few days in the city. We have SIX the musical lined up at the Opera House for the 29th – Happy leap day.