Friday 13th January 2023
Today we took a trip to Waiheke Island, which is a 40 minute ferry ride from Aukland. We’d read horror stories of people queuing for several hours over the Christmas period so we decided to get the 8.15am ferry and arrive nice and early. When we got to the pier at 7.50am there were only a handful of people already waiting. However, after about 15 minutes a huge crowd of people seemed to suddenly show up, so we were near the front of what ended up being a fairly long queue. Even so, everyone got on and the ferry was far from full.
The ferry ended up departing 10 minutes and used its “speed exemption” to catch up the time. We arrived at Waiheke Island a couple of minutes after 9am, so had caught up most of the lost time. The sailing itself was very smooth and pleasant.
When we arrived we realised the hop on hop off bus (which we’d booked in combination with our ferry ticket) didn’t start until 10am. So we walked the 2km up to Oneroa, the nearest town to the ferry terminal. We were hoping we’d find a decent sausage roll at the Humble Pie Company Village Butchery & Deli. Unfortunately they didn’t have any, but they did have some delicious looking pies. Although it’s not really a breakfast food, we decided to be rebels and share a steak and mushroom pie between us. It was an excellent choice, the pie was so good – crisp, flaky, buttery pastry and a beautiful steak and mushroom filling.
We had a little wander around Oneroa before making our way to the bus stop to catch the first hop on hop off bus of the day. We’d also not realised that most of the wineries don’t open until late, so we ended up getting the bus to the very far end of the bus route and getting off at Batch winery. The hop on hop off bus has commentary, and the Norwegian guy we had was very entertaining as well as interesting.
Batch winery is on the top of the hill, with great views. We still had a little time before the winery opened at 11am, so had a little wander around, admiring the views. The wine tasting room itself was quite cool. You stood around barrels to do the tastings, with all the big metal equipment in background. There was a choice of two tastings – the standard for $15 or the premium for $25. We did one of each, and shared them. I enjoyed the wines but felt they were slightly overpriced (much more expensive than some of the other wineries we visited in the Hunter Valley, but the wines were no better in my opinion)
We hopped back on the hop on hop off bus to go to Goldie Estate, the oldest vineyard on the island. We disembarked and walked the short distance to the vineyard, only to find a big sign outside saying bookings were required until after 1pm. So we crossed the road to get bus back the way we came.
As we were waiting for the bus a car pulled up, wound down it’s window, and the driver asked us if we were waiting for the hop on hop off bus, to which we replied yes. She said it looked really busy and there were loads of people waiting at the bus stop before us, so to hop in. We were reluctant as we didn’t want to inconvenience her, but she was quite persistent. The driver was a lovely, very chatty Irish lady (we didn’t catch her name), who had been visiting Waiheke Island for about 30 years and had now chosen it as a retirement location. She asked if we mind walking (we don’t) and then suggested she take us to Casita Miro. It’s not on the bus route, so there’d be a bit of a walk back but luckily we quite enjoy walking. We love getting recommendations from locals, so jumped at the chance.
At Casita Miro we ordered a wine tasting between us and a grazing platter with focaccia. The focaccia was amazing, clearly homemade and we were surprised how big the portion was! The pork rillets were also excellent, and we were please y surprised to get a huge slab of cheese still in its packaging!
After sampling the wines, we then ordered a glass of our favourite wine each, as we still had loads of food still to eat. I was surprised Pete went for rose, he’s clearly a convert! I had the red, and we also bought a bottle to take home with us.
Unfortunately the vineyard walk has been closed since covid, so instead we had to walk to Onetangi Beach. It was a lovely walk, and the views over the bay were absolutely beautiful.
We made our way back to the bus stop, We got off in the valley, where there a cluster of vineyards. There was a private function going on at Stonyridge Vineyard, so instead we went to nearby Postage stamp. Here, the tasting fee was $15 for four wines. They’ve got nine in total so we said we’d get two tastings and disregard one of the roses. However we were told we could just try all nine, which was very nice of them. We really enjoyed the wines here, and the servers were very friendly and chatty (and also from England).
We then walked the short distance to Heke for a whiskey tasting. Heke are also big on their beers, and the whiskey tasting came with a lager as a palate cleanser – not something I’ve come across before, but it worked well. They’re not actually allowed to call the first whiskey in the tasting a whiskey (it’s completely clear and has had no contact with oak barrels), but it was very peaty and you’d never know it wasn’t a “real” whiskey.
We got back on the hop on hop off bus and went to Mudbrick, another recommendation from the Irish woman who we’d accidentally hitchhiked with. She remembered it when it was just starting out and the tasting room was a tiny hut. It’s far from that now, but we still really enjoyed the wine tasting. And being on the top of the hill, there were some amazing views over the bay with the city of Aukland in the distance.
Our final stop of the day was the nearby Cable Bay Vineyards. I felt the tasting here was a bit overpriced compared with the other vineyards, the pours were very small and the tasting felt very rushed. On the plus, we had a nice chat with the couple on the table next to us, who are also living in England (the husband was from New Zealand, but he married an English girl).
We were luckily just in time to get the final hop on hop off bus of the day to the ferry terminal. The ferry back to Aukland was much busier than the morning ferry, but it was still a very calm and pleasant journey.
By the time we got back to Aukland it was almost 8.30pm so we went back to our hotel for an early night.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 