Chris and I finally took our trip to Waiheke Island.  Rather than making an overnight of it, we decided to just go for the day and save the extended trip for another time.

We started out by walking to the Auckland Ferry Building.  We purchased our tickets and waited for the ferry to arrive.

We got on board and headed out on the quick, 35 minute trip to the island, with a quick stop-over at Devonport {an Auckland suburb}…

We headed back out into the harbor.  The views were amazing:

The ferry ride left at 11am, so we decided to pack a lunch and bring it with us to eat on the way.  Chris made the sandwiches.  He never learned the secret to making a non-soggy PB&J…

{The secret: a thin layer of peanut butter on both pieces of bread with jelly in-between}

Needless to say, I decided to pass my sandwich over to Chris, who ate both it and his own sandwich.  He didn’t mind the sogginess 🙂

After a short trip, we pulled into the Matiatia Wharf at Waiheke Island…

Olive trees on the hillside

Our tour guide from Waiheke Island Adventures met us at the ferry.  It’s still the slow season on Waiheke, so as it turns out, we were the only 2 people on the wine tour.  It was pretty nice!  She drove us around the island and pointed out various interesting areas.  Here’s a glimpse of our view from the vehicle…

Our first stop was the Saratoga Estate Winery, but I didn’t take any photos.  Of the 3 wineries we visited, this was my favorite.  I’d recommend it for those of you who prefer sweeter wines.  Our tour guide told us that most wineries on the island don’t make many sweet wines, so if you’re like me, you’ll want to put this one on your list.

The next stop was Cable Bay Vineyards.  Can you imagine having a view like this when you came to work each day?

Cable Bay was my 2nd favorite of the 3 wineries we visited.  The staff were quite nice and accommodating, and the view of the harbor and CBD were spectacular.  It also afforded me my first view of sheep in New Zealand!

Our 3rd and final winery was Mudbrick Vineyards.  I’d had enough wine by that point, so I decided to forgo this tasting and just enjoy the scenery.  Chris did a tasting and really appreciated how the guy at Mudbrick was willing to work with his choices…

The scenery at Mudbrick was by far some of the best.  They host a lot of weddings here – our tour guide told us they did over 200 last year – and you can see why…

Once we were done with the wineries, we decided to head back into Oneroa Village for lunch.  Oneroa means “Long Sand” or “Long Beach” in Maori…

The tour driver was so great.  They’re always very flexible and will drop people off to have lunch wherever you choose.  I much prefer to make my own dining selection rather than being told where to go and where to stop.  As it was, all I wanted was a sandwich – something portable so that I could eat and walk on the beach at the same time…

Once Chris was done wading, he decided to go for a swing.  He had a pretty good time…

Then he realized that there was a giant tree behind him…

And since he’s Chris, he had to climb it {one of these days I’ll do a post with all of the Chris-in-a-tree photos – if there is a tree nearby, Chris will either climb it, think about climbing it, talk about climbing it, or all three!}…

We had a lot of fun.  If you visit Waiheke Island, I recommend Waiheke Island Adventure tours.  They’re reasonably priced, friendly, flexible, and the owners have lived on the island for 30+ years.  They have great recommendations and know the ins and outs of the area {plus they don’t charge the standard 65 cents per km on their rental cars that that the other agencies tack on}.  I also recommend stopping by Saratoga Estate Winery to try their sweet wines!  We will definitely be visiting Waiheke again 🙂