Waiheke Island - Mudbrick and The Shed Vineyard and Restaurants

Fab weekend which started off on Friday evening with dinner round at our friend's pad in Auckland… Roast lamb à la Ant style, yum. Great food, good company and a lovely evening. Our little man got to do some bonding with Bentley their gorgeous Labrador and we even got to see Bentley’s report from Doggy Daycare… pure genius for the person who thought up this one!

Now Doggy Day Care is serious stuff where we learnt that some owners become distraught if their pooches are awarded a grade C or lower.

Saturday and another promise of glorious mid winter blue skies and sunshine combined with the kind offer for the use of a bach (holiday home) over this weekend, beckoned another revisit to Waiheke Island. Our last visit a couple of weeks ago was a rather short and sweet affair and we really didn’t feel we did it justice, so back we headed for a little more vineyard sampling.

Have to say Waiheke Island is a  beautiful little gem, and so close to Auckland too. First port of call after our quick 30 minute ferry journey was Mud Brick Vineyard… we’d tried to go here last time round but unfortunately it was closed for a wedding.

All I can say is wow, I totally fell in love with the place. It’s what I would describe as my little slice of heaven, stunningly kept with meticulously manicured gardens, crammed full of sculptured hedges, lavender bushes and herb beds dotted around. There was a beautiful indoor restaurant, but we opted to sit out on the lounge chairs enjoying the sunshine, stunning views of Rangitoto Volcano and Auckland Skyline in the distance while sipping our chilled vino - just perfect. Dan and I ordered a platter to share and the food was spot on too, a mixture of cold meats, olives, squid, bread and dips and salad, yum and yum again.

We also were joined by a super tame sparrow who flew by for a visit much to the delight to the boys.

I could have quite happily sat there all afternoon, but we decided to press on and see more of the island. Now for some reason I had illusions that Waiheke was a smallish island, similar to others we’ve visited such as Rangitoto or Tiritiri, walkable, with a ring road that looped around the island, but no… how wrong was I? Waiheke is massive and you really need a set of four wheels to get around and do the place justice! 

We wanted to go visit the Stony Batter Historic Reserve but unfortunately by the time we found it they were closing the gates, so we headed back to our batch on Palm Beach in time for a quick walk on the beach and a sit down to catch the stunning sunset.

On Sunday we had a calling for banana and chocolate milkshakes all round so headed into town to Wai Kitchen for breakfast, and then down to the sandy beach of Onetangi. Dotted around were lots of blobs of beached jelly fish, and there commenced the boys conservation project of rescuing the jelly fish and transferring them to deeper waters…. amazing how initially there were the one or two, but on closer inspection there were hundreds of the darn things… but hey ho it kept the boys entertained.

Then it was onto The Shed at Te Motu Vineyard to meet up with Helen and her family who coincidently were on Waiheke having a squiz of some real-estate prospects Waiheke had to offer. 

The Shed in Te Motu is yet another beautiful vineyard - very child friendly and relaxed atmosphere - perfect to catch up with friends and enjoy the wine it has to offer - such a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Helen and Ant had brought along their labrador Bentley, so a certain little man was one happy little bunny.

Inseparable

The Grill, All Blacks & Shadow Land - another full on weekend

We’ve had a fab week of being taken out, wined and dined - truly spoilt!

The first trip out was to a New Orleans restaurant at The Viaduct where I got to meet the lower limb team (aka 'legs' to Claire & Simon). The Viaduct is a dockland area in Auckland packed full of restaurants and we’ve had lots of people mention it to us as a great spot for an evening meal, and I’m glad to say that with a month to go before we leave we finally made it! Looks like there is a fish market there on Sundays so think that would be another excuse to pay another little visit me thinks.

Then it was the upper limb (aka ‘arms’ to Claire and Simon) team's turn to go out for dinner, and we headed to The Grill…based on the ground floor below Sky Tower - very swish and swanky. Dan and I had to give the Wagyu steak a try, where we were informed that these cows are fed beer and massaged to give a very succulent melt in the mouth full flavoured steak, and have to say it didn’t disappoint.

On Saturday however was the biggy, and a treat for the boys…and they went for their very first rugby match at Eden Park Stadium to watch the All Blacks vs England. Well I don’t know what it was, the All Black T-Shirts they came back with, the amount of sugar overload during the match, watching the All Blacks doing the Haka or the game itself having a nearly historical English win, but they both excitedly burst through the doors buzzing to tell me what had happened… think it’s true to say they enjoyed themselves and it was defiantly one to remember!

A slow start to Sunday due to the post rugby heavy head of Dan and we headed over to Devonport to meet up with friends Kate and Chris (also another suffering dad) and their little possie as they were up our way in Auckland to watch the rugby too. So we caught up with them on Mount Victoria, not quite the Mount Monganui that they have on their door step, but pretty great views of Auckland none the less. 

Unfortunately we hadn’t realised the Kate & Chris clan were coming up our way and had an afternoon show booked at the theatre so after a flying catch up over a coffee we headed into Auckland to see Shadow Land at the Civic Centre. But hopefully we’ll catch up with Kate and Chris before we head on back to Blighty in a few weeks.

Oooh before I talk about the show itself, just wanted to put in a quick mention about the car park… now this might be the norm around the rest of the world, but I’ve never seen it in the UK… car parking lights indicating whether there is a space available or not… pure genius. I have to say it saves so much time having to hunt for a space, especially when you have a husband who isn’t prepared to park further away and cover the small distance using one's legs, but would rather spend substantially more time driving round and round in circles hunting for the illusive space right by the entrance.

Right onto the show… this was on the recommendation from our eldest and it was brilliant. Very theatrical, just exceedingly fit (fit in the sense of very strong, good muscle tone, flexible… not as in phwoarrr… tut who do you take me for… well there may have been one or two …). Anyway getting distracted, the show was excellent with the dancers contorting their body into different shapes casting shadows of elephants, giant faces, crabs etc…  and we just sat there the whole time trying to work out how on earth they created these shadows shapes.

So low and behold it was inevitable the boys’ activities that evening involved a sheet and torch - happy days. Full on weekend yet again but “such fun” in true Miranda style.

Waiheke Island - Land of Vineyards

Well into autumn now, but the forecast today was fab so we hopped on the bus to Devonport and caught the ferry over to Waiheke Island to sample some of the 22 vineyards it has to offer. Now hind sight is a great thing… Waiheke is a large island and it is definitely useful to have a car to get around (or even stay the night)...but on the assumption that driving and wine consumption aren't a great mix we thought it best not to bring the car.

One to add to the list...

As we soon discovered, the bus service runs in slow mo style, running on the hour and we really didn’t fancy spending our time hanging around bus stops. So it was an on foot expedition, and walk our little socks off we did….but on the positive, while you can’t cover as much ground, it is the best way of really getting to know a place.

Waiheke town is only a 15 min walk from the ferry port. A lovely little place… what I’d describe as rustic - full of shops selling unique items, with the odd gallery and studio thrown in for good measure. We made a quick all essential pancake and Nutella pitstop and then headed on down to the beach…. the start of our epic trek, end destination... CableBay Vineyard.

Our trekking adventure took us for a gentle stroll along the beach, then a clamber over some rocks, a lengthy session of rock pooling, up the embankment, hike across to the other side of the island to Blackpool Estuary full of birds waddling around in the mud...

Paradise Shelduck

...past a Wharenui (Māori meeting house) to discover a shipwreck...

battle up higher, higher and higher still over the never ending upward hill, more roadside rambling and yeah we’ve made it! All I can say is damn that chilled glass of vino was definitely welcome and tasted so good after our long walk! 

Cable Bay Vineyard is such a beautiful place with a fantastic relaxed atmosphere - a large seating area (where we sat) and people sprawled out across the lawn chillin’ on their bean bags and blankets, glass of vino in one hand sapping in the views of the Auckland skyline in the distance.

Morepork

The waitress pointed out a little 20 min shortcut back to the ferry and our eldest’s eagle eyes spotted a morepork (a New Zealand owl aka ruru) sitting on an overhanging branch over the path… totally awesome beautiful bird, and not all that common to see in the wild - so a brilliant little treat before we headed on our sunset ferry ride homeward bound to Auckland.