Waiheke Wineries By Bike
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2003
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12
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Trip End
Sep 07, 2004
Waiheke Island, Auckland, New Zealand
Monday, January 19, 2004
We'd decided to stay overnight, to make the most of Waiheke's charms, and had booked into a little hostel called Hekerua Lodge just outside the island's main settlement of Oneroa. Nestled in amongst trees and set back from the road, the hostel was chilled out and peaceful with its own pool and hot tub, and only five minutes walk from Little Oneroa Beach - the perfect retreat. Unfortunately we'd volunteered to camp outside and the garden smelt of sewage! Otherwise, it was lovely
1 Little Oneroa Beach
!On Saturday we hired mountain bikes and set off to explore the island and most importantly, the wineries. Waiheke is very pretty but also very hilly and after half an hour of slogging up hills in the hot sun, we were seriously knackered. More than a little happy to arrive at our first winery, we went a bit crazy and did $6/head wine tasting, followed by a $30 bottle of wine (their cheapest!) and a platter of cheese. Despite the inflated prices, the wine was good and we enjoyed drinking, chatting and relaxing in the sun next to the vines.
Half pissed we finally struggled back on to our bikes and wobbled up the hill for all of ten minutes, to the neighbouring vineyard. This one was even pricier, so we glared jealously at the rich Waiheke-ites stuffing their faces, opted for another $30 bottle of red (again the cheapest) and some fancy bread with fancy olives. All this wine and not much food led to a certain reluctance to get back on our bikes, but left with no choice, we managed to cycle back across the island (actually not much cycling by now, more staggering uphill, and free-wheeling downhill!). We stopped on the way at Palm Beach and plunged into the sea to cool off, followed by sausages on the beach bbq to soak up the wine.
2 bikes
Back in Oneroa, we met Daniella and Martin (P&C's Czech friends) who had joined us for the weekend, if not a bit late in the day, as they apparently like to sleep in on their days off.....til about lunchtime! That evening, the six of us found Oneroa's cheapest eatery, where we stuffed ourselves with pizza, seafood and beer.
Daniella is a "crazy hiking fiend" who is legendary for taking poor Pamela and Chris (not to mention her husband, Martin) on epic tramps every time they go away together. So, true to form, on Sunday she had all of us booted up and shipped over to the eastern end of Waiheke, where there's a reserve called Whakenewa Forest Park. We did a pretty walk through woods of shady Nikau Palms, which cleared every so often to give lovely views over the gulf back to Auckland. It wasn't a long walk, or particularly hard, but Daniella set a scary pace and that, combined with our aching cycling muscles, saw us happy to collapse for a while by the little waterfall we found.
Back in Oneroa we relaxed on the beach with well-earned beers and ice creams before catching the ferry back to Auckland.
