Waiheke means either "The long, sheltering island," or "Island of trickling waters," depending on what account you want to believe. Well, I have re-named it again. To me, after riding around on it all day, it is the "Island where nothing is level."

Today's adventure takes Jeanne and I to Waiheke (Why'-he-key) Island, located in Auckland's Waitamata Harbour. It's New Zealand's most densely populated island with 8,700 permanent residents and 3,400 more that have a 2nd home or vacation bach on it.  

It's very hilly and rocky. This combination makes it a very good habitat for grapes, and wineries dot the island like sheep in a field. What with all the wineries, fancy restaurants, beaches and sun, tourists dot the island as well. 

Allison gave us a winery tour voucher for our 41st anniversary and we made use of it recently. 



                           



We travelled to Auckland in the morning via bus. The bus stop is just 100 yards from our house. (The entire train system was shut down for maintenance and upgrades necessary for the upcoming conversion from diesel trains to electric.) When we got into the city, we picked up our ferry tickets first and then, since we had about 50 minutes to kill before the ferry left, bought coffees and ate ham and egg breakfast sandwiches on the benches overlooking the ferry and cruise ship docks. It was sunny and promised to be an ideal day.

We were met at the dock on Waiheke and shown to the wine tour bus. We soon discovered that the carpark at the wharf (behind Ethan in the picture) is probably the only level place on the island. 

Auckland and the 'Western Heights', where we live, are undeniably hilly but nothing compared to Waiheke for steep slopes.  If you scroll back up to the satellite view of the island I included, you'll see that there are ridges everywhere. 

A couple of posts ago, I talked about how many curves there are on the road between Henderson and Piha. Well, Waiheke has even more curves, but then adds the third dimension to the curves. On Waiheke, not only is a driver always going around a curve, he is also always going up or down. I noticed that the very comfortable wine-tour van was a 5-speed standard shift. I wondered if that was because the stresses put on an automatic transmission under such conditions would give it very short lifespan. The driver often had to downshift to his third gear to make it up some very steep grades and used fourth when coming down again. I was very glad not to be driving, believe me.  

He's wearing a bandana because he fell recently and his forehead is unsightly.

This was the view we got after only about a minute of travel as we headed for our first tasting at a winery called Jurassic Ridge.

In the shot above, Auckland would be in the distance, about 40 minutes away by ferry and Rangitoto is visible to the right.  

Over the course of the day and the three wineries we visited, Jurassic Ridge, Peacock Sky and Obsidian, we tasted 21 wines and one liqueur, a lemoncello. By the way Kim, the lemoncello from Peacock Sky was not as good as the one you gave us. 

I liked a sign that the owner of Jurassic Ridge had placed in his tasting room. "A grapevine is a tool that allows us to taste the soil."  Of the three hosts, he talked the most about the chemistry of wine and about the soil specific to his ridge-line vineyard.

Here are the place settings that awaited us at Peacock Sky. Our host was a very jovial sort who coached us to try each wine alone first, but then experiment with wine-food-wine, as he put it, to see how various food flavors affect how a wine tastes. For each wine then, he had a separate nibble prepared for us to accompany it. It was entertaining and fun, and since it was about noon, the snacks were quite welcome.  

I found, at the conclusion of the tasting at Obsidian, that I probably would have been just as happy to have tasted only about 18 wines.  When we were seated at our lunch destination, Casita Miro, and the waitress asked if we wanted to see their wine menu, I declined and opted for just water and lots of it. Jeanne agreed. 

Lunch at Casita Miro was great. Every one of It's staff showed that rare ability to appear to be having 'the most fun ever' while they worked their backsides off.  It was very busy but the food came quickly and was delicious. The owner, a retired doctor, loves the work of the Spanish artist Gaudi, and so has modeled his menu on Spanish cuisine and the hillside behind the restaurant in to a Gaudi-inspired fantasyland.  

more of Casita Miro at: www.casitamiro.co.nz/

see Sagrada Familia, church designed by Gaudi at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia:

Notice the section of roof on the left side of the photo. That is the roof of the restaurant. There is no level ground here!

The day went quickly and we were whisked back down to the ferry by 4 p.m. The crowd sharing the ride back to Devonport and Auckland with us was a little redder in the face from the sun and a little sleepier from the fun. Especially some of the kids who were asleep before we untied.  One last look back at a very special place. -djf