Waiheke Treat

The main features of this week have been getting ready for returning to the UK for 3 weeks, a weekend break on Waiheke Island, and not yet quite having won the America's Cup.

My mother is now in residential care, so I am going to England to help my sister clear the house and get it ready for the market. We don't think leaving it empty over the winter will do it any good at all. Much of this week has therefore been taken up with organising the trip and managing the consequences of my absence from NZ. In amongst this I have done one Mac job and grabbed a quick coffee with Claire.

Nicky has been had at work in the library, and has had two prayer groups this week. It has only been a four day week as she took Friday off for our long weekend in Waiheke.

The weather forecast wasn't good for the weekend, but we were looking forward to the break and having some R&R together before I go away. We drove over to Half Moon Bay on Friday morning to catch the 10.00 ferry. It was great being able to take our car with us.

Our first stop on the island was a café in Oneroa for morning tea. Even though it was dull, it wasn't actually raining, so we managed to picnic by the beach before moving on to check in at our accommodation, Punga Lodge. Diane, the host was brilliant and brought us afternoon tea shortly after we he'd arrived. We got organised and then went back into Oneroa to do a little shopping and check out the chip shop. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the lodge, having a spa, and just popping out to get our fish and chips which we thoroughly enjoyed. We had a very early night (Nicky was asleep by 7.15 and me not much later) and a very good night's sleep in the very large bed.

The weather was wet on Saturday morning when we rose, had breakfast, and watch the boat racing from San Francisco bay. We drove over to Ostend to visit the Saturday market which was much smaller then when we had been in the summer. However, the man selling baklava was there (just as wonderful) and we also bought walnut bread and tamarind chutney. Next stop was the Waiheke library (no surprise I'm sure) and while there took in an art gallery and peeped into the cinema, the seating of which consist of old sofa's. It looked very appealing. We drove over to Whakanewha Regional Park where we had an English picnic as a light rain was still falling. This didn't stop us going for a walk down the beach and then returning along a bush track. Sometime on the return the rain stopped, but it was well into the afternoon when we got back to the car so we headed back to Punga Lodge for our afternoon tea and another session in the spa. 

We then got ourselves ready for our one pre-planned major treat of the weekend - dinner at the Cable Bay vineyard. We had really enjoyed the duck pancakes there in the summer, and dinner didn't disappoint. Nicky had rare seared beef followed by roast pork, and I had smoked venison followed by fish of the day. We accompanied our entrées with their Pinot Noir, and concluded with a shared platter of cheese, bread, crackers and honey, tea and coffee. Everything was excellent in presentation, taste and quality, It is probably one of the best meals I have ever had, and certainly one of the most expensive, but a real treat.

Sleep was very broken on Saturday night, partially due to the fact that we may have eaten too much, and partially due to the major thunder storm lashing the windows with rain. However, by breakfast time on Sunday, we had clear blue skies and warm sunshine. No boat racing though!!!!

The weather called for a quick beach visit (Palm Beach) after checking out of the lodge and before Nicky went off to church. Afterwards we took ourselves off to Onetangi Beach, had a picnic lunch, and lazed on the beach for awhile. We then did "the grand tour" of the "bottom" of the island. This is basically a circular route of un-sealed road around the eastern half of the island. We concluded with pots of tea at a vineyard before taking a meandering route back to the ferry terminal.

It was a grand weekend. Waiheke Island is very much New Zealand in microcosm. A good place to visit for a couple of days to get a flavour of NZ if that is all you have time for. We may go again next year if Sealink are offering their ferry/accommodation specials at a similar rate.

With being in England for the next few Sunday's it is very unlikely that I will be updating the blog, so just be patient! To keep you going, here are a few Waiheke pictures:

Take care,
Rick