Sunday, January 22nd

We had a wakeup call for 7 am but as normal I am up at 5 am.  My feet and calves are still swollen (I’ve never had this problem from flying before) It sucks! We met our group for breakfast up at the buffet at 8 am and then met Peter at the tour bus at 9 am.  He took us to the port to catch the Ferry to Waiheke Island.  It’s raining a little and the sky is really black. It took about half an hour to get to Waiheke Island.  Waiheke means “Cascading Rivers”.  We met our guides and we had to split up into 2 groups.  Our guide’s name was Steve.  He was full of wonderful information and facts about the island.  Many people from Auckland go to Waiheke for weekend or day trips to fish, lay on the beach and some have timeshares.  Once getting there we enjoyed the view of Onetangi Beach, drove through the vineyards, saw sheep, and “Belted Cattle” that are black with a thick white stripe around their middle.  We also saw a group of Opakas.  The language of Mauri is taught in school here.  200 Years ago this island was covered in Kauri Trees and Whaling/Sealing was commons.  By 1850 all of the trees were gone as the sailors butchered the land & cleared it for sheep farming.  These days the land has been converted to vineyards.  When people buy land on the island it is called a “Lifestyle Block” and is about 10 acres.  They have to keep at least 10% of it clear or green.  The houses look no more than 1,000-1500 square feet and sell for about $6-7 million dollars!!  You can see many hiking trails and lots of olive groves. They have Manica Trees that they use to make Tea Tree Oils.  All of the grapes are netted because the birds here will eat the whole crop.  We have arrived at the Jurassic Winery where we are met by Lance Bloomhart.  His winery is like a small boutique winery.  He does everything himself and his property is very quaint.  He is full of knowledge and loves what he does.  My favorite wine there is his Sauvignon Blanc.  This particular wine is actually bottled in Marlboro, NZ.  Lance named his winery after the Jurassic rock that is here on the island.  The wine here in New Zealand is only about 1% of the wine sold in the world and 1% of the NZ wine comes from Waiheke. 

There is this tree here called the “Pohutakawa Tree” and it is their Christmas tree.  They are beautiful and grow very large.  They blossom red flowers and are everywhere!  There is lots of marine life here including Orcas, Dolphins, Brydes Whales, and Snapper.  Seems like everyone fishes too.  In NZ there aren’t dangerous critters like in Australia.  Seems like when you talk to the New Zealanders they compete a lot with Australia……must be something going on there! 

The second winery we arrive at is the Obsidian Winery.  It is named after a rock also….”Volcanic Glass”.  They served some good wines, cheese, almonds, and crackers.  The NZ Cheddar is so yummy!  Just below the winery is the beach called “Weeping Sands” and that is what their wine label is named.  There is a sad story about the naming of this beach with people dying and a massacre that happened hundreds of years ago.  The third winery we arrive at is Kennedy Point and it is owned by Americans.  It is a certified Organic Winery.  They own 4 other vineyards.  They plant a rose bush at the end of each row of grapes because like the French they figured out that roses are susceptible to the same diseases that affect the grapes, but it shows up earlier in the roses. It’s kind of like the canary in the coal mine. Pretty smart if you ask me!  Well, now that we’ve been to 3 wineries already our group has purchased enough wine for the first few days on the ship!  Off to the forth winery….our lunch stop.

We finally meet up with the rest of our group at the Mudbrick Winery.  It is unbelievable…..what views and lovely people.  It was built in 1992 and was one of the first vineyards on the island.  The buildings are made of mud brick….hence the name.  It has a French/Tuscan feel.  We are guided to our own private dining area where we are greeted by the staff and served a wonderful lunch.  The food was so good and the presentation was amazing.  Of course I had to take pictures of my plates!  After lunch we walked around the property and took in the views of the gulf.  We then headed back to the port to catch the 4 pm ferry to Auckland.  Up until 1986 they had to either helicopter in or ride a boat made of rickety wood to get to the island…….but now these ferries are like luxury.  About 1500 people a day ride them.

So, we get back to Auckland after a brief stop in Davenport (to drop off some people) at about 5 pm.  Everyone is exhausted and full from lunch still.  So we all head to our rooms for free time.  We watched the Australian Open and relaxed.  About 8 pm Mike and I walked around the hotel, through the casino and decided to have some noodle soup for dinner.  Our internet cable was bad so we were waiting for the front desk to bring us a new one but that didn’t happen so we went to bed.