1/27–Waiheke II

We’ve fought our way through the Sculpture walk and are now at the crossroads of our walk.  We can either continue along the coast and then into Oneroa – or cut off up the paved road to Oneroa and cut off 30 minutes of the walk.  Normally, we’d take the long way – but we’re a little leery of the times that are listed on our web print out – and on the sign posts along the way of the walk.  It took us over an hour to get to this point – granted we were swimming upstream, but still, we’re fast.  And the walk we have shows a total of 2 hours – which is not even remotely possible judging from where we are currently.

We decide to strike out over the road and go straight into town.  It’s a “hearty” walk!  Uphill for most of the way, then over some small valleys and uphill again. Scenery is gorgeous – it’s all fallow fields and vineyards, and even a faithful British Cotswold house reproduction…

Overland in Waiheke VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

…beautiful. But all our material – and the signposts on the road – say it’s only a 30 minute walk into town. Ha!  We are thinking there is some bizarre New Zealand minutes/hours conversion thing we are missing. Because we haul – we don’t stroll – we walk – fast – and we’ve way passed the 30 minute mark without even a glimpse of the town.  Turns out it is more like 45-50 minutes to town – which – hey – we don’t care, we’ve got nothing but time – but it’s frustrating to have such bad information! 

So, that rant over, the walk was nice – great exercise – and we did get a shot of this adorable mailbox:

The town of Oneroa is a typical resort tourist town – shops, restaurants, pubs, and the like.  It’s cute –sitting up on a hillside above a pretty beach and bay below.  We perch on a tree stump at the top of the beach park with great views over the water and eat our lunch of bananas, apple and cake from our morning breakfast basket.  Nice!

After lunch, we find a cute little bar, the Sandbar, with an awesome deck overlooking the water in the distance, and treat ourselves to a glass of wine and beer.  We deserve it after our long steep walk!

Walking back to the ferry (this time their time estimate was actually correct!) we pass the Humble Pie Company!  Love it!!! “All animals are equal…but some are tastier!”

On the walk back, I spy a parking sign – 48 hours – or 2880 minutes – in case you need to micro-manage your parking that much!

We get to the ferry dock early again – but it’s better to be up front in these lines with so many people on the island.  We’re one of the first on the 2pm ferry – get comfy inside seats and then just relax our way back into Auckland.

Back up the hill to the hotel, we stop on the way for photos….sky tower and gothic church…

…and beer, Pepsi Max and rice for our leftover dinner.  We went to the Asian grocery on the corner, thinking we’d buy a small bag of rice and figure out how to measure and cook it without the proper utensils.  But all the rice is just too big there.  So, we head back down the street to the Bubbly Laundromat, where they also happen to sell food, and have a “rice box” for 2.50NZ – already cooked and ready to go! This is a first! we bought our dinner at the Laundromat!  LOL

Back at home for an early dinner and laundry – and the blog!  We’re up to date!  And all clean and ready for the ship in the morning!

1/27 - Waiheke

We actually slept late today – would have slept later even if the dumb alarm hadn’t gone off.  Don’t you just hate that when the person in the room before you leaves the alarm set?  We should have checked it, but it’s been so long since that happened, it’s not on our radar any longer.  But – it was 7am at least, and not 4am or something.  So, we made our coffee, read our books, surfed the web and just generally woke up.

Today we are heading for Waiheke, a little island about 30 minutes away from Auckland by ferry.  It was a little farming island, until it turned into an enclave for the wealthy and their summer homes. Now it is a bustling tourist destination with pretty beaches and cute little towns catering to tourists. There is also a burgeoning wine industry on the island with 18 wineries now on the island – some producing wine, some so new that the grapes aren’t coming in yet.

Our plan is to do the Southern Coastal Walk which takes about 2 hours and goes from the pier through Church Bay and on into the town of Oneroa – pretty much the highlights on the eastern side of the island. 

The walk down the hill to the pier only takes 15 minutes, and we end up at the ferry dock at 9:05, just missing the 9:00am ferry – but we’ve got all day, so we don’t really care.  We sort of wander around the pier, deciding against 4 NZ dollar coffee and end up back in the queue in front of the pier for the Waiheke ferry.  It’s early, but we figure first is better. And boy was that a good decision.  Holy cow – the line builds up like crazy – it stretches all the way through the ferry terminal out onto the street!  And we’re like 4th in line!  Go Team Stevens!

Actually, there are so many people in line, that the ferry company puts on 3 ferries to the island.  It’s a combination of Anniversary weekend, and the opening weekend of Sculpture on the Gulf, an annual outdoor sculpture exhibit every year on the island.  We get on the first ferry – and actually leave early, about 9:45.  The trip is great – we’re out back, but under a roof, so we are protected from the sun and the wind, but still able to take pictures.  Nice way to go!

		Ferry to Waiheke VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There is lots to see while we sail, tons of out outer islands – small and large – inhabited and not.  Sailboats, motor boats – every one is out today because it’s such a gorgeous day.

We land on Waiheke early as well, hopping off the ferry at 10:15.  We then start to navigate the coastal walkway – trying to find the “yellow and green” signposts that mark our way. After a couple of false starts (the stupid signs point to the parking lot – which isn’t very helpful as the trail starts off the beach), we head in the right direction for the path.

Well, right direction might be a misnomer!  It’s the right direction for the Coastal walk, but it’s the opposite direction in which all the sculpture walk people are going! We’re basically doing the sculpture walk in reverse – on a narrow track through the fields and wilderness above the island coast.  Hmmmm….lots of comments “You’re going the wrong way”, lots of retorts – “no, we’re doing the coastal walk!”.  but actually, it sort of works out because there are huge log jams at different sculptures where the line going in the “right” direction just stops (probably for 10 or 15 minutes), while we have front row seats for whatever it is everyone is looking at – because we are coming at it from the opposite direction.  Sweet! Sort of works out!

The trail is pretty tough going at first – up lots of steps, constantly rising so you are up on the top of the ridge over the water. Of course it’s a little tougher for us since we’re literally going against the flow.  We have to wait to get up the stairs, walk on the side of the trail to avoid those coming down…challenging, but sort of fun in a way! 

Scenic Waihete VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The sculptures range from interesting to “what?” – but overall, a pretty cool idea. We won’t try to explain them all – you can just view the photo album and make your own judgment!

		Sculpture on the Gulf VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The best for us was the “Temporary” sign display – these are the signs they use on the highway when they are doing work and the lower the speed limit – but only “temporary”!

1/26–Off to Auckland

We’re up early – what a surprise – and we go out walking and find this beautiful lakeside park – with great walking trails. Right up the road from the hotel.

		Hamilton Lake-Park VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Very livable city, Hamilton is!  Actually all of New Zealand – they are very focused on outdoorsy activities, walking hiking, parks, green-land.  Lovely mind set.

After breakfast (cereal, “tinned” fruit, English muffins), we organize our bags and get in the car with the GPS set to Auckland.  It’s a little over 1 1/2 hours of fairly easy driving today – no hearty roads!  But their definition of highways matches the Hawaiian definition – 2 lanes with maybe a divider. Here though – the speed limit is almost always 100KM.  Yikes!

But, we make it to the car rental return without a hitch.  Hop on the Super Shuttle and are in downtown Auckland before noon.  Of course our room isn’t ready, but that’s ok, we figured that, so we go wander around in town, scoping out restaurants and grocery stores!  We had our eye on Eliot Stables, which we’d read had a dozen restaurants and looked interesting.  Ends up being a high class food court. Fabulous restaurants – some with “inside” dining, but most sharing tables in the middle of a dark wood and intimate “food court”—best way to describe it!  There were a couple restaurants we wanted to try – figured we’d do dinner here tonight and tomorrow.  But seeing as it was lunchtime now, we decided to try Frankie’s Wurstbude restaurant which features 12 different sausages as their main meals.

We choose the chicken and peppadew (oh Maggi – what you have started with those peppadews!!!) and the Spanish chorizo – along with green salad and two different types of sauces (each chosen specifically for the sausage).  Great deal and even better food!

It’s a huge amount of salad, large sausage and it’s a very cute setting. And way cheaper than anything else around.  So we’re happy campers!

After lunch, we head out in search of the pier so we can figure out where we need to go to board the ship on Monday.  As we are finding our way in the city, we pass the Sky Tower – that huge iconic spire in the middle of town.

There are Sky Jumpers about to jump – so we sit and watch as they jump from about 192M or 600+ feet!  No F’ing way!  It’s all controlled, I get that – but no way – no how – unh uh!  Ed says he’ll do it – but not for $225! Well, whatever, I’ll wave. Or not – I probably couldn’t even look!

Off we go to the pier, where they are having the International Buskers Festival showcasing 11 of the most famous street performers.  You know, fire eaters, acrobats, jugglers, mimes and the like.  There is also the Seafood festival ($20 just to get in, then food and drink separate – not), and tons of other activities because this is Anniversary Weekend – with Monday being a national holiday.  It is the 173rd Anniversary of Auckland and there are tons of things going on all weekend, including a regatta on Monday.  We should have prime seats from our balcony on the ship!

We wander around a bit, then hit the grocery store for supplies and head back to the hotel. Our room is ready – and it’s great! Huge!  We’re supposed to have a 1 bedroom, but end up with a 2 bedroom – which is great for us since we can stow all the luggage in there!  It has a pretty decent kitchen, sitting area and there’s a washing machine! Yay! It’s a washer and dryer all in one.  Never, ever seen one of those – so this should be interesting! But it’s a bonus since it will totally help with our laundry needs!

		Auckland City Oaks Apt. VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We get all settled in, shower, then go to dinner across the street at the Mustard Seed – a Malaysian restaurant we’ve read about.

The place is oddly adorable.  It is in a hotel, in the middle of the city, but the ceiling looks like an old wooden airplane hanger – with cloudy skylights and all.  The décor is Malaysian – with different wood screens, flowers and little artifacts around the room.  Staff was wonderful – the owner, clearly Malaysian, was so friendly, talking to us, making suggestions – just a great experience.

And the food didn’t disappoint either!  We ordered a shared appetizer platter with spring rolls, beef satay, chips and samosas – excellent.  Then for our mains – I had wanted some traditional Malaysian dish they had run out of so the owner suggested I try the Chicken Rendang – fabulous – can’t tell you a think about what was in it – besides coconut flakes – but it was great – and HUGE!  Ed had some sort of Lamb (the only lamb on the menu) and it too was extraordinary, with a rich red spicy sauce.  HUGE as well!  We were bad and had 2 Roti as well (basically freshly made and grilled croissant dough…..yummy!).

It was so much food, we ended up taking most of it home for dinner tomorrow night – the bonus of having an apartment instead of a traditional hotel room!

Back at home – we’re blogging and reading and just hanging out. Tomorrow – a full day adventure on the island of Waiheke.