Waiheke Island

We decided to delay our departure from Auckland by a day in order to visit Waiheke Island, which lies at the mouth of Auckland Bay.  It is reached by a 40 min. catamaran trip from Auckland harbour and is a popular tourist resort.  The wealthy now have holiday homes here but there is also an older community which is less aspirational.  A big appeal for us was that you can hire bikes, which we did.

There are a number of vineyards and wineries on the island but we decided to give these a miss;  last night I had phoned my second coz, John, who seemed stacked at the prospect of meeting a long-lost relly.  John used to be in the wine business and has promised to show us the much more extensive wine region around Marlborough Sound.

The island is very hilly and the sun was very hot.  Due, we think, to a hole in the ozone layer the sun seems to have enhanced burning qualities down here. In spite of having plastered ourselves in Factor 30 suncream before setting out, we were starting to look noticeably pink by lunchtime and had to apply a fresh layer.

This is the last week of the school holidays and the recommended route had a lot more traffic than we would have liked so we decided to make our own.  Up to now we had seen only the prosperous, well-tended side of the island but having pushed our bikes along a short causeway across marshy ground, we arrived in hillbilly country.   Ancient Holden pick-up trucks  became the order of the day, while rusty VW campervans mouldered in overgrown driveways.  At last there wasn't much traffic.

Here and there the route returned to the coast and some of these stretches were delightful, the sea being an almost unbelievable turquoise colour.

Returning to downtown Auckland we found ourselves with an hour to spare and so headed for Auckland's newest landmark, the n-hundred metre Sky Tower.  This does indeed tower over everything else as can be seen from this harbour shot but the price to go up it ($28 a head) also seemed a bit elevated so the view from the top remains in our imaginations.