We took a Waiheke Winery Tour

Last updated on 19 April 2017

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A few weekends ago now I was lucky to be a ‘plus one’ on my friend’s work rip to Waiheke Island. If you’re unfamiliar with New Zealand, Waiheke is an island just off the coast of Auckland, and is home to about 8,000 residents, and over 30 vineyards. You can get the ferry over to the island from Auckland central, and it only takes about 45 minutes, so it’s not far away.

My friend, who has just recently started her new job in accounting here in Auckland, was told only about a week before that they were allowed to take a ‘plus one’ with them, and that was me! We caught the 11am ferry from Auckland, and spent an entire Sunday afternoon over there, being shuttled around by a friendly mini-bus driver on a tour of 3 different wineries. I’ve decided to split the trip into two posts, because it might get a bit long otherwise. Today I’ll share a little about the wineries, and then look out for a post with some pictures of the island.

We went to a winery called Batch first, and tried four different wines, and had lunch there. It had be tipping with rain the day before, so we were holding our breath and were ready with umbrellas, should the weather turn in. But it turned out to be an incredibly beautiful day! It was a little overcast, but considering what the previous day was like, we were so lucky. Lunch was outside, therefore, and we sat under sun umbrellas, looking out from the top of a hill, over the island and the ocean. Truly beautiful. For lunch the options were salmon, bacon and egg pie, or mozzarella. I went with the mozzarella, because I don’t like salmon and I wasn’t feeling like pie. While it was just a decorative portion, it was really yummy and looked beautiful .

After lunch, we headed to another winery called Kennedy Point. They were a 100% organic vineyard, which I think is so neat. There we tried 3 wines, and we were given the tour, including being told about their hand-picked vines and also their olive oil side projects. They also had two highland cattle (even they were from an organic cow place…), and they were there purely for manure purposes, and were fed the stems and leaves from the grapes when they were harvested. Unfortunately they were in a paddock somewhere and we didn’t see them. That was a bit sad (you guys know how much I love highland cattle!).

The third and final place we went was called Te Motu, and we tried 4 different wines, mostly reds. This one was the only place we didn’t have tour of their machinery and how they make it. Perhaps they figured that this was our third and final of thee day so we’d already seen it the other place. There was a guy working at the vineyard who was from Urugauy, and he came to NZ in Februrary, knowing no England at all, and he was having full on conversations with my friend’s boss…he learnt so fast! My goodness! I only comment on this because because he’s from Uruguay he speaks Portuguese, and I was going to say ‘obrigado’ as we left, which means ‘thank-you’ and is the only word I remembered from our time  in Portugal last year. But I didn’t. Boo. So, guy on Waiheke at Te Motu vineyard, if you’re reading this, obrigado!

Then we got a mini tour of the island (pictures in next post!), had a gelato, and headed back on the 5pm ferry. If you count up all those wines…that was 11 wines we tasted, and while the first 7 were literally just a taste, at the last place, it was nearly half a glass of each she gave us! Yes, I was a little out of it on the way home.

It was such an awesome day! I hadn’t been to Waiheke before, so it was really neat to be able to go, especially all expenses paid for! Thanks, accountants!  I’d love to go again and check out the island some more!