Waiheke Island is not a place to hurry. Here you take time to look around you, enjoy the scenery, soak up the ambience. When you drive off the Waiheke car ferry at Kennedy Point, the first thing you see is a large sign reading, ‘Slow down. You’re here’. It’s not just a road safety advisory - although local roads are certainly narrow and winding and some are still unsealed — but more an introduction to the island way of life. Also, if you go too fast, you might miss something along the way, because Waiheke really is full of delights.
If you’ve arrived on a Saturday, the first attraction will be up the hill at the Ostend market, at the War Memorial Hall. There’s food here, both fast and slow, and art and craft, books and clothes, as well as gossip and friendly locals.
When you’ve had a coffee along the road at Nourish, push on to Te Whau (one of several dozen vineyards on the island) for a spot of wine-tasting and maybe a delicious lunch in the flying-saucer restaurant with its 360-degree views of blue water, green hills and sheltered little beaches; then head north to Onetangi, which is neither of those things.
Long, open and popular with surfers, this is the location for Beach Day in February when horses, amphibious boats and tractors come to race, and sand-castle builders compete for glory; but it’s glorious any time of year. Stop for a paddle — or a swim as Waiheke’s climate is often 5 degrees warmer than Auckland’s.
Head over the hills towards Stony Batter: it’s a no-exit road leading to a walk past dramatic boulders scattered across the paddocks, some of them given a personal touch. At the end of the track are concrete gun emplacements that happily saw no drama at all during the Second World War, but now give visitors some thrills exploring the dark tunnels underneath. You can borrow a torch from the little museum which is run by enthusiasts and well worth a look.
The loop continues past a series of small bays and over green and golden hills where clusters of quirky letterboxes are the only sign that lucky people live here. Back on the tarseal, Passage Rock Wines has been credited by the New York Times with “the world’s best pizza” – and the Syrah’s good, too.
Swoop past Onetangi again and drop into Palm Beach, sheltered and pretty and many people’s favourite; then head into town. Oneroa has cafés, shops, restaurants and views, fabulous views over the beach below and the bay’s boats and turquoise water. There are galleries here — Waiheke’s laid-back vibe attracts artists of all sorts — and a don’t-miss Musical Museum. If you’re lucky, Lloyd and Joan Whittaker will be giving a live performance on their extraordinary collection of rare and antique instruments from all over the world.
By now, you must be hungry again. Beyond Oneroa, Cable Bay and Mudbrick vineyards have very different, but equally appealing, restaurants with distant views of the city and excellent food. (And wine.) There are sculptures in their gardens — selections from the biennial Sculpture Trail that follows the headlands, the imaginative installations competing for attention with spectacular harbour views.
At one end of the trail is Matiatia, where the calm sea is disturbed only by the passenger ferries from the city, and groups of holiday-makers heading out in brightly-coloured kayaks hoping to spot dolphins and whales. You could be one of them, but you have to get back to Kennedy Point to catch the car ferry back to the city’s bustle. Don’t you wish you’d come for longer?
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1 Comments
the best place ever
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