When visiting Auckland, Waitheke Island is always listed as a top place to visit and it Is known for beaches and wineries. The recommended day trip is to take a 45 minute ferry from Auckland and rent bikes and ride to various wineries. We had saved our trip to Waitheke Island to our one full day of forecast sunshine and for once, the forecast was accurate. We didn’t check closely, but decided to book a tour to take us around to recommended wineries instead of riding bikes. The bike ride would have been pretty strenuous as the island was very hilly and to visit the best wineries it would have been a 30-40 mile ride, so the tour was the way to go.
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The first place we went was Cable Bay Vineyards, overlooking a bay and Auckland in the distance with a great setting and decent wine which was followed by lunch at another winery – Batch – which was at the highest point on the island. We had longer visits in the afternoon at two of the more established wineries, Stonyridge and Mudbrick as well as a stop at Onetangi Beach. We used a tour company called “Waitheke Wine Tours” and the guide was good. We didn’t buy any wines to take with us as we were already overloaded on luggage heading back to the USA.
After a tough day of wine tasting, we headed back to Auckland on the ferry. Although my view of Auckland is a bit scarred from the rain and the delays in travel, a sunny day at Waitheke Island is tough to beat.
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