The whole story

On the 8th of February we decided to head to Waiheke Island, we have not had great past experience at Waiheke so we were a bit dubious about the whole thing. We motored over to the Island getting to Matiatia Bay at about 9.30ish. Matiatia Bay is where the Ferry from Auckland comes into the Island, so it can be very busy and congested. We were lucky though and found room to anchor. We walked into Oneroa one of the suburbs? of Waiheke, looking for a B'day present for our Daughter Hollie. Oneroa is the "Tourist spot" of Waiheke, all the shops, cafe's, restaurants etc were aimed at the tourist's, definitely not our scene. But we found a gift for Hollie and posted it off to her, then we had lunch, Chips :-) When we got back to the boat we filled the tanks up with water at the wharf and then scarpered out of there. We motored over to Patiki Bay and anchored up next to a buoy, we both questioned what the buoy could be for, but decided that we weren't too close. At about 5.30 (wine time) we discovered what the buoy was, it was the yacht racing mark for the local club, so after watching the first rounding of the mark at very close quarters, we upped anchor and moved away to a more quiet spot.

9th of Feb saw us rowing into Ostend, another suburb/village of Waiheke, we had been told there might be a laundry place, so we took our washing on the off-chance. Walking was pretty warm and it ended up being a few kilometres to the shops. The laundry place wanted to charge us $28 dollars a load ( get real) so we passed on that. We found the supermarket and bought some peaches, plums and meat then headed back to the boat.

10th Feb rowed into Shelly Beach hoping to experience Waiheke's famous wine tasting, vineyards etc. We walked up the hill to Goldwater Estate, we had to kill an hour because they opened at 12, we then went in the vines were pretty cool, but the charged $10 for 5 tastes of wine, and the cheapest bottles of Red were $28, so we gave that a miss as well. We rowed back to the boat and had a lovely homemade salad sandwich and a glass of Chateau Cardboard, way better value. We then motored over to Awaawaroa Bay (and yes that is how you spell it). We stayed in Awaawaroa Bay for 2 nights, we managed a feed of mussels off the rocks but then the wind picked up and kicked a chop on the 12th, so we motored around to Kauakarau Bay before breakfast. We went for a bush walk around the regional park, up to a place called the "Cascades", a very tame waterfall, was a lovely walk.

13th Walked around the shore track from Kauakarau Bay to Putiki Bay, when walking on the Te Whau road we found a Olive Oil place, so we stopped in for a gander. It was great, they had Alpacas which they shear for their wool and make garments from, and they also sell lovely Olive oil. We did a tasting (way better than wine) and bought a bottle. When we got home I made a loaf of Foccacia bread, and we had that for tea with the Olive oil, delicious. 14th We caught the bus over to Ostend to stock up for our trip to the Barrier, it was actually quite fun, and they have a great Bus service here. 15th We motored around to Patiki Bay again before breakfast as a roll had come in over night, we had breakfast, then walked up to Placemakers for a new bucket.

Now that brings us to today, we sailed off the anchor this morning (without any mishaps) and headed over to Motuihe Island, in the hope of seeing some of the Mega-yachts that are here for the Millenium Cup. Didn't see much of the yachts but had a lovely walk around some of the island, then back to Kabuki for a rest. It is almost wine time again, we will be able to sit here in the cockpit over looking Rangitoto island and the skyline of Auckland, bliss.