Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Auckland, New Zealand. Excursion: Wonderful Waiheke.

Views from a hill on Waiheke Island

The sun is out at last - it has made a wonderful change to the gloomy weather we have had over the past few days.

After the Maasdam docked in Auckland it was good to set foot on terra firma again. Being a partial turn-around day, almost half of the ship's guests said their goodbyes and headed for home. Others who were staying on until Sydney either did a tour or went out to explore the town.

I met up with the excursion group I was assigned to and we headed out onto the pier. We got stuck on the gangway, though, meeting up with the tail-end of the guests disembarking. Some had their suitcases with them, others were going to meet up with their already offloaded suitcases. We eventually managed to get past the crowd and passed by security who had brought their sniffer dog with them. The young dog was a very eager chap, dutifully sniffing our bags and wagging his tail as we filtered slowly past. I wondered if he would pass out on smelling my rucksack - I'm sure it stank of perspiration! Nope, it passed the sniff test and the dog didn't pass out. I wonder if any body was caught out for bringing food off the ship, but at least those with me were sensible.

Looking back towards Auckland whilst on the ferry to Waiheke

A tour guide met up with us and walked us around the docks to the ferry that was to take us to Waiheke Island. I'm glad she took us there otherwise we would have no doubt got lost or caught the wrong ferry. She left us at the entrance to the ferry and promised that someone would be waiting for us at the ferry terminal on Waiheke. I was a bit nervous and hoped that would be the case.

View over Little Palm Beach/Nudie Beach

The guests disappeared amongst the crowds on the ferry. Some went and sat out on the top open deck, catching a high speed breeze through their hair and having their faces realigned; others sat in the closed areas of the lower and middle decks. Unfortunately I found myself sitting right under an air-conditioning unit. There were no other seats available and I was just about frozen solid by the time we arrived at Waiheke. I managed to doze for about 20 minutes during the half hour crossing, hugging my fleece jersey tightly.

Our lovely guide and driver, Kate, was very punctual and was waiting at the ferry terminal for us. She made us feel welcome and her sunny personality soon had us under her spell. Our tour consisted of a nice drive around the beautiful island with photographic stops now and then, including at a viewpoint over Little Palm Beach - also called 'nudie beach' - for the obvious reason. There was a footpath down to the beach but there was no time to have a wander down.

Onetangi Beach

Trigg Hill - team building competition on segways

We stopped at Onetangi beach and had tea and scones at a cafe (called Charlie Farley) just across the road from the beach. The scones were savoury with herbs in them with what looked like melted cheese on top. They were huge but delicious, served with butter and jam. I barely managed half a scone. A few sparrows joined us, looking for a tiny morsel, and went for the crumbs that had dropped down near our feet. One cheeky chap flew onto the table and helped himself to a few crumbs from a guest's empty plate. The serving table on which the tea and scones had been placed became a magnate for sparrows and 2 starlings. The remaining 2 scones on the plate had not been covered up and the starlings dug their beaks into the scones, grabbing a beak-full. It was quite funny. Eventually a waitress noticed something was up and shoo'd the starlings away and covered the, by now, holey scones. Fortunately nobody wanted any more scones!

Back on the minibus again, Kate took us up Trigg Hill for a photo stop. There was the start-point of a zip line but we weren't booked to go on it, which was a pity. Nearby was a group of people on segways. It seemed to be a team-building day out and there was some form of competition going on using the segways - i.e. obstacle course, picking things up from the floor as the segways went past, etc. It looked like people were having oodles of fun.

Stoneyridge Vineyard

Our next stop was the Stoneyridge Vineyard for a bit of wine tasting. Kate dropped us off and left us in the capable hands of a young Frenchman who took us through the olive groves and cork trees on the property which overlooked the vineyards. It was very pleasant listening to our young vineyard guide as we tasted some wines whilst under the cover of the trees. We also had the opportunity to taste some olive oil with bread. The olive oil production is a fairly new venture for Stoneyridge. The olive trees had been on the property for quite some time to provide shade but another staff member, in recent times, suggested they harvest the olives to make olive oil. There is a press on the island and no matter how small a crop of olives someone has, the processing plant will press the olives.

Batch Winery - wine vats

After about 45 minutes, Kate rounded us up and we were soon on our way to Batch Winery, another boutique winery. There we tasted some more wines and a winery staff member talked about the wine-making process and showed us the brewing vats. Afterwards we were free to walk around the property which was situated on a hill. The views were beautiful.

It was soon time to head back to catch our ferry. Kate dropped us off at the ferry terminal and we made our way onto the ferry for the crossing back to Auckland. I spent a few minutes on the top deck but once the ferry got going, I got quite cold from the wind so I headed downstairs to the middle enclosed deck. Fortunately I found a seat next to a window and basked in the sun, dozing off until the crew announced our impending arrival over the loudspeakers.

The Maasdam's route to Waitangi - our next destination

I made my way back to the ship but most guests headed into town for another hour or so before the 'all aboard' time for the Maasdam's departure.

It has been a very pleasant day overall.

PHOTOGRAPHS