Waiheke Island Visit

After Raglan, mine & Greg's next stop in NZ was Waiheke Island. So, we traveled back up to Auckland, then took the ferry over to the island. Waiheke is made up of about 10 really small towns and due to the island's numerous hills, you need to take a small city bus to get from town to town if you don't have a car. So, after arriving by ferry, we took the bus to Onetangi, the last town on the island, which was where our hostel was located. The hostel was REALLY high up on a hill, which made for a lot of exercise to get down to the beach, but the view was completely breathtaking. You just walked 50 feet outside the front of the hostel and you were standing near a cliff overlooking a beutiful beach with rich, green hills on either side. To actually get to the beach, however, you had to walk down a ton of steps (I think about 150?). Going down wasn't so bad; the killer was going back up! The view was worth it though =)

Since Greg had been working in Waiheke for about 3 weeks prior to our travels together, he had already built up a friend base at the hostel. So, I got to meet all of the people I had previously only heard Greg talk about--Frederic (Fred) from France, Phillipo from Italy, Robby from Scotland, Nina & Martha from England, Manuel and Sebastian from Argentina, Lucy from France, AND I was reunited with Paulo! They were a tight group from working together in the vineyards& living together in the hostel. One of their favorite things to do after work was to come back to the hostel, crank up some sweet reggae music on the kitchen stereo, and dance around the kitchen while cooking up a mad meal. Robbie quite enjoyed pulling out some Scottish dance moves too haha. Paulo described it right when he said the group had a good ambience. Greg & I stayed in Waiheke for 4 nights. We just lounged around for a couple of days (you do a lot of that in NZ if you haven't noticed) & spent one afternoon down at the beach. Finally, I got some more sun! The weather in NZ basically everywhere outside of Auckland and Waiheke has cooled down now, with the temperature usually being in the 50s or 60s. So, it was nice to be able to sit out on the beach & soak up some sun.

The third night we were in Waiheke, a couple people from Greg's vineyard (Lucy & Robby) were having a get-together at their house & invited us over. They had previously stayed at the same hostel with everyone else too, but were lucky enough to find a great deal staying in a house nearby. A really nice rich woman who lives in Waiheke apparently owns 5 properties & lets backpackers stay in this one for $70 to $85 a week, which is much cheaper than any hostel. The house is on a huge property surrounded by vineyards, orchards, hills, and has a great outside deck complete with a foosball table. So, a group of us walked over there with some wine & beer in hand. When we walked in, there was a guy who also lived there that didn't work the vineyards, so the group from the hostel didn't know him & were doing introductions. I was shocked, however, to realize that I recognized him immediately; it was Danny from Missouri who Sontsa, Brigita & I had met in Auckland our first week in NZ two and half months ago! It is soo crazy how you run into people multiple times while you're traveling around this country. I caught up with Danny a bit, and had a really fun night hanging out with him, Greg, Robby, Manuel, Sebastian, Fred, Lucy, and two other guys that were there, Carlos from Mexico & Andrew from Canada. Lucy was a trip...and that's all I'm going to say about that haha.

My favorite night, however, was the next night. Although Lucy, Robby & Danny have it really good living at the house they're in, Paulo has it even better. He works at a different vineyard than all the others & the owner of his vineyard has Paulo set up in a house with the owner's son and a few other people living there for FREE, with FREE internet. They even feed him! The only thing Paulo has to pay is $25 a week to go toward the food. So, our last night on the island, Paulo invited Greg & I over for a dinner at their house. Now, I first have to describe our trek (hike) to get to Paulo's house..oh my. Haha. Greg had told me in his French accent, "Paulo lives just around the corner..not far." So, we start walking at about 6:45 pm when it is already practically pitch black outside. We turn some corners & get to the top of this hill. Looking down, all you see is what seems like acres of olive tree orchards and vineyards. I asked where Paulo's house was from there, and Greg pointed to a small yellow light in the far off distance and matter-of-factly said "That's Paulo's house." Ha! Our definitions of 'around the corner' are apparently a little different. =)

So, we headed down the steep hill, walked through these lines of olive trees in the dark, across this little bridge where I saw a rat the size of a small cat, through some vineyards, and finally reached the house. I swear...everything in NZ is an experiene haha. When we got to the house, we met the vineyard owner's son Sam, his girlfriend Michelle from Canada, Scully another local Kiwi, and Elliott from Canada. Andrew was also there who we had met the night before. It was a blast! Paulo, Sam & Michelle cooked a wonderful meal for us all. We had bruschetta with bacon for an appetizer. Then, steaks, potatoes, and bread for our main course. We also had a couple of different red wines to enjoy with our meal. These wines came from particularly special vineyards though--Te Motu, the vineyard Sam's dad owns where Paulo works, and Chateau de Roques, Greg's family's vineyard back in France. Greg had been carrying around his bottle of red wine from his home vineyard for months & finally opened it for that evening =) For dessert, we had some white chocolate and dessert wine. Mmm...it was all sooo good! I can definitely say that being in NZ and around Greg & Paulo has made me gain an appreciation for wine. Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Waiheke and was a bit sad to leave so soon. I would have liked to spend more time with all of the new people I had met, but maybe I'll run into them again later =)

Cheers,
Ash