Day 07 - Friday 19th September

Suzy had organised to have breakfast this morning with a former work colleague from the Auckland office. They'd organised to meet at a restaurant near the waterfront at 8am. Afterwards she planned to spend time in the waterfront area looking at the shops.

I decided to have breakfast in our hotel. It was a buffet breakfast in the restaurant on the lobby level.

We'd booked to go on the Taste of Waiheke Tour today. Waiheke is one of the islands in the bay near Auckland. The island is famous for its wines.

The tour left the waterfront at 11am. While we were waiting, we noticed a surprising number of police officers in the area. I wandered up to one of the policemen and asked if there were usually so many police around or whether they'd stepped up their activities here following the anti-terror raids in Sydney yesterday. He assured me it was all OK - they were here to welcome a friend arriving on a ferry.

The trip across to the island took about 45 minutes and went via Devonport to pick up more passengers. At the ferry wharf at Matiata, we were met by the tour guide Allan who was to drive us around and give us commentary as we went.

The first stop was Stonyridge Vineyard where the local guide showed us the vineyard and explained their wines. It started to rain and he ushered us inside for our light lunch. After lunch we went to Rangihoua Estate for olive tasting. Next we went to Wild on Waiheke who specialise in wine, beer, ginger beer and rum.

The final stop on the tour was Mudbrick Vineyard. They'd saved the best to last. The vineyard is in a beautiful setting overlooking the bay. The vineyard host showed up to the top of the hill above the vineyard where the view is spectacular. Apparently this vineyard is very popular for weddings - almost 200 per year.

Allan dropped most of the passengers back at the ferry terminal for the 4pm ferry. Suzy and I decided to take up the offer to stay longer on the island - they let you use the bus ticket until midnight. Allan dove us back to the main town where we checked out the shops and bought an ice cream before catching the bus back to the ferry.

We were back at the Auckland waterfront by 5:30pm. It was a most enjoyable outing.

For dinner we found our way to the Soffitel Hotel which was on the waterfront about 2km away. As you would expect, it was a delicious elegant meal. We walked back up the hill to our hotel.