Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Another transit day, this time to our last stop on our trip before we begin the multiple steps to get home.

Auckland was originally our last stop in NZ, before we swapped out time in Suva with three days on Waiheke Island. This had to do with covid protocols at the time; spending less than 48 hours in Fiji on the way back meant we were considered in transit (and thus lesser protocols).

It did mess up other planning though. The car rental, booked much earlier at a really cheap rate, with changes not allowed, ended today. So we had to drive the car to the airport, and then Uber back to town so we could catch the ferry to Waiheke.

Some car rental stats:
South Island 2488km, 155km/day
North Island 1168km, 130km/day
Total 3656km, 146km/day

We also had to rejig our backpacks to fit into just a suitcase and our weekend backpack. It was an adjustment after having a car for six weeks which was an extension of our storage. The bnb hosts offered to take any items we no longer needed, like our cooler and freezer packs.

It was still drizzling as we made our way to the ferry line up. It drizzled pretty much the whole time we were in Auckland. Waiheke Island is a popular destination in the summer for folks in Auckland, and in the local media we’d read there had been some long lines for ferry. It wasn’t too bad though; we got on the next ferry (the 45 minute ferry runs hourly).

We reached Waiheke around noon. Our bnb here also included a car rental (a Hyundai Tucson). The car was available immediately, parked near the ferry; but we’d have to wait until 2:30pm before we could check in to the bnb.

We had lunch at Ahipao, which for a café servicing the ferry terminal crowds had really good food. I had eggs benedict, probably for the last time on this trip. It’s a popular menu item here in NZ.

The restaurant has some cool little milk dispensers for tea / coffee. They had the name of the ceramic place stamped on the bottom, from right here on the island (Waiheke Ceramics). So that’s where we headed after lunch!

Nearby was Obsidian Wines, and we were in need of a wine for dinner, so we headed there next. We got a bottle of their Montepulciano for our pizza take-out tonight.

That took us to 2:30pm, nicely timed to when we could checkin. Our bnb is in a cottage environment (most places here are), up a narrow road. To park you have to get the vehicle to hug the hill, so that there’s room to pass. It took me a few tries, I was still getting used to the larger vehicle. Anyways finally parked.

Lugged all our stuff up the stairs to our bnb. For the first time on this trip, we didn’t have potable water. So we had to head out to the nearby Four Square (a mini-market) for bottled water. And then park again. Although this time it took fewer attempts :)

For dinner we had take-out pizza from La Dolce Vita. (Nailed the parking this time!). The pizza was amazing, as were their salads. Went really well with our wine.