We grabbed breakfast and then went downstairs to join the group for our first day of touring. We got to sit in the front row of the bus today (Tauck always has a seating chart that changes daily). We were the first ones on the bus so most people introduced themselves as they boarded, but so far we’re both having difficulty remembering anyone’s name!
As expected, I am the youngest person on the trip. I gave up hoping anyone on these tours would be close to my age, now it’s just a question of how many decades are between me and the next youngest person on the trip, which in this case might very well be Dad.
There are only 17 people on this trip so we don’t even fill up a tour bus. After everyone was present and accounted for we took a very short ride down Queen Street to the harbour, where we caught a ferry for Waiheke Island (pronounced why-hickey).
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| Renee and Andy |
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| Ferry to Waiheke Island |
Our very knowledgable tour guide/bus driver, Alan, drove us on a sight-seeing tour of the island. His commentary was quite funny, full of local stories and a few jokes at the expense of both tourists and locals. My personal favorite was his explanation for why one stretch of road above the first beach after the wharf. He said they had to install the safety railing because men driving around the corner would catch sight of all the bikini clad women on the beach and drive off the hill into the changing tents.
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| Our driver, Alan. |
I didn’t know that some olives are picked riper than others.
Our visit concluded with an olive oil tasting. The first one tasted like green apples. Then there was a dish of real apples to clear your pallet. The last two oils were similar, but were their higher end olive oils, so they were more buttery and a little bit stronger. I quite liked the last one.
They also had a pesto-style spread you could sample which was delicious! I’m not 100% sure what the herbs were, but they joked that it was full of Waiheke weeds!
They also had some locally produced honey, made from the local cure-all Tea Trees. It was really tasty too.
Ultimately, Dad and I ordered a bottle of the gold label olive oil (rated in the guide to the best olive oils of the world), a jar of the herb spread, and a jar of the Man-O-War honey.
After that we cut through the middle of the island and over to Mudbrick winery for a brief wine lecture and lunch. It was a beautiful winery! What a view! The winery takes it’s name from the building material of the main building. The bricks are yellowish, and are sun hardened mud, warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
The wines were pre-poured when we arrived. Dad and I challenged ourselves to identify them by smell before we were told what they were. I beat him this time, by identifying them all more-or-less correctly.
We had two whites and two reds.
From left to right I said we had: a sauvignon blanc/semillon, a chardonnay, a cabernet, and a shiraz. (Dad disagreed about the last two, thinking the shiraz was on the left).
What we actually had: a sauvignon blanc, a chardonnay, a merlot/cab blend, and a shiraz. Was I close or was I close?
The sauvignon blanc didn’t have a New Zealand varietal nose, but it was nice. The chardonnay was better though, really balanced. One third of the chardonnay had spent 10 months in a new oak barrel, so it had a hint of oakiness without being overwhelming. The merlot/cab didn’t do it for us, lots of interesting notes but no cohesiveness. The shiraz had a lot of black pepper, both in the nose and on the pallet. It and the chardonnay were the best wines.
After our lecture/tasting lunch was served. It was cool in the room so the hot food really hit the spot. I had delicious line-caught fish that was perfectly cooked and succulent. I told Dad it didn’t taste quite as good as the fish we got at the end of our coastal cliff walk in Falmouth, but only because I didn’t work as hard for it. It was served on top of something that was either a potato or cauliflower mash, with a hint of butter, which was fantastic!
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| Garden behind the winery |
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| Vinyard |
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| Art shot in the garden |
When dessert finally came it was delicious. Mine had chocolate mouse and cinnamon ice cream.
After our lunch we took the bus back down to the ferry terminal and bid Alan goodbye.
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| Auckland from the water |
Our normal bus driver, Andy, picked us up in Auckland and made several stops on his way back to the hotel. Dad and I got out at Parnell Road, a charming hill lined with shops, restaurants, and coffee shops (every third storefront is a coffee shop). We browsed for a while. Dad bought a pair of possum-wool gloves (supposedly they’re very warm).
It started to drizzle so we took refuge in the local chain coffee shop, Esquires. It was much better than Starbucks (the muffin was quite tasty), but their chai tea latte sadly did not rival yesterdays.
Once the rain stopped we managed to walk back to the hotel, which took about twenty minutes and was partially uphill, but was nice once we warmed up after the exercise. Temperatures in Auckland are definitely cooler than Sydney. Today’s high was only about 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
For dinner we contemplated going out into the city, but it was cold and wet, so we decided to go back to Eight. I had excellent vegetarian stir-fry and a bread and butter pudding for dessert.
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