Waiheke Island, New Zealand {aka Paradise}

Waiheke Island, New Zealand ~ March 19-23, 2013

I set off to New Zealand to meet up with my cousin, Lee Anne, and a few other girls that we went to high school with in Phoenix to attend the wedding of another high school classmate and, of course, to explore New Zealand.  Honestly, I didn't have a real clear idea of what to expect of New Zealand.  David and I are pretty OCD travelers, and when we travel together, there's almost always a day-by-day itinerary, tickets/reservations for all attractions and restaurants in advance, maps/routes planned out, etc.  I get really into it usually, and I love trolling around on Trip Advisor and pouring through my Australia travel book.  This trip was a little different.  Obviously, there were more people involved (6 in total), and the whole thing was just much more laid back and relaxed.  Plus, I'd been super busy with work in the couple months leading up to the trip, which hadn't left me much time to obsess over travel books or Trip Advisor.  I was actually kind of looking forward to a different travel style.  So I guess it's safe to say that I really didn't have all that many expectations of what to expect in NZ.  However, I think it is safe to say, that any expectations that I did or could have had were absolutely blown away and exceeded.  New Zealand. Is. Incredible.  I loved it.  Loved everything about it.  I can go on and on (and I will), but for now, I'll start with just Waiheke Island. 

Waiheke Island is a small island just off the coast of New Zealand.  It's about a 40 minute ferry ride from Auckland.  It didn't take long for all of us to fall in love with it.  And I kid you not, by the second day there, we were (only half-jokingly) talking about wanting to buy a place there.  Just another day or two later, the six of us were actually getting somewhat serious about it and even picked up some real estate magazines.  One can dream, right?  Retirement, maybe?  :-)  But really, Waiheke Island is just that incredible.  It ranks right up there in my top 3 favorite and most beautiful beaches that I've ever been.  Here, have a look for yourself...

The cute little beach town of Oneroa

Free wine tasting? Yes, please!

Someday I will have a beach house with a porch like this... sigh...

One of the girls there for the wedding was training to be a yoga instructor, so she offered to give us a yoga class with an amazing view!

 

House shopping/dreaming

Dreamy, isn't it?

Our first day there, we got settled into where we were staying and enjoyed the views with some wine and cheese. 

Cheese, wine, and llamas!

Later that evening was the Groom's dinner.  The groom is actually from Scotland, so it was fun to see all the little Scottish touches that the groom's family added to the night.  It was a beautiful night! 

The view for dinner

They brought in a wood fire pizza food stand for dinner!



Scottish details - Scottish soaps "for the lassies," Auld Scots Words, kilts!

Scottish Band, and crazy blurry Scottish dancing

There was even a flash mob (skip forward to minute 2:30 or so- there was some issues with the music at first)!  All of the guests had been sent an instructional video a few weeks prior, and it was pretty impressive how well everyone knew the moves! 

The next day, we visited a place called Wild On Waiheke.  It's a winery and brewery where you can also do archery and laser clay bird shooting.  Genius!!  Someone open something in the US like this.  Oh, and they have tons of giant bean bags to sit on and drink your wine in- perfection.

The following day was the wedding.  There's not really much else to say about the wedding, except for the fact that it was by far the most gorgeous wedding I have ever (and probably will ever) attend.  The ceremony was at a place called Lavender Hill on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.  Stunning.  The reception was at a vineyard called Mudbrick.  Seriously, insanely beautiful and there were so many very thoughtful details throughout the entire day.  Wow is all I can say. 

View from the ceremony - And lavender everywhere!

Amazing cocktails post-ceremony.  And this cute pup belonged to the owner of this place- he looked down on everyone the entire ceremony. 

I can claim Phoenix, Houston, and Brisbane :-)

View from the reception

The start of a gorgeous sunset

I mean seriously with this sunset?!

 

Our last full day on Waiheke Island was spent on a winery tour- we visited The Obsidian Winery, Peacock Sky Vineyard, and Kennedy Point Vineyard .  We had an awesome tour guide, Christine, who seriously was full of interesting information and fun factoids about the island.  My favorite being (well 2 favorites): 1.) Waiheke Island does not have any native mammals or birds  and 2.) New Zealand's only native land mammal is a bat AND there are no snakes, spiders, or any predatory animals for that matter.  WHAT?!?!?!  Living in Australia for the past 8 months where just about every creature has the potential to kill or at least injure you (OK maybe I'm exaggerating), this was a huge deal to me!  Another interesting thing about the wine tour is that two of the wineries we visited were owned by Americans who had visited Waiheke on vacation, fell in love, bought property, and never returned.  See?!  We weren't the only ones who wanted to stay!

Wine and grape tasting

 

This winery was completely organic.  These two cows are living the life there- their job is to clear the fields, eat the old vines, and provide "fertilizer"

This winery also made honey.  These trees (and the bees of course) are the source of the delicious Manuka honey- which is also used in many New Zealand beauty products.

Phew! Congrats if you made it this far.  As you can tell, I had a really hard time narrowing down the photos to include.  Missing Waiheke already... time to plan a trip back- this time with the husband!