D44 -- Wine & Olives on Waiheke

Breakfast at Te Whau was awesome – I will spare you the details as I'm sure you’re all getting sick of us obsessing about food!


After leaving the lodge we took a short stroll through a garden across the street from the lodge. It was quite pretty with lots of small but interesting sculptures throughout, but it was a little hot so we didn’t linger for very long. Plus, the noise from the cicadas was deafening. It reminded me of those old summer days back in the trailer park.


We stopped by Vino Vino to pick up my purse (the waitresses had used our camera to take a few pics!) and then headed over to picturesque Mudbrick Winery. We tasted six of their wines and had lunch in their café, which is set on a hill overlooking the bay and Auckland. Our last stop before leaving Waiheke Island was Rangihoua Estate, where we got to taste several different blends of olive oil. They all had really strong flavors to them, with some tasting like apple and others tasting like grass. I didn’t know olive oil could have such diversity!


The wind had really picked up by then and on the ferry ride back to Auckland we saw tons of windsurfers speeding through the bay. Back in Auckland we checked into the historic Braemer House B&B. Much as we love to save money, we weren’t going back to Xbase, especially after hearing from my mom that there’s been an outbreak of bedbugs in NZ and Australia. We walked around Auckland a bit and went up to the observation deck of the Sky Tower, the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere. There were very nice views, including the sail boat-packed harbor and lots of extinct volcanoes around town. We saw the words “Mexican Café” on a roof from the Sky Tower and made a beeline there for dinner. My margarita was pretty awful, but the rest of the food was very good, particularly the chips and salsa!

-Elva