60 I Weekend in... Auckland
past picturesque headlands and beaches, with verdant Rangitoto Island – Auckland’s youngest volcano – peaking gently on our left. After 40 minutes we reach our destination, Waiheke
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Island, renowned for its laid-back, alternative lifestyle – Kiwis everywhere are laid back so you can imagine how easygoing the pace of life is here – as well as its fine wine dining scene and gloriously accessible vineyards. Aucklanders love to pop over to the island for a wine tasting followed by some seriously good food cooked in vineyard restaurants with views stretching away down vine rows to sparkling bays. Our ferry docks in beautiful Matiatia Bay at the western end of the island, which stretches just under 20 kilometres west to east, but whose coastline is 133 kilometres long thanks to a host of inlets. I’m due to meet up with a guide at one of the nearest vineyards but I’ve arrived early so I can walk a section of the southern coastal path. The weather is kind, and as I set out, first passing kayaks pulled up on the beach, then climbing through indigenous forest onto the headland, the sun breaks through cotton wool clouds, shafts of light illuminating the city way off on the horizon across a cerulean sea. It’s a glorious hike, undulating around the coastline,
dropping from ridges to black-sand beaches and passing idyllic homesteads fronted by verandas with panoramic views to die for. All the way I’m thrilled by the exotic nature of Waiheke’s flora, from tussock grass so spongy you sink into it like the softest mattress, to intricate hanging seed pods and tree-sized ferns. I pass through a silent, overgrown “Middle-Earthern”
wood and come out beside an alpaca farm that leads to a winding country road across the top of the island. On both sides thick woods give way to farmland and huge sloping fields filled with rows of grape-laden vines covered by netting. There are few cars on the road and soon I come to Cable Bay Vineyards, whose large building houses a wine tasting room called The Cellar Door, a fine dining restaurant and an alfresco area with a broad, west- facing lawn where visitors sit at long tables or lounge in bean-bag chairs, wine glass in hand, chatting and taking in the stunning scenery. Jenny McDonald, owner-operator of Ananda Tours, is
waiting for me. A typical Kiwi with a sunny disposition and can-do attitude, she worked in the office sector for many years before realising that she knew as much about her island home as most tour guides, and consequently started her own operation. “We’ve just under 9,000 people living on Waiheke
NOVEMBER 2016
businesstraveller.com
he ferry churns the water into a roiling mass of white foam as we pull away from the Downtown Ferry Terminal and the Auckland skyline diminishes behind us. Small yachts bob around us on the deep-blue water as we course south,
JEREMY TREDINNICK; COURTESY OF ATEED LTD, TIME UNLIMITED TOURS AND ANANDA TOURS
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