Wine on Waiheke

Now I have started getting more regular income from work Will and I decided we could afford to treat ourselves to a day on Waiheke Island. We caught the ferry over and walked up the scenic path towards Cable Bay winery. We passed the vineyards and as it was so warm it almost felt like we were in Italy rather than New Zealand!

The website mentions a $10 wine tasting session so we headed down to the cellar and paid up for a sip of 5 wines in total. The guy was friendly and chatty and seemed to know his stuff. I preferred the more subtle and light whites and Will the fruity reds but we decided to stay a while and buy a bottle of white to share...

The wines we tasted from left to right were:
Sauvignon Blanc Awatere Valley 2014
Chardonnay Waiheke Island 2014
Rose Waiheke Island 2015
Pinoit Noir Central Otago 2014
Syrah Waiheke Island 2014 

When we ventured outside it looked busy but we tried to get the attention of one of the waiters floating around. I think if we were a few years younger and Will was willing to change into a female then we may have been more successful getting some service! We'd asked for a menu and didn't get one for over half an hour and when we finally asked again, the guy told us that they didn't do pizza outside and that his boss was telling him to ask people to place their own orders in at the bar. 20 minutes later we saw him and his co rushing around serving platters and buckets to groups of young attractive girls! We agreed that next time we'd bother to get the bus and make the journey across the island to another winery that  perhaps isn't swamped by tourists... We've heard good things about Mudbrick so maybe there!

A lovely glass of Sauv!

Feeling peckish and needing to soak up all the alcohol we searched around for some food and settled on a little fish and chip takeaway place, sat on the beach and enjoyed the view before getting the (incredibly windy! Seriously, I could barely see my hair was flying all around!) ferry back.

That night my tummy felt a little crampy and I soon realised I had food poisoning, with all that entails! Needless to say walking up and down the 2 corridors to get to the shared bathroom about 8 times that night, carrier bag in tow, was not a highlight of our time so far! Will looked after me for the rest of the weekend and when I got back to work I found out that lots of children had been off with a stomach bug so on reflection I think maybe I caught some bacteria off the children's podgy sticky fingers, lovely!

On Trip Advisor's Advice...

We have now booked our hostel stays for the beginning got our adventure... 
I've added an ever-growing list of things I want to do, which I will continue adding to over the next few weeks:

Singapore
We liked the cute, compact look of Hotel Kai in Singapore with funky holes in the walls for all the little bits and bobs you need, like a hairdryer, kettle, toiletries etc. We will be staying here for 2 nights, to break up the LONG flight!

• Anyone who knows me knows how fussy I can be over food. I'm gonna be brave and attempt to EAT 

- 'Carrot Cake' or Chai Tow Kway, a fried dim sum dish of radish, egg spring onion and garlic

From blog.burpple.com via Google Images

- Prata, pancake served with curry

- Bean curd with dough sticks, it's smooth   and looks a bit like yoghurt. I recently discovered that bean curd and tofu are the same thing and the fried dough sticks remind me of churros so can't be that bad! And it's smooth so that's the most important thing!

- Chwee Kuehs rice cakes, a steamed rice cake with various toppings

- Dumplings, small pieces of dough wrapped around a filling

• Cloud Forest - a garden in the sky essentially, I want to catch a sight of their national flower the Vanda 'Miss Joaquim' or Singapore Orchid

From DeZeen.com via Google Images
I'll get my own photos soon!

• Pulau Ubin Island - you can catch a ferry over to what is described as the last 'kampung' or village, as life would have been like in the 1960s

From panaramio.com via Google Images

• Little India - this corner of town was one a colony set up by Indians who were prisoners of the British Raj. When they were released many chose to stay in the area and now is filled with all the colours, sounds and smells of Indian culture.

From Expedia.com via Google Images

• And we definitely can't leave without trying a Singapore Sling cocktail! I think having it in the famous colonial hotel Raffles would make it taste that much sweeter!

New Zealand
As well as having a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence someone from work recommended the Ponsonby Backpackers hostel in Auckland, saying it was in a great location with super helpful staff, lets hope she was right! And apparently they have FREE PANCAKE BREAKFASTS on Fridays :)We've booked a total of 4 nights here to settle in, check out the local area and hopefully acclimatise to the jet lag before hiring a camper van to tour around the rest of the North Island of New Zealand. Our itinerary has yet to be decided so any helpful hints would be appreciated!


I've been researching like mad, using both my Rough Guide book and Will's Lonely Planet

• Food again... 

- got to have a try of the famous 'Fergburger', although by the looks of things I probably won't be able to finish it off!

From can.com via Google Images

- Fush and Chups, we've got to compare - surely they can't be as good as the British version?!

- Sauvignon Blanc! And lots of wine tasting at lots of wineries!

- I want to experience a traditional (or as less touristy as I can get!) Hangi steamed Maori feast

From inz.maori.nz via Google Images

• Napier, a city preserved in the art deco era, will definitely indulge my love for a good period drama!

From telegraph.co.uk via Google Images

• Rotorua - described as a 'geothermal wonderland' in my book

From raidho.com.br via Google Images

• Lake Taupo is the country's largest lake and I just discovered that it is the size of Singapore!

From greatlaketaupo.com via Google Images

• Cape Reinga - where the spirits of the Maori are said to leave the island and Ninety Mile Beach, which is actually 64 miles long

From stokedforsaturday.com via Google Images

• No trip would be complete without a tour around Hobbiton!! Soundtracks and hairy feet at the ready!

From hobbitontours.com via Google Images

And this is just a small section of the North Island! 

Any suggestions welcome :)