Life in the slow lane
Take your time because Waiheke is full of delights, writes Pamela Wade.
When you drive off the Waiheke car ferry at Kennedy Point, or up the road from hiring a car at Ma¯ tiatia, the first thing you’ll see is a large sign reading, ‘‘Slow down. You’re here.’’ It’s not just a road safety advisory – although local roads are certainly narrow and winding, often with no footpaths, and unsealed – but more of an introduction to the island way of life.
This is not a place to hurry. Here, you take time to look around you, enjoy the scenery, soak up the ambience. Also, if you go too fast, you might miss something along the way, because Waiheke is full of delights.
If you’ve arrived on a Saturday, the first stop will be the Ostend Market inside and outside the Waiheke RSA. There’s food, fast and slow, and art and crafts, books and clothes, music and plants, as well as gossip and friendly locals.
After a coffee, push on to the first cluster of about 30 vineyards you’ll encounter – Tantalus Estate, Stonyridge, Te Motu – for local wine and food. If you like to live dangerously, Wild on Waiheke combines wine with archery.
Drive across the island’s narrow waist to Onetangi Beach. Long, open and popular with surfers, this is the location for the annual Beach Races (to be held on February 23) when horses, amphibious boats and tractors come to race, and sand castle builders compete for glory, but it’s glorious any time of year.
Stop for a paddle or swim. Waiheke’s climate is usually 4 degrees Celsius warmer than Auckland’s.
The big loop of Man O’ War Rd around the bottom end, which most tourists miss, is full of corners, hills and long views across the Gulf to the Coromandel and assorted islands.
Need a break from driving? Take the twokilometre return walk along Stony Batter Rd past dramatic volcanic boulders across the paddocks, some of them given a personal touch. At the end of the track are concrete gun emplacements that happily saw no action during World War II.
The loop continues past a series of small bays and over green and golden hills where clusters of quirky letterboxes are the only sign that lucky people live there.
Slake the dust from the road with a stop at unpretentious but famous Man O’ War vineyard.
Complete the circuit at Onetangi again and wind around to Palm Beach, sheltered and pretty, and many people’s favourite (clothing-optional at the far end). Then head into town.
Oneroa has cafes, shops, restaurants, gelato and crepes, plus fabulous views over the beach below and the bay’s boats and turquoise water.
There are galleries – Waiheke’s laid-back vibe attracts artists of all sorts – and a don’t-miss Whittaker’s Musical Museum with an extraordinary collection of rare and antique instruments. If you ask nicely, they might even let you have a tinkle on Ignace Paderewski’s grand piano.
If you’re hungry again, beyond Oneroa the Cable Bay and Mudbrick vineyards have different, but equally appealing, restaurants with distant views of the city. (And wine.)
You’re not far away now from Ma¯ tiatia, where the calm sea is disturbed only by the passenger ferries from the city, and groups of holidaymakers heading out in brightly-coloured kayaks hoping to spot dolphins and whales. You could be one of them, but you have to catch the ferry back to the city’s bustle. Don’t you wish you’d come for longer? tourismwaiheke.co.nz