Travel Insider.
SEATED at the window of a vineyard restaurant on Waiheke Island recently, Christina Tosi – pastry chef and owner of Milk Bar, the sister bakery of New York City’s renowned Momofuku group – looked back across the water to the blurred cityscape of Auckland and said with astonishment: “It’s like having Napa Valley off the coast of Manhattan.”
New Zealand’s largest city might not be New York but Aucklanders have long known of Waiheke’s charms, colonising its tantalisingly close beaches with modest, flat-roofed holiday cottages. Now the rest of the world is discovering the island’s sophisticated restaurants, boutique lodgings and world-class vineyards, making it one of the hottest destinations.
Once a haven for hippies and artists, the island has been remade by visionary locals and expats lured there by its remarkable natural advantages. Two relative newcomers – Andrew Glenn, a former executive for Louis Vuitton and Topshop, and his partner, Jonathan Rutherfurd Best – have done much to make the island cool. Leaving London in search of a lifestyle that would let them put their “feet in the sand”, the couple opened a restaurant and guesthouse in a former newspaper office in the village of Oneroa in 2012. With its whitewashed walls and reclaimed timber furniture, a small shop selling hip beachwear and a bright-yellow vintage Kombi van that shuttles guests around the island, The Oyster Inn perfectly encapsulates Waiheke’s relaxed yet chic aesthetic.
The island is a 35-minute ferry trip from downtown Auckland across a vast gulf of dark-green water, past ancient volcanic islands. Known as Te Motuarai-roa, or “the long sheltering island”, Waiheke has 134 kilometres of coastline and its many coves, inlets and beaches are crowned by native bush flecked with crimson-flowered pohutukawa trees.
If Oneroa, at the western end of Waiheke, can sometimes feel busy then the island’s eastern side (less than an hour’s drive away) seems almost uninhabited. And while the setting is seductive, the food-and-wine scene is the real reason to make the trip. As well as about 30 boutique wineries, it’s the awardwinning restaurants, low-key cafés and beachside food trucks that make Waiheke a food-lover’s island paradise.