Peace, Love, and Waiheke

This weekend was our free weekend, and we immersed ourselves in Kiwi culture on Waiheke Island off the coast of Auckland. When our ferry first arrived at the island, it looked pretty deserted. We walked towards the i-Site where we had to check in, and it looked like there were no other roads on the island. Once we got there though, they walked with us to the bank so that we could deposit our rent money, and we finally got a glimpse of civilization.

We walked towards where the house was supposed to be, and when we first saw it, we thought that there was no way it was our house. We had to double check the address to be sure. The house was just way too nice. The keys worked though, so we went in. We spent about the next hour running around the house in disbelief of how amazing it was.

After dinner, we were all in the dining room, being pretty loud. We heard a knock at the door and saw the man from next door, Boyd, and thought that he was coming to complain. Instead, he said that there was a comet, and he could take some people to see it because you couldn’t see it from where we were.

The next day we decided to head out to the vineyards in our new dresses that we got at a little boutique in town. We tried to be classy, but we realized that we were the loudest people in the place and tried to tone down the ugly American. We also realized at the vineyard that we hadn’t seen people on their cell phones everywhere we went, like you would in America. We spent the rest of the day on the beach and shopping in town. All of the stores are really artsy, and all of the artwork is by artists from Waiheke.

Our neighbor, Colleen, told us about a market the next day where a lot of art and food and good stuff like that is sold. She offered to give us rides, so Kelly, Karen, and I went with her and Boyd to the market. Along the way she told us about the ‘baches’ and how they got there name. Apparently, during the depression a lot of young men came to live on the island in ‘bachelor pads,’ which were really just little homes that were barely more than a shed.

I noticed that there was some French influence at the market. There were crepes made by a man named Patrique, and a man named Philippe was selling French chocolates and cheeses. Everyone at the market seemed to be an artist of some kind, whether they were painters, jewelers, or bakers. Even the little kids looked pretty arty. At the market, we ran into Art and Doug. Before the free weekend, they wouldn’t tell us where they were staying, but we were pretty sure that they were going to Waiheke, so we were waiting to run into them.

That night, we invited our neighbors out to dinner with us. They invited Karen, Eileen, and I in for tea when we told them the plans, and we had tea in the backyard in the gazebo that Boyd had built after overcoming cancer and looked out at the bay. There was beautiful scenery in every direction you could see. They invited us over for wine and ‘nibblies’ before dinner. We ended up being late for our dinner reservations because we spent so long talking to them. Colleen showed us pictures of her daughters, both adopted, and their granddaughters. One daughter is in the army, and in one picture she was leading a big group of 6 foot tall men behind her. After dinner, they invited us back for pavlova (a New Zealand dessert, although apparently Australians claim it as theirs) and we spent about 2 or 3 more hours just talking. Boyd gave us a little geography lesson. He showed us Coromandel across the bay from us, and Great Barrier Island and Little Barrier Island. At the end of the night, I couldn’t believe how awesome our neighbors were and how nice they were to us.

The next day, we decided to try another couple of vineyards that Art and Doug had mentioned to us. We had lunch at the first one, and then headed over to one right next door. This one had amazing views from the deck in the back. The deck was sitting right at the top of a hill overlooking a valley. Grape vines lined the valley, and at the other side were some horses. The owner came over and introduced himself to us and asked where we were from and what we were doing in Waiheke. A little later, Karen and Kelly ran into him again and he offered to bring over some wine for us. We sat out on the deck with the amazing views drinking wine with the owner of the vineyard. We felt pretty classy! He told us stories about the All Blacks rugby players coming to the parties at the vineyard and making fools of themselves. He didn’t mention any names, but he just said ‘a very famous rugby player.’ After a while, he asked if we were hungry and brought us out free steaks and potatoes. Eventually we had to get going so we could return the key to our house.

All in all, I couldn’t believe how genuinely nice everyone in Waiheke was. I think that I would be perfectly happy living on Waiheke and opening a bakery and just blending in. Waiheke has its own culture that is different from the rest of New Zealand. All of New Zealand is pretty laid back, but Waiheke is especially relaxed. Colleen even recommended hitch-hiking to us as a means of transportation because the island is so safe and relaxed. I think that the people of Waiheke see the island as separate from the rest of New Zealand, and it kind of is physically and culturally separated.