Waiheke = Love

This past weekend the group was given the opportunity to venture alone or with a group anywhere they would like. My group consisted of 11 people and we went to Waiheke Island. While researching the trip, all we heard was how beautiful the island was and how it was comparable to Martha’s Vineyard in the States. Needless to say when the people of an island say somewhere is beautiful I was expecting a lot. And I was NOT let down at all.
We started out trek to the island on Thursday, a bus to Hamilton then to Auckland and finally the ferry ride over. When we arrived on the island we had to walk up a large hill to the i-site to get the keys for our house. After receiving the keys we walked to our house. We started walking up a hill past some pretty nice houses. All of us were thinking great we are going to be at some little shack at the end of the street. Number 1 beautiful…number 3 gorgeous…and then number 5 first thought: wait is this our house, it must be the wrong street. We were sceptical making our way up the driveway since there were three cars outside. We thought we had taken a wrong turn, but no Kelly put the key in the lock and it opened. We ran through the house like an episode out of the Real World. That night we enjoyed a BBQ out side and just enjoyed each others company. The BBQ began our amazing weekend of Kiwi kindness. Our propane tank was empty so our neighbor drove a couple of the boys to get the tank filled. If that wasn’t enough for the day, he came over at around ten at night when we were being a little loud not to yell at us but to ask if anyone wanted to see the comet, as he put a once in a life time opportunity. I could not believe this man was so kind, little did I know it was only the start.
Later on in the weekend the woman next store, Colleen, told us about a market and race that was a distance from where we were staying. So on Saturday Katy, Kelly and myself were given a ride by Colleen and her husband Boyd to the market. Along the way Colleen told us the better restaurants, showed us the beaches along the way, told us about her younger days and just showed genuine kindness to people she had just meet. They dropped us off at the market since Boyd needed to get to his stand and told us we needed to get the crepes. Probably the best crepes ever, mine was banana and honey. The market was a total culture experience, everyone there knew each other and it was like one big island family.
On Saturday night we decided to invite the neighbors to dinner. We ended up going to an Indian restaurant. Before going out they invited us over for wine and munchies. The girls were given champagne with strawberries while the boys had wine and beer. They put out a lot of food and Boyd made us bread, which we devoured with Colleen’s homemade plum spread. After the filling pickies we walked the restaurant and then back to their house for dessert and drinks. We spent the next few hours just talking to these great people and learning about their experiences on the island. The next morning at around 7:30 Boyd came over and gave me more bread that he had made for us and the remaining dessert. How sweet!
There is so much more to say but I’m just going to end it with a few key phases…Stonyridge Vineyard, keep the bottles full, the owner, hokey pokey, sleeping in a vineyard and of course spa pool.
Pretty much the best weekend ever. Waiheke was the most relaxed place I have ever been and I would give anything to live there. Kiwis in general are kind but the people of Waiheke show a kindness that can’t be described. I can’t wait to send letters/postcards to the people I met on Waiheke Island.