What a week! This is day 8 of my 8 days of working in a row. Easter weekend is the last big weekend on Waiheke. It’s the end of season for us. As a consequence, they adjusted my work schedule so that I was working for the big weekend. Good Friday & Easter Monday are public holidays, so I got paid time and a half for working them. I can’t complain too much about the over working that I’ve been doing, but I am very excited for the weekend. So my last group of pictures were from quite a bit ago … but I still had an enjoyable time. I spent one day at Palm Beach, the beach closest to my little studio apartment. Palm Beach has really lovely sea views. It has a lovely little track down from the road that gives you the opportunity to look out into the Gulf. Fantastic. The little path also happens to lead down to the nude beach section. I didn’t realize it until I got down there, as there are no signs, but I moved along to the other section of the beach. I then found the local ice cream shop and treated myself to a luscious ice cream cone. Yummy!!
On Thursday (so a week from yesterday ~ which was my last day off between these 8 straight days) I went kayaking. It was wonderful. I didn’t bring my camera along since I didn’t want to risk damaging it, loosing it in the ocean, or anything. So, no pictures! The company that does all the kayaking is Ross Adventures. I had a very friendly and handsome local, named Andy, take me out on the tour. It’s supposed to be a group tour but no one else signed up. This then resulted in a private tour with the adorable Andy. After a quick demo on the beach and explanation about sea kayaking, I signed off on a waiver and strapped on my life jacket.
Andy recommended tandem kayaking so that we’d be able to go further. Alright with me! I climbed in first and Andy hopped in the back and then pushed us out to see. The kayak tours leave from the Matita warf, where the ferry arrives from Auckland. It’s littered with other sailboats, too. As we slowly made our way towards the open ocean, Andy told me all about NZ Christmas trees, pointed out the wealthy homes on the island, as well as trying to help me learn all the islands in Hauraki Gulf. We kayaked for about 2 hours and then beached ourselves on a lovely little beach that doesn’t have road access. Andy said that there are tons of beaches only accessible from the water. We shared some ½ frozen juice and a snack bars. It was relatively warm, so we both decided to go for a swim. It was a very lovely swim and I tried hard not to use my arms so I would be able to complete the feet back to Matita. We rowed back at a slow and steady pace. The sky was sunny and warm with a few clouds when we left, but as we approached Matita the clouds had turned to a much darker grey and it looked like rain. Before we hit the coast, we kayaked under the ferry warf which was partly creepy and partly interestingly cool. It was about 12:45 pm when we arrived back and I was quite thankful I had only signed up for a ½ day instead of committing to the full day. My arms were quite tired. Andy warned me that my arms would be sore the next day, but having the luck of being young and resilient, I fared just fine on Friday.
After having a laid back lunch overlooking Church Bay, I decided to walk to Mudbrick Vineyards. Mudbrick is the closest vineyard to Cable Bay and the two institutions are good friends. Both of our vineyards remain open daily year-round, which is not typical of the vineyards on the island. After Easter, if the vineyard stays open, generally it is only on Saturdays or Sundays from 11-4 or so. Our wine makers are close friends and we have a steady flow of people that visit both Cable Bay and Mudbrick. Mudbrick is a very popular location for weddings and when they are closed for a wedding, they help send business our direction. Mudbrick is also a younger vineyard, being founded in 1992 (CB was founded in 1996). Their facility includes a “cellar door” (which is kiwi for tasting room) and restaurant. Their wines are produced at a different facility in “Shepards Point” which is on the other side of the island. Bob, the gentleman working in the tasting room, was extremely friendly and did a very fun tasting. Since they comp-ed the tasting, I decided to have a glass of their Chardonnay and enjoy it overlooking the view. Ahhh … lovely afternoon. Just thinking about it adds to my anticipation of this beginning of this weekend (finally!!).
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