Everywhere's a Postcard: Auckland Day 2

Despite our best efforts to sleep in, we were up at 5:30am. Damn! We headed out around 7am and grabbed breakfast and coffee at Esquires near our hotel, then went to the ferry station where we saw the same friendly ticket agent from yesterday. He remembered our big run for the Devonport ferry the day before. After chatting with him, we bought tickets to Waiheke Island and took the 35-minute ride on the 8:15am ferry.

Waiheke is absolutely gorgeous. We rented a car from a company right in the ferry station and drove “the loop,” a trail that took us through the towns of Waiheke and the beautiful east end, which is mostly farming and grazing land. The smell of wild honeysuckle followed us all over the island. There were sheep and cows grazing on every hillside. Everybody, I am not exaggerating: Every second on Waiheke is a postcard. The drive reminded both of us of roads in Hawaii, specifically the drive from Waikiki to Oahu’s north shore and the drive along the Hana Highway in Maui.

Every second on Waiheke is a postcard...The view from the Sky Tower was perfect, of course

The sun broke through the clouds around 11:30, just in time for our lunch at Te Whau vineyards (pronounced “tay fow,” not “Te Wow!”, unfortunately). We ate on the porch, which had a beautiful view of the island and its peninsulas and bays and, in the distance, downtown Auckland. We could see the Sky Tower and thought how funny it was that we would be eating there later in the day. Lunch was delicious: lamb chops for Gretchen, grouper and clams for me, and Te Whau’s own “The Point” cab/shiraz blend all around. We also enjoyed bread and a new favorite, Waiheke olive oil.

After lunch, we stopped by an olive farm and picked up some exotic olive oils, then headed back to the ferry terminal to turn in the car. We grabbed the 2:00 ferry and were back at the hotel by 3:00 for a pit stop.

At 4pm we headed back out and went up the steep hill on Albert St to SkyCity, which is dominated by the Sky Tower. The view from the Sky Tower was perfect, of course – like the WTC used to, it had benches for people to sit on and watch the city go by, and it also had 34cm-thick plastic windows on the floor that were completely frightening (there was a window on the elevator floor too!). We took in the views from all 360 degrees and while we waited for dinner, we had cocktails with kiwi-flavored vodka.

At 6pm we went to dinner at Orbit, the revolving restaurant in the Sky Tower’s 50th floor. After some finagling, we were seated by the window and had a wonderful dinner of scallops, risotto, and tortellini with a nice early white wine from New Zealand. We were too stuffed for dessert, so we left and did some souvenir shopping in SkyCity before meandering back through the streets of inner city to our hotel.

We headed across the street from our hotel for our 9:00 reservation at Minus 5, a bar that is made entirely of ice. We were given fur-hooded parkas and double gloves and put into the ice bar. it was filled with ice sculptures that were terrific. I had to laugh because they had every variety of Smirnoff vodka…clear product placement. I guess it is true what they say about the American sense of humor being misunderstood overseas because when I asked the bartender if she had any Absolut, she thought about it carefully and answered my question. OK, whatever. We had two drinks each: the “frosty penguin” and, of course, “Blue Steel.” After 35 minutes, we had exceeded both the amount of time we were permitted in the bar and the amount of interest we had, so we headed out. We were not allowed to take pictures in the bar, but we did pay for the photos they took there. Go to www.minus5experience.com, choose “daily photos,” and enter code M5AK711092139942 to see us!

After the ice bar, our early-to-bed-early-to rise ways caught up with us so it was back to the hotel for more sleep. Tomorrow: day trip to the Bay of Islands in the northlands. Can’t wait!