The electrician came early to sort out the battery power problems, but we decided to leave Dream Catcher III in her pen for the day while we caught the car ferry to Waiheke Island. The ferry leaves from Half Moon Bay, about a 40 minute drive from the marina and then the ferry ride is about an hour.
Waiheke Island is a great area to visit because there are 25 vineyards, several with excellent restaurants. We chose Stonyridge for a most enjoyable lunch of perfectly (just) grilled calamari with salad and a beef Carpaccio for entrees and then mains of rack of lamb, snapper and fillet of beef, with one of their best reds - a Cabernet Malbec 09. Driving around the island was an interesting experience with stunning views of bays surrounding the island, with lovely sandy beaches, and other islands or Auckland in the distance.
Next time we will go to some of the other restaurants, especially Mudbrick Vineyard and Te Whau Vineyard which have award winning food and wines plus spectacular settings and scenery. The best overnight anchorages seem to be on the southern side but that will look quite different when the wind is coming from the south, whereas it was a northerly today. It will be interesting to see what the sailing guides say because there are not the really sheltered coves like at Great Barrier.
We caught the 6.30 ferry back to Auckland, appreciating why there are 8000 permanent residents on the island who can easily catch a faster passenger ferry to and from the mainland.
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