waiheke

waiheke is a small island about 45 minutes away from auckland by ferry that’s a pretty popular place to escape for a quick weekend out of the city.  it’s so popular in fact, some people even move house for the summer to the island and commute the 45 minutes there and back every day. sounds crazy - until you’ve been there.  think i’ve moved house enough this year, but maybe something to keep in mind.

with my parents in town, we decided to take a weekend trip to the island to visit some of the vineyards it’s so well known for. unfortunately, it had been raining for most of the week - pretty uncharacteristic for december which marks the beginning of summer in NZ.  this didn’t hold us back though as our plan was “if it’s pissing we’ll just get pissed.” don’t pretend like you don’t know the alternate meaning there, sickos.

anyway, the weather actually turned out to be nice, but get “pissed” we still did as we made our way around a few of the wineries that offer to 8 tastings for $15.  based on recommendations I got from a few friends here, we made our way to mudbrick and cable bay vineyards, which both managed to live up to high expectations for beautiful views, and of course great wine.

cable bay vineyards

looking out from the tasting room

the tasting room

the restaurant at mudbrick

soaps made from mudbrick wine that i somehow managed to resist from buying

the tasting menu

the iconic chandelier

liquid lunch

we stayed at mudbrick to sober up eat some lunch.  attempting to make good on the massive amount of wine calories we had consumed throughout the day, my mom and I each got a side salad and split a cheeseboard for lunch with the “chef’s choice” of cheese range and accompaniments. this included a side of honeycomb, which could be one of the best things i have ever tasted in my life to date.  i’m usually pretty partial to the whole sweet and cheese combo on cheeseboards, which might give the honey a slightly unfair advantage, but i’m pretty sure it would have been difficult not to be impressed by the deliciousness.  the comb was packed to the brim with honey that was so fresh i’m pretty sure there’s a kiwi queen bee somewhere stomping around her hive demanding where her dinner is (i mean, because bees eat honey right?).

yeah i pretty much just wrote a whole paragraph about honey. man, i’m interesting.