Cheryl & Elwin's Adventures

Some of Auckland’s true gems are its islands in the surroundings bays. The most popular of these is Waiheke Island to the east. It is about 20 miles long and fringed with gorgeous beaches and crystal clear hidden bays. This is a true sailors paradise. It also is the home of many boutique vineyards. As well it is the home of busses in poor repair. You guessed it! We were on a bus that broke down and had to wait for a replacement. Fortunately as the island is small it only took several minutes and we were on our way.
We took a ferry over early this morning and then bussed around the island seeing the sites. We stopped at several beaches, mostly or entirely empty, but no swimming for us just quite yet. After we toured the island we were dropped in the central town and walked to Cable Bay Vineyards to celebrate Lois’ birthday. They had a superb Chardonnay and a delicious lunch to compliment it. It was topped with a piece of birthday cake that we all shared. After that we tramped (NZ term for hiked) for a bit through some fields and woods back to the ferry terminal for the trip home. Just in case any of you were missing the sheep, or thought that we were done with them I included a reminder. We think that we have personally counted about 12 or 13 million of the 30 million total.
As you can tell by the boat we saw leaving the harbor, Kiwis have a major issue with offshore oil drilling as well.
Off to a special b-day dinner tonight.
Factoid – the name New Zealand comes from a translation of the Maori language meaning “long white cloud.” I have included some examples of what they meant.