What a jam-packed 36 hours! We left LA on Tuesday evening, and arrived in New Zealand on Thursday at 4:45 AM. Completely skipped Wednesday since we crossed the international dateline! The flight was 13 hours and we both slept for most of it.
Viaduct Harbor in Auckland, New Zealand – views from our hotel
After an interesting adventure navigating into the heart of Auckland (Mike learning how to drive on the wrong side of the car and road!) we made it to our hotel by 5:45 AM. The Westin is awesome and I'm a frequent guest of the Starwood hotels because I love their hotels so much – they let us check-in right away even though we weren't supposed to get a room until 3PM. Yeah!
More views from the Westin, Auckland
We skipped sleeping and hit the town for some sight-seeing, even though it was sprinkling on and off all day.
Just before lunch time we hopped on a tour to Waiheke Island for a “Taste of Waiheke.”
Here's a pic of us on the ferry to Waiheke:
The tour included three vineyard tours and tastings, a tour and tasting of an olive oil producer, various scenic drive-bys and lunch at a vineyard. Beautiful doesn't get close to describing the little island that's known for it's red wines and boutique vineyards. It has the same temperate climate as the Bordeaux region of France, so they produce a lot of the same wines.
Lunch at Stonyridge Winery
Stonyridge is the first commercial vineyard in New Zealand to plant olive oil and they also planted cork trees:
Our final stop was the Mudbrick Winery and I think that one was my favorite. The view is incredible!
Lots of lavender. Mmmmm.
There's my husband snapping pics too. Still getting used to calling him husband, not fiance!
Okay... time to go hit the town again before we head south to Rotoura. I hear it's smelly like rotten eggs there. LOL.
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