Islands, Scooters, Pigs, Beaches and Such

We figured that we were living a pretty stressful existence with the downtown apartment cramping our free-spirited lifestyle so we decided to do what many Aucklander's do... go for a little island living on the beautiful island of Waiheke.

Waiheke is a 30-40 min ferry ride from Auckland. It is littered with wineries and beaches. It obviously took little convincing to get Jess on the ferry. Armed with a modified map from a friendly guy on the ferry we were a little worried that the weather was not going to be too cooperative. We were pleasantly surprised that we were able to avoid the rain for the most part after the first night.
We stayed in a backpacker lodge that had accommodations for us and our pet Derek. The lodge also had a playmate for Derek named Oscar/Scrumpy.

Scrumpy had no problem evicting people from anywhere they were sitting and was definitely running the show.
After we checked in we decide to brave to monsoon and walk to the near by town with a stop at Little Oneroa Beach

After picking up supplies we decided to enjoy some drinks until the weather let up.

On the second day we rented scooters to tour the island. This was, in my opinion, the best way to get around. Our gang also looked super cool with the golf ball helmets so we decided to keep them on so that people would know we were together. Derek and my scooters were not pleased to haul us around all day with their mighty 50cc engines; Jess's scooter was so excited about getting a light person it tried to impress her by doing a wheelie for her... she was unimpressed. All in all no scooters or people were hurt in the making of this vacation.

After stopping at Palm, Little Oneroa, Oneroa and Onetangi beaches we had lunch at an ocean side restaurant and headed inland to check out some of the wineries. We didn't do any tastings because the wine is available everywhere. The vineyards were beautiful.

After poking around the vineyards it was time to drop off the scooters and head to the hostel for a much needed nap.

A good night of meeting new friends and we were ready for the beach the following morning. It was the perfect opportunity to show off our acrobatic prowess and ability to make Canadians look crazy as we ran through as many sweet tricks as possible.

Waiheke reminded us of Hawaii mixed with Napa Valley. We plan on going back to see some more sights. It was the perfect vacation from the perfect vacation and is a stones throw from our backyard.