Vineyard Trip To Waiheke Island

A customer story from our earlier fleet — the same trip works beautifully in today's Cruzen vans. Taking my English girlfriend to New Zealand for the first time was a daunting experience. Not only was there meeting friends and family for the first time to navigate, but this would also be the longest I had spent with her at one time - who knows if I would survive. I wanted to show off New Zealand's best bits, and so a trip to Waiheke Island was a must. I had been to Waiheke many times in the past and knew it could be tricky to get around, being reliant on irregular buses and costly taxis. We had already booked a full day vineyard tour to give us our first taste of the island and decided to stay for a night to give us more time to explore. We found a perfect little campervan for the two of us with Cruzen Campers that would give us the flexibility to explore as well as a place to stay for the night. We took the morning car ferry from Half Moon Bay over to the island - the two of us and the campervan. On arriving, we parked the campervan up for the day at Onetangi Beach where we planned to spend the night, and had arranged to be picked up by our tour guide. The vineyards we went to were a good range of staple must-sees, such as Mudbrick, to hidden boutique gems like Obsidian. Our tour guide was excellent at showing us around and kept us entertained with anecdotal facts about the island while shuttling us from vineyard to vineyard. After our final vineyard, our guide dropped us back at our campervan before heading back to the wharf. We had a quick swim and went for dinner. Charlie Farley's, a waterfront restaurant, did not disappoint. The food was amazing, topped with excellent service and all for a reasonable price - for me the best of the trip. After a few more wines, we strolled back to the campervan for a surprisingly comfortable sleep. Using the campervans wifi, we made a plan to head to the furthest shore on the east of the island and headed for Man O War Bay. The campervan handled the windy roads easily before we made our way on to the gravel road, roughly 15km from the bay. Taking the campervan slowly over the gravel, we finally made it - not for the faint of heart, but the journey was worth the effort. Man O War is an excellent vineyard where we had a free sample of three exquisite wines - we had to make a purchase. From here we decided to head back to the main roads. On looking for a beach to have a quick dip we stumbled upon our second vineyard for the day, Passage Rock. It was lunchtime, so we had their five wine sampling followed by lunch. Eventually finding a beach not far away, we had a quick swim and relaxed before we headed back to the wharf to catch our ferry back to the mainland. Our impromptu vineyard tour felt much more relaxed and significantly cheaper than the booked tour. Overall a great trip that my girlfriend enjoyed, buying me endless brownie points to be used upon return to England. Disclaimer: We advise that all drivers save their wines for when they are parked up for the evening. Please always follow NZ drink driving laws.