Claire's finally 30!

We all woke up feeling surprisingly good! Must be that good local wine!

It was good to feel relaxed and not feel under any pressure to do jobs. We wandered back into Oneroa for a leisurely brunch and a beer for Tim and I!

We decided to follow our hostel owner's advice and caught a bus to "Wine Valley" where there's a cluster of wineries:

Onetangi Road Vineyard. We nearly had a go at archery then decided that there was too much drinking to do and opted to try the beers! These were very good! We had lots of fun and asked lots of questions. As we left Tim explained that vineyards have roses at the end of their rows of vines because the roses are more sensitive and so act as early warning signals for imminent problems with the vines. We also had a quick knock-out competition at swing-ball - the girls kicked ass!

Stonyridge Vineyard. We couldn't do tasting here so ordered a large platter and enjoyed a bottle of their chardonnay whilst admiring the view and being entertained by a group of girls on a hen-do!

Te Motu. This place was a bit more formal, but we did get to try a little bit of an $80 and a $50 bottle of wine. These were both 2002 wines and pretty good, but out of our price range!

Saratoga Estate. This place was fun! They brewed a beer here which was pretty good then they wouldn't stop giving us wine! They had some really nice cabernet, merlot and cabernet franc blends. They also had lots of syrah stuff which I wasn't too keen on (bit too peppery!)

All in all I really liked Waiheke. In many ways it was similar to Jersey and a great place for some celebrations of Claire's (eventual) 30th!

Back in Auckland we went to Mexicali Fresh for some dinner before heading to Brendan's party. He had a big house and we enjoyed lots of punch and bouncy castle fun! I'm never having a party without one, but I'll have to stop trying to teach people how to do back flips (sorry Tim).