The weather cleared magically and conveniently as we reached the island. We walked up a gradually inclining road for 25 minutes to reach our luncheon destination, the Cable Bay Winery’s restaurant; which is located on the eastern edge of the site of a Maori fortification, on a commanding hilltop now decorated with modern sculptures. Both the lightly oaked Cable Bay Chardonnay and the food were top quality, judging from the bread, greens, crème brulee, and local oysters. The view west through the elegant, modern restaurant’s open doors and expanse of plate glass is unforgettable-- through clear air, over hilly harvest-time vineyards, brown and green pastures, and open sea, to the skyline of Auckland, under bright blue skies decorated with wisps of white clouds. After a leisurely lunch, we toured the rest of the island by taxi. Waiheke’s coastline is a series of protected coves, with pockets of shark- and coral-free, pleasant beaches, with white sands on the beaches on the north side of the island. As measured by fractals, Waiheke’s coastline must be unusually long, not only in relation to its landmass, but also to a smoothed outline of its coast. Waiheke is now being gentrified with vineyards (some of the most steeply pitched that I have ever seen), a few fine residential properties, and by commuters to jobs in Auckland. The island was largely a hippie colony some 40 years ago; throughout the world, hippies were pioneers in finding great places to live!
This morning, we left Mollies, our delightful little hotel in Auckland, at about 4:30 to catch a five-and-a-half hour flight to Cairns, Australia. I am writing this blog entry from the lounge in Cairns of a charter air service that will fly us, in a twin-propeller, Cessna 402, about a hundred miles north to Lizard Island, in the midst of the Great Barrier Reef. The local time is 21 hours ahead of New York’s. It is monsoon season in this region, and it is currently raining hard. But we are told that our flight will not be delayed by the weather and that conditions at the moment are perfect on Lizard Island. As it is off-season, and Americans are not traveling to Australia as much as we did before the recession and the decline of our currency, there will be only about a half dozen other couples on the island when we arrive—versus a capacity of about eighty guests. The resort shares the island with a National Park research station. The island is out of range of satellite service for cell phones: Undoubtedly, inaccessibility is one of its charms.
Maybe we’ll get lucky with the weather while we’re there!
