Waiheke Island Half Day Scenic Wine and Lunch

If you’re reading this review, you’re probably attempting to parse through the dozens of winery tours for Waiheke. I’m here to tell you to look no further, stop looking and book this tour. Here are a few of the highlights— First, the logistics for this tour are significantly better than others. Many other tours want you to take the 8 or 9 am ferry, which will make for a much more frantic morning as those early sailings can get rather busy. Instead, take a leisurely morning and get over to the ferry terminal around 11:30 in order to take the noon ferry. We were met right at the Waiheke terminal by our guide Fleur and she introduced us to the other members of our group. We had a relatively small group of 6, which made for an intimate experience and we all got to know each other a bit over the course of the afternoon. The timing of the tour leaves plenty of time to enjoy the two wineries and visit a number of scenic sites, with plenty of time to make it back for the 5 pm ferry, or extend your time on the island (as we did). Second, the quality of the guiding is excellent. Fleur is a resident of Waiheke and gave us a unique perspective as a tour guide, answering questions about the residents, real estate and history of development on Waiheke. The entire time that she was driving, she was narrating, giving interesting stories about life on the island and pointing out notable sites and points on the island. Fleur also took us to a number of spots off the beaten trail and gave us amazing advice when we decided to extend our time on the island for dinner. Third, the selection of wineries is outstanding. You may be looking at other tours that attempt to stuff 4 or 5 wineries into an itinerary. This tour opts for quality over quantity and you won’t have FOMO after you experience these two. Mudbrick is legitimately one of the most stunning wineries we have ever seen in our lives and we were led through the tasting by a one-of-a-kind guide named Bob, who was hilarious, knowledgeable and engaging. The second winery, Batch, also has a stunning vista and we were led through our tasting of their signature rosés by another expert guide while overlooking the entire valley. At both tastings, the pours are generous and at Batch, you are able to select a full additional glass of wine to pair with lunch, which is the most elaborate charcuterie board you have ever seen. I think some of the promotional materials undersell how robust the lunch is, each two person couple got a massive board filled with meats, mussels, cheeses, olives, multiple spreads, bread and crackers. Finally, interspersed throughout the winery visits are stops at some of the most stunning lookouts on the island, which I don’t believe most other tours do. Fleur is willing to share some of her local perspective and you are able to really get a sense of what life on Waiheke is like, in addition to the great wine tastings. Based on Fleur’s advice, after the formal tour was over, we were able to end the afternoon with some snacks and wine on the beach and then dinner overlooking the water. This tour is the real deal and you really need to look no further. Book it immediately!

This was a great tour and Fleur was a wonderful, knowledgeable guide. Great tastings and lunch at beautiful wineries.

Fleur was a great tour guide! She was very knowledgeable about the local area and showed us some great spots around the island. Lunch and tastings were lovely at Goldie Estate, im really glad I got to see Mudbrick too..... such a Beautiful winery. Highly recommend this tour.

Our guide ‘Janis’ was the best! Thank you so much for making our last day in NZ so memorable. Great informative tour. That coupled with the spectacular scenery and views made for a fabulous day all round. Wineries and tastings were excellent , as was the delicious lunch . Really appreciate the high quality produce and special dietary requirements being so well catered for. Appreciate all the effort that this company puts in to their product. A 10/10 for ‘everything’ !!

Day 1 in Auckland and it could not have started better!! Margot our guide was very informative and accomodating as well as having a great sense of humour! Waiheke Island is beautiful with stunning vistas at every turn. Add to that the wonderful wineries! Perfection! Great wine and food. The trip was very well organised. Highly recommended.

Wine tastings, lunch and tour with local and very knowledgeable guide Margot, was the perfect start to our NZ holiday. Thks vm

This was a great tour, especially for the limited time we had to visit; our tour guide was so lovely and had so much knowledge of the Island and all the vineyards. Each vineyard we went to was amazing, and we had a lovely platter lunch at Goldie's. Getting to drive around and see parts of the island we hadn't seen before was great, was nice to be able to spend the afternoon with a small group of really nice people. Was a highlight of our trip to Auckland. Was also super helpful that we could also get our ferry tickets sorted through Ananda as well.

We were the only guests with Fleura as our guide & she was wonderful! She was friendly & very informative of the island & the wineries we visited.

From the beginning our welcome from Michael was brilliant. He was friendly, happy and welcoming making us feel like it was going to be a good day. The island was breathtaking with the most amazing views. The vineyards we visited were all exceptional with great wine guidance and knowledge from the hosts. The lunch was absolutely delicious at 372 and would not hesitate in recommending - Thank you!

Had an awesome tour led by Paul! He gave us a lot of great information about the island and my sister and I both really enjoyed the wines and views. It was seamless catching the ferry over (granted, we arrived to the terminal over an hour before departure bc it was a crowded summer day) and it was easy to find Paul once we were in Waiheke. Would absolutely recommend this tour.