Scooter camping!

April 25th was ANZAC Day, which is the Kiwi equivalent of Memorial Day, so we had a three day weekend. This was also our friend Katie S's last weekend in New Zealand before moving back to the States, so we wanted to do something special. What we came up with was better than I imagined - easily one of the best weekends we've had so far.

On Friday morning, five of us took the ferry over to Waiheke Island and picked up some 50cc scooters for the day. Our first stop was our lodging for the night - a campsite in the regional park - so we could set up our tents and drop off our camping gear. We spent the rest of the day riding around the island, with a stop at Casita Miro for a tapas lunch, the grocery store for some supplies, and a couple of vineyards to pick up some bottles for our evening.

We could get used to separate scooters!

Back at the campsite, we ordered a pizza for delivery, popped open some bottles, and watched the sun set from our picnic table on the beach. The sun sets really early here now (before 6pm). At one point we were planning to go to bed, but then discovered it was only 7.15, so we held out for a few more hours.

Saturday we dropped off the scooters, met up with a couple more friends, and caught the shuttle to some of Katie S's favorite vineyards on the island. We caught the 6pm ferry home, and had all day Sunday to hang out and recover.

The ladies - from top left: outside Casita Miro, testing the limits of our scooter, at Batch Winery, at the campsite

The boys - keeping things safe

From top left: our scooter gang, at Obsidian winery, Pukeko!, scooter camping, Casita Miro

Enjoying our pizza on the beach.

Good food, good friends, good wine, and a bee trapped in a glass