Scooter Camping!

Hey all!  Maggie here.  February 1 was Auckland Anniversary Day and therefore a public holiday.  Auckland has festivals and celebrations and parties, so naturally I wanted to get out of dodge and avoid the chaos because I'm fun like that.
Waiheke Island is an island about a 45 minute ferry ride from Auckland that is in its own climate bubble, making it perfect for growing vineyards.  I've never really been a rosé fan, but Waiheke has made me reconsider it, especially when I'm lounging in the sunshine on an emerald green island overlooking cliffs into the ocean.  We've been trying to go scooter camping with our friends for a while now but someone told me babies and scooters don't go together.  I can't recall who.  But Lance said he would watch James for a weekend while I went with our group solo.

What is scooter camping you ask?  You rent scooters, drive around the island drinking responsible amounts of wine, then head to a campsite and camp.  Scooter camping.  And minus my two accidents, both of which were embarrassing, painful, and expensive, it was a fantastic time!  For the record, neither accident was alcohol induced (we were very conservative).  It was just straight up scootering incompetence on my part.

We set up camp at Poukaraka Flats Campground, which is right on a bay.  We were all wondering how the heck we were going to get our camping gear from the rental place to the site, when the rental owners offered to drive all our stuff over for us.  We gratefully accepted.  We all just assumed we would drive over there with out backpacks on, but after trying it out and seeing how not confident I (and several others) was with my own balance I'm glad they offered.  They were probably just protecting their scooters from noobs like us!

Going back down this hill is where I had my first accident.  I was still getting used to the bike and didn't realize that you should never rev the engine while you are not on the scooter.  I was just trying to guide it over the ruts back down to the road when it shot out from under my hands, clipped my leg and knocked me down. I had a lovely assortment of bruises and cuts to show for it and I think I'll have a permanent scar for my trouble.

Josh and Katie S.

Rob and Megan P.

Maggie and Megan

Our first stop was Passage Rock Wines, which was rather far out on the island, but the drive was lovely, especially on a scooter with the wind (and light rain) whipping past.

We initially intended to go to several wineries, but we enjoyed driving around so much that we only ended up at two.  We were able to get to Batch Winery near sunset, which was gorgeous.  The view was spectacular, although the pictures don't do it justice because of the lighting.

Who's that hiding in the tree?

 Quick stop at the grocery store to stock up on some bottles for back at the campsite and we headed to the campsite to meet our pizza delivery guy. Mmmm.  Wine and pizza and chocolate.

We took our glasses of wine out to the beach for sunset, but the tide was waaaay out and we had to walk through super mucky sludge to get to the water.

I got stuck in the sludge and had to get rescued by Emily.  We were finally able to suck my feet out and then I had the joy of digging around in the muck to find my flip flops.

Megan P, Maggie, Megan C, Emily

The next morning we packed up our campsite and headed out to turn in our scooters.  And of course I crash my scooter as we are leaving the campsite!  There were wooden posts around the entrance to keep cars from driving around the gate and I managed to hit one as we were scooting through (ha, get it?).  I broke the entire front plastic panel of the scooter and knocked off a blinker.  I was pretty unscathed this time, minus my pride.  The owner was very nice about it and just charged me for parts.  Oh well, maybe I will do better next time.

This was definitely an experience I would recommend for others.  What a blast!