Where are we?

Waiheke is a quaint island, removed from it all but still easily accessible from the hustle and bustle of Auckland. The Island is the kind of place where it won’t take too long before you start to feel like a local.

It offers amazing natural beaches, sheltered bays, rainforest and wetlands home to native flora and fauna. The towns of Oneroa, Surfdale, Ostend and the like offer great restaurants, bars and shops and you will find world-famous vineyards dotted all over the country side providing fabulous views over the Hauraki Gulf.

As to the origins of the area, it is believed that Waiheke may have been settled by  Polynesian travellers when they first came to Aotearoa (New Zealand) around  800 years ago. Many indigenous animals, such as the giant eagle, huia, fur seal and tuatra, soon disappeared from the island due to the introduction of domestic pets. Following an initial wave of extinctions, for several centuries Maori successfully maintained a relatively stable co-existence with the remaining indigenous fauna based on horticulture and harvesting kai moana (fish and shellfish).

According to local historian Paul Monin, no evidence can be found as to what the name "Waiheke" means. Anecdotal stories circulated by tourism groups are urban legends. Monin explained that because of the Maori wars in the area, by the time Pakeha began recording local history, those Maori who would have known the original meaning were dead.

The conventional explanation is that it means "Cascading Waters" with an attached story relating to a modest waterfall on the island. This explanation is doubtful in part because except in storms, most water on Waiheke drips - the island does not have cascading rivers. However, Wai also means a form of memory, explained by some Maori scholars as the memory of all that was and will be, and Heke means a migrant or party of migrants. Could this be the island of migrants remembering who they are? 

In a scholarly and comprehensive book called Te Takoto o te Whenua o Hauraki - Hauraki Landmarks (Reed, 2000), however, Taimoana Tuuroa tells a very different story. He says the literal translation of Waiheke is indeed 'descending waters' but Maori history has it that during exploration of in the inner gulf, the waka Arawa made a call at the island and Kahumatamomoe, the son of Tamatekapua, came ashore. "On landing upon the flat rocky shore, he needed to relieve himself and did so proclaiming that his micturating waters had descended upon the land," writes Tuuroa (P193). In this version, the waterfall is even more modest.

Things to do and see in Waiheke
a. Markets
b. Restaurants and Bars
c. Vineyards
d. Fishing
e. Arts and Crafts