Waiheke Island
Stephen Picard
144 pages
NZ$23.95 incl. postage
US$26.95 incl. postage overseas
Full colour with over 100 photos,
maps, index and historical b & w
archival images
The island of Waiheke lies 17 kilometres east of Auckland and 15 kilometres west of Coromandel in the Hauraki Gulf, belonging to the North Island of New Zealand. It is the largest of the 40 or so islands within the Gulf and has 96 kilometres of coastline. The island is circled by delightful beaches.
There are fine sandy beaches and many deep sheltered bays which provide good anchorages. Modern Waiheke has seen the western part of the island become a marine suburb of Auckland, with over 1,000 people making a daily, 35-minute ferry commute to the foot of Queen Street in Auckland City. East Waiheke is still relatively remote and pastoral, resembling the Scottish highlands.
The overall impression of the island today is of quiet cottages clustered in settlements, fantasy houses clinging to the hillsides and commanding the ridelines fringing the beaches, with peaceful pastures undulating down to the coast. The coastscape is an increasingly Mediterranean mix of vineyard and olive plantings.
The standing population of around 10,000 people swells to 40,000 over the summer weekends and holidays.
Look inside the front cover and, yep, there it is, the back-end of a ferry leaving its wake and the Hauraki Gulf island of Waiheke behind on the way to Auckland. Imagine the regular commuters who don’t even bother to look up anymore. But for the rest of us, Picard – an island resident and former journalist – has done a fine book, with his own and historical photographs about island life. You get not just pretty pictures (plenty of those) but a real feel for what island life must be like.
Christchurch Press
The book has five chapters covering all you need to know about the island, its people, history, conservation and economy and it finishes with a short directory of useful telephone numbers. The blurb says it all: ‘Everything you ever wanted to know about one of the most beautiful islands in the world.’ It’s just the right size to fit in the glovebox and would be a useful addition to the luggage for any trip to the far north.
Southland Times
A colourful and comprehensive guide.
NZ Woman’s Weekly
A valuable resource book on the Hauraki Gulf’s largest island. Mostly colour photographs capture the characters, scenery and lifestyle of an island renowned for its laid-back approach to life.
Auckland Tourist Times
An excellent book.
The Strip
Pleasantly summery, the layout is good, the pictures make up in brilliance for what they sometimes lack in fine focus, and the text is dense with information.
NZ Herald
Anyone leafing through the book could not fail to be impressed by the beautiful photographs. They were obviously taken by someone who really understands and loves the Waiheke landscape and lifestyle, with an eye for striking details...
Gulf News
There’s an image that sums up the whole attitude of this Hauraki Gulf hideaway just 20 kilometres east of Auckland. Picture a white stretch of beach, framed by overhanging trees – and two cows sunbathing next to a crowd of holidaymakers! The book captures that island flavour from both a historical and modern perspective.
Next Magazine
Excerpt...
It may be only spitting distance from Auckland, but Waiheke Island is really a world away...
It has been a South Seas refuge, a working-class holiday retreat, a hippie haven, a floating loony-bin. More recently there has been an influx of middle-aged and middle-class people, and of nouveau riche entrepreneurs and developers with an eye on making a buck out of the place, and residents can’t leave their homes and cars unlocked anymore.
Waiheke folk are proud of saying that they make up the third largest island population of New Zealand., and they drive around with bumper stickers proclaiming ‘Slow down, you’re here’, and ‘Far enough behind to be ahead’.
Happily the casual, restful atmosphere – the glorious beaches, the lush vineyards, a vibrant arts community, beautiful native bush reserves and hill country, and incomparable scenery – have survived the commuter invasion, and there has been a consolidation of the legendary and individual Waiheke identity.
Until recently Waiheke was populated by retired people, refugees of city living, some artists and writers. Today, most of the 10,000 permanent residents are concentrated in the half-dozen settlements in the western portion of the island, but the populations spreads and increases to 40,000 over the holidays.
This book aims to present the island’s beauty with over 100 photographs, and answer two questions: What will you be glad to know when you are on the spot? And what would you feel sorry to have missed while there?
Rocky Bay
Cactus Bay
Stonyridge Vineyard
Palm Beach
Matiatia Bay
