Piha vandfald og vine
Beskrivelse
Vil du holde din eftermiddag fri, eller have et fly at tage, tager denne kortere morgenudgave af vores heldags Piha Waitakere Ranges Wine Tour dig til at se Pihas sorte sandstrand og derefter de rolige og fredfyldte Karekare-vandfald. Inden du bliver leveret tilbage til Auckland Sky Tower, vil du være i stand til at smage vin på Soljans Vineyard i Kumeu. Soljans-familien kan prale af 5 generationers vinproduktion i Auckland og er stadig familieejet. De producerer Methode Traditionelle, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Gewürtztraminer, Pinot Noir, mousserende Muscat, Pinotage og Merlot Cabernet Malbec-blandinger – De producerer også en 10 år gammel Tawny Port, som du vil prøve.
Turmuligheder
Rejseplan
Piha er en kystby ved havet, en af flere omkring 50 minutters kørsel fra Auckland Central Business District. Vi kører op gennem Henderson Valley, det historiske banebrydende hjerteland for den newzealandske vinindustri, hvor mange kroatiske vinproducenter slog sig ned og startede med at høste de gamle Kauri-træer til tømmer og tyggegummi, en tidlig eksport. Piha er berømt for sit vulkanske magnetiske sorte jernsand og er en meget populær forpost at besøge for både lokale og turister. Rejsende vil stoppe ved Piha Lookout for en storslået udsigt over bosættelsen nedenfor, før de kører ned og går på stranden. Det kystnære Tasmanske hav er meget dramatisk at se på, men også farligt med rifter og store bølger og stormfulde vejrforhold om vinteren. Om sommeren er det et surfers paradis og har været vært for verdens under 16 surfmesterskaber. Nyd tiden på både sydlige og nordlige Piha-strande og se den ikoniske løveklippe.
Karekare er en anden bosættelse tæt på Piha i Waitakere-områderne. Vandfaldet er et af flere smukke naturlige vandfald 15 minutters gang ind i regnskoven. Indenfor denne beskyttede skov vil du se et 500 år gammelt Pohutukawa-træ, en art, som newzealændere i daglig tale kalder det indfødte New Zealand-juletræ, fordi det kun blomstrer i en måned i december. Du vil se en bred vifte af andre forskellige indfødte planter og træer, herunder den indfødte hør og unikke "Silver Fern" New Zealands mest berømte ikon. Ved foden af vandfaldet er der adskillige Nikau-palmer, verdens sydligst voksende antipodiske palmetræ. Det meste af stien, der fører til vandfaldet, er blevet gruset for sikkerheds skyld. Af og til om efteråret vil du se ænder og indfødte ål, der nysgerrigt kommer til overfladen for at se på mennesker. Køreturen i skoven fra Piha til Karekare er 20 minutter, og gåturen fra parkeringspladsen til vandfaldet er 10 minutter Vi bruger omkring 20 minutter ved Karekare-vandfaldet.
Soljans Estate er en femte generations familievinvirksomhed etableret i 1937. Pionerer inden for vinfremstilling i New Zealand, de producerer mousserende Methode Traditionelle, Rose' Wines, Estate barrique gæret Chardonnay, Pinot Gris og en lille mængde pinotage. Deres Marlborough-avler forsyner dem med Gewurtztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc og Pinot Noir. De producerer fadlagrede Syrah- og Cabernet-blandinger fra Hawkes Bay og sød mousserende Muscat fra Gisborne. De har også et misundelsesværdigt ry for deres 10-årige Tawny Port lagret på gigantiske 3400 liters håndlavede Totara-fade. Soljans har også en souvenirbutik og kan arrangere forsendelse af enhver af deres vine til din dør i Australien, Storbritannien og USA. Du vil prøve mindst fem vine i kælderdøren, og Soljans stræber efter at imødekomme forskellige ganer og præferencer på dagen.
Højdepunkter
Hvad er inkluderet
Afhentningssteder og tider
Vi indsamler kun fra hoteller eller overnatningssteder med køretur eller særlige lastzoner. Hvis dit hotel ikke er på listen, så kontakt os, og vi vil give dig besked om dit nærmeste mødested. Denne tur vender kun tilbage til Sky City Hotel by the Sky Tower - uden undtagelser.
Rejsendes vurderinger
Vigtig information
- Anbefales ikke til rejsende med rygskader
- Anbefales ikke til rejsende med fare for hjerte-kar-sygdomme
- Anbefales ikke til gravide rejsende
- Der er adgang til offentlig transport i nærheden
- Velegnet til alle fitnessniveauer
- Minimumsalder for drikkeri er 18 år
- Den samlede tid brugt på at køre i køretøjet til denne naturskønne tur er cirka 3 timer
- Anbefales ikke til klienter med knæ- eller hoftehandicap
Anmeldelser(9)
Driver/ owner / tour guide was amazing. Knew all about the wines as well as the countryside. He managed to provide interesting dialog all the way to the various locations. Has half day 1 winery and full day 2 wineries. Both had excellent wines.
Hi Donald, Thanks for booking the tour and thanks for the great review. I hope you'll follow NZWINEPRO® on Facebook or Instagram where I post interesting things I come across on tour. Best regards - John McFarlane
We booked this activity through Viator several weeks in advance. We received confirmation and tickets. We arrived at the pickup location early and messaged the operator to ensure we were in the right location. We did not receive a response. Contacted Viator directly who spoke with the operator wan advised that we had not been out on their calendar. We had one day in Auckland and were left with no tour as everything else was booked. So unprofessional and they didn’t even respond to us. I would give them zero stars if I could. Nothing was offered to compensate for this oversight.
Hi Pink, We collect from 14 major hotels and cruise ships from the Port. Normally when we receive a booking through Viator we respond to it asking where the client is staying so that we can schedule their pickup in a logical order depending on the number of pickups and their locations around the Auckland central business district The client responds and the booking is confirmed. This is all done through the email intranet or chat system that is part of the Viator booking system. You received an automated E ticket that said "confirmed" but that is not a confirmation from the operator , that's a confirmation that you simply have a ticket. When you buy an Airline ticket you are still required to check in and it's the same with us. In your case, the booking never got put in the calendar so we did not know there was a booking until Viator phoned us which was the first communication we had with you through them. You booked something and never contacted us prior to the departure date and time to confirm or reconfirm that the details on the ticket were correct - which they were not. This has happened before. Sky City Hotel is simply a default location which we have to put in. It's one of the 14 hotels While we accept this mistake was ours, you never reached out once in the communication through the Viator Chat system like most seasoned travellers do well in advance. If you leave contact to the departure time there is a real chance the tour has already departed If you had contacted us in advance you could have been collected directly from your cruise ship like the other travellers that went on the tour that day that communicated with us efficiently. We have a log of the communications with you after the tour had departed, but prior to that we received no telephone call, no messages - nothing. The terrible reviews are all unfortunately clients that did not get to go on tours - and so your review is a reflection of that rather than of the tour itself and I understand you are disappointed. I am personally very sad this occurred and that you missed out on an amazing experience. You received a full refund To anyone reading this I guess the moral of the story is book direct with the operator and don't go though 3rd party on-sellers where communications sometimes fail or don't happen at all. We were supposed to contact you but you could have done a lot more to contact us in the weeks leading up to the tour date. Mellissa Wiles - Tour Co-ordinator
Booked this activity several weeks in advance. We received our confirmation and tickets. We arrived early at the pickup location and messaged the operator to make sure we were in the right location. We received no response. We contacted Viator and were told the operator didn’t put our booking on his calendar! We had one day in Auckland and we were left with no tour as everything else was booked. Very disappointing and so unprofessional that the operator did not even respond. Nothing was offered to compensate for this oversight. I would give zero stars if I could.
Hi Tommi, We have already responded to your partners 1 star review. We are sorry for this error which was a complex administrative mistake that we acknowledge. Small businesses grow from learning from mistakes and evolving to ensure they are not repeated. We are sorry for the disappointment that you missed your tour. The departure time was brought forward to accommodate the departure of the cruise ship you were on and this should have been communicated to you. Kindest regards Mellissa Wiles - Tour Co-ordinator
We took the half-day Waterfalls and Wine option and while there were nice moments on the tour the majority of the outing was spent traveling in a somewhat cramped van. The pick-ups of participants began at 9-ish, not the tour itself. Then, after 50 minutes of driving there were two stops at nearly identical beaches (20 minutes each), and one 5-minute hike to an attractive waterfall. As a result there was only time to enjoy a single wine tasting. Perhaps we didn't read the fine print closely enough but we anticipated more hiking and wine tasting and less motoring. The all-day tour might have been more satisfying, as Piha IS a beautiful location and it simply takes time to get there and back.
I'm disappointed in your review which is quite at odds with other reviewers of the same tour. There is no public transport to Piha or Karekare and there are a limited number of tour companies prepared to go there because the roads are so hard on vehicles. You clearly did not read the inclusions which state you would visit black sand beaches at Piha, 2 of them, visit a pretty waterfall after a short walk in the forest at Karekare and taste wine a Soljans Vineyard. It was all in the description, but you make it sound as though if we availed more time there would be time for more wine tasting. You are a dreamer and quite naive and definitely ungrateful. Perhaps you should have booked the longer version that others on the tour paid for, which included lunch and a second winery - But you opted for the shorter and much cheaper edition, so I throw it right back at you. It is quite a drive I concede but there are amazing views and getting to these places is not easy at all. So thanks for your completely average review.
It was a great experience, largely because our guide, Jon, was so knowledgeable! This area of the country is magnificent.
Hi Theresa, Thanks for your great review. I'm so pleased you enjoyed your tour and that the inclusions met with your best expectation. Kind regards - John McFarlane
Perfect day! We just wanted a half day tour as we had a lot of things planned and this fit the mold perfectly. John was an incredible guide and was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic. It was awesome to see a waterfall and piha- and the vineyard was the perfect way to end the day. Would highly recommend!
Hi Valerie, I'm so happy you enjoyed this tour - Piha is a magic place - The wine afterwards the cherry. Thanks for your great review.
We did a similar excursion with the same company a few years ago. Enjoyed then and enjoyed it again this time. We were lucky the wet weather held off while we visited Piha Beach and waterfall.
Hi Monika, Thanks for the great review and for choosing NZWINEPRO® twice. I do hope you'll follow my business @nzwinepro on Facebook or Instagram where I post things of interest that I discover on tour. All the best - John McFarlane
We had already toured the city and Waiheke island, but we hadn't seen the beaches or rain-forest of the nearby west side. I'm glad we took this tour. It gave us a chance to view more of the unspoiled beauty of New Zealand. Added plus was that this tour finished by 2pm enabling us to catch our evening flight home without needing to rush.
Hi Jay, I'm delighted you enjoyed Piha and the waterfalls. This morning tour is becoming very popular for people departing on early flights or cruise ships and still wish to have a few hours before departure. I do hope you'll follow my business @nzwinepro on Facebook or Instagram where I post things of interest I come across on tour. Kind regards - John McFarlane
What a wonderful tour! John was our guide and was so clear and communicative from the very start. His insights into New Zealand history and culture was fasinating and vast. Piha beach and the waterfall were beautiful and we stopped at several locations for breathaking photos. Boy does John know about wines! We had a great stop at a winery to taste test and learn about how wines came to be grown in NZ. Also got to sample some local manuka honey which was an added bonus! They have a full day version of this tour, with lunch but this shorter one was perfect for us as we made it back to Auckland by early afternoon to rest, shop and meet friends for dinner! In fact, John gave us a leaflet with various recommendations that did not dissappoint! We had a fabulois meal of green lipped mussels and frites at The Occidental and visted several other recommendations - all A+++! This is a must do tour!
Thanks for your fantastic view of the Piha Waterfalls & Wines Tour. I appreciate the positive feedback and I'm pleased the nzwinepro® newsletter had some things for you to do and see. This shorter tour is very popular for people leaving on an early flight or cruise but still want to see the wild west coast, nature and then taste wine. I do hope you'll follow my business @nzwinepro on Facebook or Instagram where I post things of interest I come across on tour. Best regards - John McFarlane
