Bikes + Hills + Wine = Long, hot day

Wow, that was a long day! We made that last second change of plans and went out to Waiheke Island to check out the wineries and beaches. The little brochures they hand out give nice little descriptions of the place and one of them recommended renting a bike and taking a quick ride from vineyard to vineyard. Seems simple, right? Yeah we thought so too but we were way off. These roads between vineyards that they described as 'beginner' trails were better suited for Lance Armstrong or you freaks that run triathalons. The pictures I took don't do justice to the hills we went through. In the end, it turned out to be fun and the beach was a nice break. Oh, and I found a cheeseburger that could rival any that I've ever had in the U.S. Sorry, no picture of that. But I do have a few other pictures.

 The first picture on the tour de Waiheke is a nice little thing called L&P. This is New Zealand's unique soft drink, which is owned by Coca Cola of course. It's 'world famous in New Zealand'. And it's good. Chase had 4 of these today.

 This is the beginning of our mistake. It was nice and flat at the beginning. Notice that 3 of the girls are missing. They were smart and went shopping in the town on Waiheke.

 After getting through the town, we found a nice beach with a bunch of sailboats. We're not even sweating yet. Just wait...

 This is the beginning of the end. After trying to pull our best Lance Armstrong and tough out the hill, we gave up on it. This is the top of this particular hill so you can't get a true feel for how long the hill lasted.

 The benefit of dealing with the hills was the views from the top. This is looking back at the cove from the beach picture above.

 This was the other benefit of the bike ride... wine! Those are the vineyards for Obsidian wine. The owner had actually been to Kansas City many years ago when he worked for Medtronic. Small world. And his wine was really good. Here's their website-- http://www.obsidian.co.nz/

 Erin being Erin. She had no clue her helmet was on backwards until Chase said something. In her words, "Oh I thought something felt funny."

 This was the last stop on our tour before we headed back across the island. The beach was beautiful except for the thousands of shells that had washed up on shore. The locals said they had never seen it before. We didn't mind. We got around them. And the beach restaurant was the place that had the amazing cheeseburgers. They claim to have the "best burgers outside the USA." I agree with them. After the beach, Chase got fed up with the hills and paid a taxi to drive him, Erin and Kristin back to town- with their bikes in the taxi. Ryan and I toughed out the return trip which was 11 km. We probably should've done the taxi, but that's ok.
Sorry that I didn't get more pictures. I was busy sweating up a storm and trying not to get run over by cars. I'll upload some pictures Mary took as soon as I get them from her camera. That's all for now. On to another beach tomorrow.