last night i dined in the clouds. basically. which leads me to declare waiheke my most favourite small island and te whau my favourite vineyard.

this is what it looks like.

i have photos of being a booze hound over dinner but this is the koru club and i can't upload my photos. sadly for you. and sadly for you, unless you were AL you weren't there with me. to enjoy what USA today called one of the top five most memorable meals in 2007 and what NYC based magazine wine spectator called "one of the best restaurants in the world for wine lovers". recession? what recession? i'm still living like royalty!

the other thing about waiheke is that it is filled to the brim with characters. like the taxi driver who worked for the red hot chili peppers for 48 hours and tells me that flea still blames himself for river pheonix's death. and the other taxi driver who lives on the island because of the drugs but would give it all up to become a professional black jack player. and the couple who hold sculpture competitions on their lawn, but have a loose definition of sculpture (which is how a blue bowl filled with water and a yellow rubber duck qualifies as a sculpture).

waiheke has a community movie theatre that is basically identical to the one in gilmore girls.

so my life long ambition of going to such a theatre was fulfilled when i saw vicky cristina barcelona (8/10) on a rainy saturday afternoon.

anyway, my flight is FINALLY boarding. hurrah. more later.....