Little Island Paradise

Waiheke Island, in the North Island’s Hauraki Gulf has placed 6th in the 2009 list of the ‘World’s Best Islands to Live On’ by Islands magazine, and is praised in particular for being emigration-friendly and socio-economically diverse. “Multimillion-dollar homes share the island comfortably with summer cottages, and magnates mix easily with artists and writers.” US Expats Mike and Ann Sprat, owners of Destiny Bay Vineyards, moved to Waiheke in 2000 to escape a harried professional life in California’s Silicon Valley. “We were in Dunedin, and one morning at breakfast, a friend said, ‘You should move to Waiheke and grow grapes.’ Of course, we’d never heard of Waiheke, and we’d never contemplated growing grapes, but when we got to the Auckland area, we went over and drove around, and it’s kind of a paradise island. It’s really beautiful and there were a lot of vineyards.” 25% of the 8,000 residents on Waiheke Island are US Expats. (July/August 29)