Visit to Waiheke Island

Mike Trick, a Carnegie-Mellon University Professor, has been visiting the University of Auckland since January 2007. He rents a house on Waiheke Island and invited us for a day on Waiheke along with the other operations research colleagues at the University of Auckland. We planned to catch the 11am ferry but left about 10 minutes later than we planned. This wouldn’t have been an issue had we found a parking garage immediately, but we didn’t, and instead, we found ourselves stuck in traffic as some political demonstration marched down Queen Street. Fortunately, only a couple of thousand people showed up for the rally, so we were able to move with maybe 10 minutes before the ferry left. We found a lot ($36 per day!) and ran to the ferry – well, we all ran except Annick, who was wearing flip flops and finding them unsuitable for anything beyond a relaxing walk. Nevertheless, we somehow made it to the ferry in time, maybe with a minute or two to spare.



Mike and his family met us at the ferry when we arrived, along with many of the other guests. We took a walk through the bush and along a road to reach his house – quite scenic indeed. His house is simply stunning – imagine one side of the house, completely made of glass and overlooking a picture postcard bay. Furthermore, it was only a one-minute walk to a wide and beautiful beach. Along with the wonderful environment, we very much enjoyed visiting with all of the guests, so much so, that it was a bit disappointing when we had to pack up and leave. Our goal was to board the 5 pm ferry, so we naturally started walking at 4:40 – Mike takes 20 minutes to walk to the ferry, but apparently, he walks briskly. We made the ferry, but we are sure the people on the boat loved watching us jump the three meters from the wharf onto the boat as it was pulling away – OK, we didn’t actually have to jump onto the boat, but we did run the last 300 meters and we had no time to spare before they were about to pull away, leaving us huffing and puffing at the end of the wharf wondering what we were going to do for the next hour until the next ferry.