Piha & Wine Tour from Auckland: Rainforest, Beach & Tastings

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Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/15

Duration6h 30m

GroupUp to 11

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Rainforest, black sand, and barrel-fermented Chardonnay in one morning

A guided wine tour from Auckland that drives through the Waitakere Ranges to Piha Beach on the west coast, then visits two wineries in Kumeu wine country with tastings and lunch included. The tour runs 6.5 hours with hotel pickup, and includes a behind-the-scenes winery tour showing the full barrel fermentation and bottling process—access no other tour operator offers. Children from age 7 are welcome; minimum group size is two people.

6h 30m

Step-by-step itinerary

Piha Beach and Wine Tasting Tour

Drive through Henderson Valley
Visit Aratkai Visitors Centre
Explore North and South Piha beaches
Walk 25 minutes through Rainforest
Take photos of Lion Rock
Drive 50 minutes through rainforest
Wine tasting and one course lunch at Soljans Vineyard
Visit West Brook Winery for wine tasting

The Experience

The drive starts in Henderson Valley and climbs to the Aratkai Visitors Centre for views across the Waitakere Ranges, a protected regional reserve that supplied native timber when Auckland was being settled in the 1860s. From there, a 50-minute rainforest drive takes you down to Piha, a west coast surf settlement 50 km from the city, isolated without public transport and built around black sand beaches. You walk both the North and South Piha beaches and take a 25-minute stroll through the rainforest to photograph Lion Rock—the landmark that defines the settlement.

After Piha, the tour heads inland to Soljans Vineyard Restaurant in Kumeu wine country. Soljans is a fifth-generation Croatian family winery established in 1937, and you taste their wines—grown on their own Auckland vineyard and from grapes sourced in Hawkes Bay and Marlborough—before sitting down to an open-menu one-course lunch. The menu rotates through local fresh fish, steak, lamb, chicken and vegetarian dishes.

The afternoon visit is to West Brook Winery, where the real difference shows. You get a tutored tasting of five wines in the cellar door, then a behind-the-scenes tour through the actual winery showing the full process: pressing grapes, the barrel room, tank farm and bottling line. The winemaker Michael Brajkovich is New Zealand's first Master of Wine, and his barrique-fermented Chardonnay is considered one of the best in the country. No other tour company can show you this part of the operation.

What’s included

Transport in an air-conditioned vehicle.
hotel pickup and drop-off at selected Auckland hotels.
a live English-speaking guide.
wine tastings at both Soljans and West Brook.
a one-course lunch at Soljans Vineyard Restaurant.
and a behind-the-scenes winery tour at West Brook showing the barrel fermentation and bottling process.

Good to know

Easy physical levelPublic transport nearbyNot for pregnant travelersNot for heart conditionsNot for back problems

Operated by NZWINEPRO - Auckland Wine Tours

Is this one for you?The tour involves walking at Piha Beach and through the rainforest, plus a 50-minute drive each way through winding forest roads—book this one if you're comfortable with a full morning of movement and don't need a slow pace. The fixed itinerary means all three stops—coast, vineyard restaurant and cellar door—fit into one outing without you arranging the sequence or transport between them.