You'll find it at the quiet eastern end of Waiheke, up a long drive along Cowes Bay Road, where a family distillery sits on the ridge above the bay with a spray-free garden that grows a good share of the botanicals in your glass. The garden bar opens Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm, and it pays to book a table, because people settle into bean bags on the lawn with a drink and don't move for hours.
The spirits are the reason you came, so start with a tasting paddle and work through Spirit of Waiheke, the signature gin built on eleven botanicals with giant kelp from the bay below, the cherry-infused Red Ruby and a Horopito Spice vodka. Then eat, because an Italian chef turns out proper Neapolitan pizza, including a fried one with salmon, alongside sourdough baked on site, salt and pepper calamari, polenta fries and oysters, and the Woolshed up the hill, reopened in December 2024, does guided tastings and private functions, weddings included.
Packages start at $49pp, tours go at 2pm Wednesday to Friday and 11am at weekends with 48 hours' notice, and the Fullers360 Eastern Explorer bus stops in if you'd rather leave the car behind.
Written from 186 Google reviews, every one we could get, on 12 November 2026. Rated 4.7 from 170 Google reviews.
You'll get it the moment you're on the lawn, because this is the best view on Waiheke with gin made a few steps away to match it. It's relaxed rather than precious, and you'll leave planning a second visit.
Start with a gin or vodka tasting paddle, because working through Spirit of Waiheke, the cherry-infused Red Ruby and the Horopito Spice vodka is the whole point of the trip. Then order the Neapolitan pizza, the fried one with salmon especially, with sourdough baked on site, salt and pepper calamari and polenta fries for the table, and finish on a frozen cocktail.
The staff are warm and unhurried, and on a wet day they'll meet you at the car with umbrellas so you arrive dry. Ask about the botanicals or the still and you'll get a proper answer, because the people pouring your drink are the ones making it.
You're on a ridge above Cowes Bay with the Hauraki Gulf and the Coromandel in front of you, and on a clear day it's the best seat on the island. Take a bean bag on the lawn, grab a blanket if the wind gets up, and watch for weka on the grass.
Paddles, pizzas and cocktails are all pretty cheap, and the set packages from $49pp to $140pp tell you exactly what you're spending before you arrive. For a view like this, it's hard to argue.
Sunny long lunches with a group, birthdays, hen dos and weddings, which happen here on the lawn and in the Woolshed. Bring the dog, bring the kids, bring the parents from overseas, and book ahead for anything bigger than a handful.
When the place fills up, drinks can take an hour or more to reach your table, so order your next round early. There have been a few arguments at the door over table allocations, the food list gets shorter in winter, and the drive out here is long, so sort a sober driver or take the Eastern Explorer bus.
Every fact on this page was checked on 8 November 2026 against Google, Waiheke Distilling Co's own website and 186 of its Google reviews. The photo is from the eatout library, not taken here, and no venue pays to be listed or ranked. Something out of date? Tell us
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