Waiheke Island.

Lonely Planet has followed Conde Naste Traveler’s lead in gushing over Auckland’s Waiheke Island. With only last week Conde Naste rating Waiheke the fourth best island in the world to visit, Lonely Planet has just listed the island as the fifth best destination – island or otherwise – in the world.

Describing Waiheke as “a utopia of secret coves, beautiful beaches, rolling vineyards, luxury lodges and bohemian sensibilities,” Lonely Planet’s marketing director Chris Zeiher said that “the secret is out.”

Personally I feel like I’ve always had a strange relationship with Waiheke. How do you explain a place you generally feel is overrated when you’re on the mainland and yet way more beautiful than you remembered each time you visit? Maybe that’s just taking something for granted that’s on your doorstep.

Click here to see the full top 10 list (which also includes the likes of Transylvania in Romania, Hawaii and Cuba’s Valle de Vinales), but in the meantime here are 20 of my favourite Waiheke photos from my times there in the past couple of years: