Auckland summary

Reaching Auckland was a very significant thing for us, it took 6 hours to get up to Cape Reinga and took 31 days to get back! However it really doesn't seem long ago that we were back here all fresh faced and anxious to start our Te Araroa adventure.

Whilst in Auckland we stayed with a good old friend of Anders' in Castor Bay on the North Shore. We had quite a few rest days here in between nights of celebration: Christmas Eve/Day, Ricky's Birthday and New Years Eve/Day.  Taking this many rest days, although pleasant, seems to be quite dangerous, it's very easy to fall back into the house living life...complete with soft beds, hot showers and all sorts of comforts. Because of this we are keen to get back onto the trail again, otherwise we're afraid we'll never leave.

For the time we were in Auckland we obviously continued to walk the trail, but every evening we would bus it back to Castor Bay. This was helpful as it meant we always had a place to stay and it meant that we could leave our big packs at home and just take a single day pack for our city excursions.

Day 32 (25/12/10) - Merry Christmas from TastyTrek! Today we had an invite to Waiheke Island to have Christmas lunch with some family friends. The ferry to Waiheke leaves from Devonport, incidentally on our trail, so we thought we take two birds out with one stone and walk from Castor Bay to Devonport then catch the ferry to Waiheke. The walk from Castor Bay, through Milford Beach and down Takapuna Beach is very very nice, the tide was out so we hopped across the rocks and walked along the beach the whole way...along with all the other people taking it easy on Xmas day. At the south end of Takapuna beach we figured we'd miss our ferry if we stuck to the coast, so we opted to take Lake Road into Devonport where we then caught the ferry to Waiheke Island.  The rest of the day we spent drinking, eating and being merry on this very excellent Christmas Day.

Day 33 (26/12/10) - Obviously the day after Christmas is an obligatory rest day. We indeed rested hard. When we felt we had enough energy for the day we drove into town to hit the Boxing Day Sales hard and buy a few bits and pieces that we needed. We also stopped off in Papatoetoe where we met with Don Campbell from The Bone Art Place, he showed us some of the literally stunning works of art he had around the house and we chatted for a while, he gave on tips and info on how to carve our own bone and other materials. Here we also picked up our 30 donated bone carvings, that we will be giving out to our most generous charity donors. On the way back home we stopped off at Burgerfuel, an awesome Kiwi burger chain. If you're in Auckland or anywhere that has it, GO THERE AND GET A BURGER!

Day 34  (27/12/10) - Sadly Anders and i received news late the night before that our grandad passed away. This came as a shock to the both of us and so there was a grey haze over the beauty of New Zealand and our adventure. However we have now decided to finish the walk in memory of our grandad, Frank Ford, loved by all. Although we are in mourning, it is his life we are going to celebrate by completing the Te Araroa. In our memories grandad lives on. Later in the day we were kindly dropped off at Long bay by Dave Morton. We walked along the coast at low tide around the head lands and bays. It was a really cool walk as you have to climb over rocks and jump down on to slippery wave cut platforms. There are some amazing geological features, faults, folds, stacks, and intrusions to list a few. There was two rope swings in one bay so we had to stop for a swing, unfortunately it was low tied so we couldnt let go and fall into the water; but we did try run along the sea wall! It was an easy and pleasant walk with beautiful views of the coastline.

Day 35 (28/12/10) - It was Ricky's Birthdays today, unbeknown to us. He kept it very quiet. Thus we had another day of rest and relaxation. And by rest and relaxation i mean we spent forever creating the most delicious quadruple chocolate cake ever. Picture this: (from bottom upwards) Chocolate brownie with chocolate drops, sliced banana with chocolate icing, moist chocolate devils cake all covered with a different chocolate icing. Sooooooo delicious. That night we partied.

Day 36 (29/12/10) - Today, not an intended rest day, was in fact another rest day. The heaviness of yesterdays party had set in.  We blobbed out around the house and wrote some blogs in between cleaning up the house. Later in the evening we all went canoeing in the bay, just to get out the house and do something with the day. Whilst DM snorkeled, Anders and Landey attempted to fish at some nearby rocks...with some success ultimately. Landey caught a mackerel and Anders, a small bream...both however managed to flip flop their way out of the plastic bag and back into sea. Later we made tortillas and burritos for dinner.

Day 37 (30/12/10) - After taking an incredibly indirect route on the bus from Castor Bay to Midtown, we started walking through Auckland. A quick stop in a couple of shops to collect some much needed things and we carried on up the hill. Honestly it's not that exciting walking through just another city. However Auckland has amazing hills such as Mt Eden and One Tree Hill which offer spectacular views of the city. Walking up and down the hills was much more pleasant without carrying our packs and all that weight, a simple day pack with some water and some money works just fine through Auckland. Ambling through the city streets we finally climbed our first volcano of the day, Mt Eden. From here you can see all of Auckland, very nice. It's a pleasant 2 miles though, through suburbs and schools and a park before climbing up to the point, One Tree Hill. The park at One Tree Hill is awesome! There are loads of cool trees to climb on and I bet it's an incredibly nice place to relax for a while. But we strolled on to the top, to the obelisk - a monument erected in admiration of the Maori people. Again there are stunning views from the top of this cinder cone and we could see our next destination - Mangere Bridge. We were starving by the time we reached the bottom of the hill and went in search of a place to eat. After an hour or so of slowly wandering (in the right direction) in search of food, we stumbled upon a Pak n Save! hurray! a cheap awesome lunch. Then more suburbs and a little industry we hit the bridge and had a nice coastal walk to Ambry Park, thankfully there was a lot of nice grass where we could sit and chill until Dave came to pick us up (Thanks Again!) The end of another great day.

Day 38 (31/12/10) - The plan for today was to kayak from Castor Bay out to Rangitoto, climb it and kayak back home again. We wanted to do this because we figured the walk around the airport wouldn't be very exciting. If we could get those miles doing something else (more exciting, like climbing a volcano) then we could skip out the airport walk and begin from Papatoetoe next time. Great plan we thought. Didn't pan out that way though. There were 3 of us and all we had were 2 pretty old single person kayaks with the oar missing from one of them. There were also quite strong southerlies that didnt help the situation. After paddling HARD for 15 mins and getting nowhere we accepted defeat and decided going to Rangitoto was a foolish idea. So we went fishing and snorkeling again in the bay. Tonight being New Years Eve meant we had an almighty party at the house. Before we all got too carried away witt he party, Anders did his best to give Landey a mohawk. Now he looks totally badass. I think we partied hard till about 04.00 and then crashed out on the sofa.

Day 39 (01/01/11) - Today failed sooo hard. Most of us didnt really start moving until about 16.00 and slow moving at most. Not much could be done today, a few blogs were written but that's all.

Day 40 (02/01/11) - Things needed to get done today, we had to restock and resupply and repack our bags in preparation for starting back on the trail unsupported again. We drove to Pak-n-Save to get the food we needed that we divided up and packed up. Lots of little jobs were finished, like finishing blogs, writing letters, cleaning the house among other small things. We are now ready to get going tomorrow, back onto the Te Araroa trail.

Auckland was A LOT of fun, it would be nice to stay longer and just hangout, but we have a mission to do. To finish the trail. We're very excited to be back on the road again and greatly looking forward to things ahead. Things we're looking forward to most are the Tongariro Crossing and canoeing down the Whanganui River. Bring it on Te Araroa!