Day 27: Stillwater to Auckland
Distance Covered: 32 km
Nice, easy morning today. We had a few km or so to walk to get to the estuary crossing and we didn’t need to be there until 10 AM as it’s not crossable before then. We slept in, ate leisurely, Emily called home for Thanksgiving, and then we casually packed up. We started meandering out around 9, following a nice trail along the river and then the beach. Through grass, under low hanging branches, and over rocky protrusions into the bay.
We reached the shore of the crossing at just about 10 AM. Ahead, we could see our Cyprus friend and another hiker considering routes. The crossing started out shallow for 50 meters or so before becoming a deeper channel for another 50 meters or so, and then another shallow section. We saw them both wading knee and then stomach deep. They eventually turned back as it was still a little too sketchy.
Emily and I waded onto the sand bar, knee deep in cold water and probed along the edge of the channel for a good point. I waded fairly far out towards the sea, waves sometimes wetting me to my belt and other times barely wetting my shins. I saw a dark body move under the waves near me and recognized a stingray. Pretty animals. A little surprising, though.
The primary benefit of the search was the time it took as this allowed the water levels to drop further. The two other hikers decided to go for it again. The other hiker was able to lift his backpack above his head and the water hit about his lower chest. Our Cyprus friend is a little shorter with a heavier pack. The picture above tells the story.
Emily and I went next. I also lifted my backpack above my head and water hit my chest pockets. Emily left her pack on and, crossing just a few meters upstream of me, managed to find a little higher sand bar and didn’t get quite as deep. Still quite deep, though, at well above her waist. Trudging and wading across, we made it a short while later. Other than being soaked and a little cold, things were great. Lots of fun really.
The tarnished lining was the weather. We had known that rain was called for and had been hoping it would hold off long enough for us to dry out and be able to put rain gear on. That didn’t quite happen. We climbed up grassy cliffs, following the contours of the coastline on surprisingly busy trails. (Being closer to town means better trails and more day hikers.) Not long after we started, the rain came down. Steady, long lasting rain from the marine layer came down on us with almost no wind. The notes said we would be passing a male nudist colony, but the bad weather meant there was no one for the ladies in our group to surreptitiously glance at.
A short while later, we were dumped out onto a major community park. Kind of like a Central Park, with rows of parking, multiple playgrounds, and lots of fields and shelters. We walked through the rain, following the main thoroughfare, and past nearly domesticated birds looking for free food.
From this point, the trail became a series of small bays (100 meters or less long) connected by cement pedestrian paths that bordered expensive homes. Kilometer after kilometer, we were bordered by a flowered cliff edge on one side and houses on the other. Up the cliff, down the cliff, along the beach, and up the other cliff. The best part, other than the views, was that the expensive homes invested in making their section of the walkway pretty with many manicured garden sections and a large variety of colorful flowers.
Of course, in the end, we were still walking through a city on hard walkways. It’s tiring and hard on the feet. There were long sections too of walking through a business district to get to another park that had a path. Not compelling stuff and a noticeable contrast from the adventurous crossing we did in the morning.
We got to our planned camping park at about 4 PM. We'd gone about 23 km to that point and we had planned to stay there before walking the last 10 km into Auckland tomorrow. We found, though, that it would be $42 for us to camp between two RV’s on a busy footpath. And the hostel our friend was staying at would be $52. We decided to push for Auckland.
More road walking and one large coastal park with military monuments and more road walking later, we found ourselves rounding the ferry terminal just in time for the ferry to come in. We were feeling fairly good at the campground, but fatigue is exponential it seems so we were pretty keen to get on the ship and sit down!
And, of course, going into Auckland is an achievement for us too! Kind of unbelievable to us, thinking back on all the things we’ve adventured through to get back where we started. We covered just about 600 km and had so many good (and a few tough) experiences. It’s a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings. And then the ferry ride was over and there we were, standing in downtown Auckland. Crazy.
Being Thanksgiving back in the states, we wanted to eat big. Or maybe we wanted to eat big and it was also Thanksgiving… At any rate, even though we couldn’t remember the last time we ate at one, we gave it a shot. It was “okay”. But the price was right! And we ordered two rounds. In total, three Big Macs, a quarter pounder, a chicken sandwich, fries, a drink, and a 6-piece nuggets. Shameful. No shame!
Tonight we are staying in a 12 person dorm in separate beds. Tomorrow we’ll move to a different hostel where we have a private room for two nights.