Day 30: Auckland to Auckland

Distance Covered: 23 km

Two days off was great. We are feeling much stronger and not quite as many pains. It seems like we would need a week to really recover, but two days was a good start.

As alluded to from yesterday, we didn’t decide to walk the city so much as we decided not to take the bus. I think that both of us chose the “meh, I’m here and I’m hiking the trail so let’s just get on with it” choice. We weren’t excited about it so much as we were resigned to the road walking experience. This meant that the pleasant surprises along the way were that much better.

We started late, not even getting up until about 8:30. Maximize the investment! We probably got out the door around 10. Then to the post office to pick up our bump box, sort it, and then ship it ahead. We mostly put stuff in it, like thermals not needed as it heats up. I was very glad to get new trekking pole tips.

We started for the grocery store, but were waylaid twice by delicious things. Like street waffles and tacos. So easy to spend money here… Then we only wanted to pick up a couple of things. Just over $100 later, our packs are heavy with new granola bars, licorice, cereal, and etc… It’s hard to turn down all the variety we rarely see in small town convenience stores.

It wasn’t until after 12 that we started walking. We meandered around downtown, following the GPS to keep on the trail. After a couple of false starts, we found well-signed trail at the start of a city park. We walked through grass, past large sculptures, bird ponds, and flowers. 

Near the top of the hill, we found the Winter Gardens. We had heard about these gardens and that they were worth checking out. We didn’t want to pay, though, so we just went up to the entrance to see what we could see. Turns out they were free! Two greenhouses, one being heated and tropical, filled with flowers from all over the world. Marble statues and a rectangular pool completed the scene. We quite enjoyed our time there.

The trail next wound through more park and up an extinct volcano with views of the city. We like these “from whence we came views”.

Then we went across cricket and rugby fields, through the University of Auckland, and then to Cornwall Park. This park was huge, filled with old trees full of character. Some seemed to be putting on a master class of art through life. They were so large that pictures don’t really do them justice.

But then it was city walking. There were people wearing NBA jerseys, a KFC, corner convenience stores selling lotto tickets, cars impatiently waiting for you to cross… Other than cars on the left side of the road, it was kilometers of city walking in any US city. The hard cement sidewalks seemed to quickly undo any recovery made in the last two days.

The trail got better again after walking across a bay bridge. It followed a strip of a park around the bay coastline.

This led to large bird sanctuaries, where the sign said you could sometimes see up to 15,000 birds. We didn’t see more than the usual so it must have been the wrong season. We did see two pairs of black swans, each with two juvenile swans. We both enjoyed that. And the walk itself was on nice trail away from traffic. 

The day ended on something of a sour note as we ended up having to pay for a hostel. It was $129 for two people, which is brutal. A big topic everyone on the trail talks about is that they feel forced into paying way more than expected to hike or they have to break the law and secretly camp.

Tomorrow we will head towards the airport along more bay and then to the Botanic Gardens. That should be a lot of fun.