Day 30 - city life
Auckland CBD —-> Onehunga 15km
The reason the TA interested me so much vs other long distance trails was because it was more of a route; taking you though national parks and wilderness areas, but also through small towns, communities and today, right through Auckland city centre.
I set off from the hotel with just my bumbag. We were staying another night in Auckland so wonderfully I could walk without my pack. I’d get the bus back into the CBD when I’d reached the end of today’s section.
From Queen Street, the trail went through the University of Auckland campus and into the Domain Wintergardens, I stopped for a coffee before headed towards Mt Eden.
Plenty of people out and about spending their Sunday at the park, without my pack I was just another person stretching my legs. At the top of Mount Eden I walked around as far as I could before the construction gates cut me off - the looped boardwalk around the top nit quite yet finished. I sat for a while to admire the 360 degree views and the eery drop into the volcanic crater in the middle.
From Mt Eden, I continued through the ‘burbs to Cornwall Park, another leafy green park nestled in and amongst the houses. I walked up to One Tree Hill, another popular lookout where I hit the 600km mark. 600km! This felt immense, like all I’d ever done was walk, yet the realisation that it was only 20% was slightly unnerving. The view from One Tree Hill was not a whole lot different from Mt Eden so I skipped back down and headed off towards Onehunga.
The next section through Royal Oak felt a little dodgy. I was very glad I was walking in the middle of the day. Onehunga didn’t get much better. Aside from a new sports complex with kids playground and wakeboarding lake, it was pretty trodden down. Can’t say I’ll be racing to walk alongside the highway through an industrial park anytime soon…
I turned around at Nga Hau Mangere bridge, jumped on the bus at and let Josh know I was heading back.
We’d arranged to meet in Ponsonby for a late lunch and meander around a different part of Auckland. An hour later, we were at Dante’s in Ponsonby Central scoffing down the most delicious pizza either of us had ever had - big statement I know. We walked around the shops for a while, had a couple of drinks and headed back to the hotel late afternoon. Spending the rest of the evening watching tv and eating my last non hiker meal for a while, it started to sink in that I’d properly be on my own tomorrow…
