Days 28/29 - admin and wine
Auckland 0km
Josh had been having a rough few days - ongoing issues with his shoulder and knees in addition to the bad fall in Wenderholm meant his pain threshold was at its limit. He made the incredibly tough decision to call time on his TA adventure for now and head back to Sydney for a while to sort his body out. He’d be hopefully coming back for the South Island if he could get his issues sorted.
After a slow, and honestly rather mopey morning, we decided that tomorrow we’d cheer ourselves up by visiting Waiheke island - the weather was supposed to be beautiful (I have never experienced Auckland sun in the 6 times I’d been before) and we could rent e-bikes for a self guided winery tour. We booked ourselves in and then went about sorting all the jobs we needed to do to a) prepare me to get back on trail after Auckland and b) for Josh to get back to Sydney.
First stop was Bivouac in Newmarket where a replacement tent pole had been sent by the team at Sea to Summit after ours broke in Waipu Cove. We found a UV glue repair kit - it would be the last shot at repairing my mattress before I threw it into the ocean and bought a new one. I also really needed to step up my waterproofing game. My pack liner wasn’t doing a good enough job and although my backpack was made of waterproof material, in a down pour, water was seeping in through the pockets, so I needed a pack cover as well to protect everything from the elements.
As much as we were looking forward to a day of normality tomorrow, hanging in the sunshine and drinking wine, neither of us wanting to go dressed and smelling like hikers. So TA shopping done, we meandered around the normal, non-hiker shops in search of an outfit to wear on Waiheke. We bought deodorant! I bought mascara! Weight here was no worry as Josh could just take it back to Sydney. Tomorrow wasn’t soon enough to change out of hiker gear, so we had a quick superman moment in Westfield bathrooms and looking like new people headed for a wine in Parnell.
Trying to do internet admin on our phones was also getting pretty tricky, so later that afternoon we found an internet cafe to bash out some computer bits. Yes, internet cafes do still exist and yes, they are as grimy as they were 15 years ago!
Both of my little toe nails had been hanging off for a few weeks now - they were under so much pressure when my feet were infected. Realising that I already had new nails growing underneath both of them, I had a lovely evening watching Josh’s face squirm as I cut them off…
Saturday morning we were up early to make brekkie at the hotel and get the ferry over to Waiheke island. It seemed everyone else in Auckland had the exact same idea!
90 mins of queue and ferry later we had landed, picked up the e-bikes and were on our way. I was instantly obsessed with the island - super cute little villages and beaches with wonderfully calm bays. The sun was shining and by the time we’d reached our first winery we properly felt like we were on holiday.
We spent the afternoon biking between the wineries - Stony Ridge, Casita Miro & Mudbrick, as well as the local pub, Charlie’s.
As we sat down at our final winery the heavens opened. As all the dolled up twenty somethings ran for cover, Josh and I sat on our beanbags in the rain and finished our wine. It felt pretty normal for us to be wet at this point, why change anything!
We jumped back on our bikes and pedalled the final few km back to the ferry. Besides an almost stationary fall off my bike resulting in bruised knees and dented palms, we’d had the absolute best day. Whilst on trail, I wasn’t missing normal life that much, but now I was back in it, it felt wonderful.
