Coast to Coast
Trip Start
Aug 01, 2008
1
65
150
Trip End
Dec 20, 2008
Where I stayed
Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Auckland
Up betimes and off to McDonald's for breakfast (I'd paid for it at the hotel but fancied real coffee and hot food). Then grabbed a guide leaflet and set off on the "Coast to Coast" walk. Yes, I have crossed the entire continent of New Zealand, on foot, from sea to shining sea. (Harbour to lagoon, actually.)
The route took me through familiar territory from earlier walks, to start with, but after the University I got into parkland at the Auckland Domain (missing the museum again, mysteriously) and suburbs I hadn't seen. Eventually I arrived at the highest point in Auckland, Mount Eden - aka Maungawhau. Great views.
Thence indirectly to Maungakiekie or One Tree Hill. There I took the archaeological walking tour, which provided interesting contrasts and comparisons with Wessex hill-forts. (It is the site of a major Maori pa or defended hill settlement, much like, say, Danbury but on volcanoes not just any old hill.) The whole park it is now set in was a pleasant spot to visit; impressive olive trees and many tress now coming into blossom.
After that, it was literally and metaphorically downhill past the observatory to Royal Oak and finally to Onehunga, where I performed a Wainwright ritual by standing in the sea to proved I had in fact gone coast to coast. Bus back to town and the mysteries of the self-service laundry. (How does the detergent get into the machine? Which is the start button? Why are we here?)
