“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference”
Winston Churchill
Day 21 to 25
- Day 21 – Stillwater to Devonport ; 33 km
- Day 22 – Devonport to Ambury Farm ; 20 km
- Day 23 – Ambury Farm to Papakura ; 39 km
- Day 24 – Papakura to Bombay ; 16 km
- Day 25 – Bombay to Mercer ; 25 km
Total hiked: 695 km
When someone describes going on a hike whether that be a day, overnighter, multi or thru, one probably doesn’t imagine trotting the suburbs of Auckland in their endeavour. But thats just what I did.
As a former JAFA (during the first 20 years of my life) I feel it is my duty to remain positive about walking through New Zealand’s largest city. So I shan’t share details about the horrendous traffic, relentless rain and never-ending roads that occurred; but that did happen. Instead, I will only tell tales of the enjoyable experiences I had trotting this magnificent metropolis of 1.7 million JAFAs. Well, those and stories that were horrible at the time but with hindsight have become lessons in thru-hiking and actually quite funny “if it’s hysterical, its historical”.
So the story of my terror, sorry I mean joy (forgot I was trying to be positive) began at Okura River.
Four steps in and the water made it to my chest, I was cold and freaking out. Quickly retreating and uncertain how much deeper the water would get nor how to proceed, I did the only logical thing someone would do and phoned Nate. No he was not near the river crossing, nor even in the Auckland region but on the other side of a lockdown border. After a few tears, getting stuck in the mud almost up to my knees and unable to move the decision to proceed with the river crossing commenced, with him in my pack and on loud speaker of course – got to love technology these days. Round 2 of river crossing started the same as before, four steps in I was back at chest height, two steps further and the water was at chin level, by this point I ditched the pack on my back and used it as a flotation device across the river. Turns out walking has only made me physically very fit for walking and nothing else, the kicking was a slow and labourious process though eventually I made it to the other side. After more tears (tears of relief this time) I had crossed the river and was soaked.
Careful trail note reading, triple checking tide times, confirming river crossing expectations with previous hikers and setting off early that morning to make it to the river twenty minutes before low tide did not prepare me for the crossing. Instead I was met with what appeared to be a deep (and in actual fact very deep) river mouth with the tide already flowing inland and me gradually sinking deeper into the mud. Counting the white markers from the river mouth (as the notes told me to do) I found the forth pole marked with a X and armed with my poles at the ready, Garmin in-reach attached to my person, bag unclipped and hoping everything was water tight started my crossing.
The North Shore Coastal Walkway highlights why Auckland is known as the City of Sail. Every beach has a yacht club and on Saturdays when you’re trotting through with a giant pack and soaked from your river crossing expedition you can expect to to find numerous opti trailers scattered along the beach as nice obstacles to dodge. As an Emirates Team NZ super fan (yes Facebook gave me that title) I was more than happy to watch the sailing from the shore, just a shame I couldn’t go out.
The coastal walkway was beautiful, admiring all the fancy homes, clean white sandy beaches, multiple rock walkways around the peninsulas and all with Rangitoto just across the harbour. Would recommend! My parents even joined me for the later part to welcome me into Auckland, they’d probably recommend the walk too 🙂
Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland has the narrowest isthmus of Aotearoa with less than 2 kilometres spanning the width from east to west. This made waka/canoe portages back in the day easier and created the Coast to Coast trail that exists today from the Waitematā Harbour and the Pacific Ocean on one side, to the Manukau Harbour and the Tasman Sea on the other. The current Coast to Coast trail passes five volcanic sites and crosses over the Maungawhau summit (Mt Eden) and Maungakiekie summit (One Tree Hill).
I walked the coast to coast trail with my mum as we were both quite excited to walk across the city and had never been to Maungawhau/Mt Eden. Wow did it rain! What started as a lovely stroll through Britomart with us enjoying everything a major city has to offer (really just me having a festive Starbucks drink because I couldn’t help myself) quickly turned into several hours of scurrying through a large city in torrential rain.
The next day is the longest I have walked on trail so far at 39km from Ambury Farm to the end of Papakura. If I thought it had rained the previous day then this was a monsoon. Cyclone Rubys storm had made her presence known to the occupants of JAFA land. Never did the rain ease and my waterproof clothing really got tested. Turns out nothing that has a hole big enough to fit your head through is really that waterproof. But to make the whole day worth being saturated and looking like a drowned rat I got to see my childhood favourites. As a kid I used to visit Ambury Farm a lot to see the 2 Clydesdale horses. They’re the coolest of the horse breeds incase you’re wondering and at various points in my life I have visited them when I was feeling happy, sad, confused, whatever and they always cheered me up. Well today was no exception. The horses were on full display chewing grass in the paddock and me in my rain coat and rain pants couldn’t have been happier to see them 🙂
Interestingly, on walking past Auckland International Airport not a single flight taxied, landed or took off from the runway. Funny what a lockdown will do to ‘business as usual’, almost didn’t recognise it as the airport.
While the rain was persistent there were some woolly friends who seemed to be enjoying themselves outside. And the Manurewa Botanical Gardens looked pretty regardless.
Mt Williams located south of Bombay was the last maunga for me to summit prior to leaving the Auckland section of the TA and provided a great view of the trail I’d conquered through Auckland and the mighty Waikato ahead.
And later that day I crossed another boundary marker. I had completed Auckland, couldn’t be happier!
GC Chronicles 
and yet another great/interesting read, pictures as usual are fantastic, well done
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Cute Alex!!! You’ve done so much already! I’m with you on the terrifying river crossings but I’m not as brave as you x
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