Day 36 Auckland City Tramping

Auckland

Start 12.15pm

Finish 5.45pm

Distance 17km plus 3km walk back to motel

Total 584km

Elevation: Minimal

Steps 33,095

Weather: Sunny

It was supposed to be a really early start with Dave dropping me off at about 7am where I left off 3 days ago. After a bad night sleep due to noisy neighbours, the alarm went at 6am with the sound of heavy rain outside.

A quick rejig of the plan and I ended up waiting until Dave headed towards Devonport for a meeting early afternoon. It worked out to be a much better plan because I had forgotten I needed low tide for some of the trail as I went along the coast towards Devonport.

Rangitoto Island

It was an beautiful walk along the bays. The great thing about this kind of trail walking is the food. Found a lovely cafe in Takapuna. Munched on a ciabatta with bacon, pear, walnut and cheese, followed by a Nelson Berry Gelato. I of course only had it to try the Nelson Berry flavour and report back on the quality. I am pleased to report it was suitably lovely and did our region proud. All in all I took it fairly leisurely along the beaches.

I caught the ferry from Devonport to Auckland CBD as per the the trail map. I lost the will to walk once I hit the city properly. It was about 5pm and the traffic was awful. I walked through Auckland University and the Domain which were both nice but noisy.

In the end I decided to walk back to the motel as it would have taken three times longer for Dave to pick me up.

The sky tower in the distance

Tomorrow will be a big day to make up some of the distance I didn't do today, hoping to make it to Auckland Airport which is strangely on the route. Some people stay overnight actually in the terminal. I think I will take the motel option instead.