Coasting Along

Another early start was needed on Wednesday as I planned to walk across an entire country! The Coast-to-Coast walk in Auckland crosses New Zealand, admittedly not at it's widest point, from the Tasman sea on the West coast, to the Pacific ocean on the East. The walk is 16km in length and takes in as much of the Auckland green space as it can as it meanders through leafy suburbs into the city.

Looking fresh at the start!

One Tree Hill domain was the first parkland area I entered; the track taking me up and through green fields with new lambs gamboling about (it is New Zealand, after all!). I dutifully headed up the steep slope alongside mums pushing buggies, jogging muscle men and the odd adventurous sheep to the summit of One Tree Hill. This volcano was once the greatest Maori fortress in the country, but its summit now bears the grave of John Logan Campbell, who gifted the domain to Auckland in 1901, and a memorial to the Maori people. Ironically, given its name, there is no tree at the summit, only a stump of what once was the last tree.

One Tree Hill summit, and a lamb!

I stopped for a few minutes to admire the 360º views; noting with a degree of satisfaction the distance I had already walked before noting with trepidation how far away the city skyline still looked! With this in mind I headed back down and continued on the coast-to-coast track through olive groves and parkland, passing rugby fields with players training hard, towards my next target; Mount Eden.

I climbed Mt Eden for the second time that week; by this time the sun was out, and I was baking in the humid heat of the day. Those tourists who had driven to the summit regarded my panting red-faced self smugly, but I didn't much mind, as I knew not many of them could say they had walked across a country! Back down the other side of Mt Eden I continued my walk heading into the city, past possibly the most enthusiastically pebble dashed building I have ever seen, into the third and final green space; Auckland domain.

OTT pebbledashing?

I crossed the grassy fields, with the museum up above me and followed a sloping path into the city centre. It wasn't long before I was at the quay and reached the end marker of the walk. All in all it took me 4hours to walk and I really enjoyed the day, although the mostly tarmac path had been tough on my feet, despite my wonderful new walking boots!

Hurrah!  The Finish!

After a celebratory juice (having learnt the hard way that smoothies in New Zealand ALL contain milk!) I decided to head back to the hostel for a lazy afternoon. I had a shower, got into cosy clothes and set myself up for an afternoon listening to music and doing some writing. No sooner had I started than one of my new dorm – buddies came into the room. We introduced ourselves and, being polite, I asked him about his trip and plans. Little did I know this would open up a flood of talk that would take up all my spare time over the next few days. Phil, a mid-fifties american, could talk, reaaaaaly talk! Seeing my walking boots, he told me he was a hiker, and had just arrived in New Zealand. I, rather proudly, told him of my successful coast-to-coast walk today (I had just walked across an entire country don't you know!). “Ah” he said; “That's kinda like what I'm doing; I'm going to walk the entire length of New Zealand over the next four months – about 3000kms!”. I won't lie; my pride was slightly dented...

Over the following four hours of conversation (all but 5minutes of it being his voice) we covered many varied topics; long distance hiking, walking boot lacing techniques, hiking permits, camping, sailing, the America's Cup, Sailing on the Young Endeavor, NZ mobile operators and data packages, the woes of finding travel adaptors and power converters, his opinions on NZ architecture...........

Many, many hours later, the other new face in the dorm appeared; Anton, an Australian in his thirties who had come out for a gap year. Anton listened/stared at Phil and I's lengthy one sided conversation for a while before announcing he was going to sleep and promptly turning out the lights on us and our conversation. I breathed a sigh of relief, then realised that, in the whole afternoon I had written two sentences. My disappointment then turned to dismay as I realised I had also failed to have dinner. Feeling mind-weary and hungry I tried to get some sleep.