Hiking adventures in New Zealand
Hiking adventures in New Zealand
Well Auckland was short 'n sweet! You may have noticed by the number of days and mileage covered, that I skipped most of it.
About 10 years ago I walked the 'Coast to Coast' walk in Auckland, which was very lovely. About 5 years ago I walked Ambury Park, which was also very lovely.
I am not a Te Araroa trail 'purist'. The thought of road walking a significant number of kilometres from Auckland airport to Manukau...
We had a very special morning on the trail today!
We spent the day with Red, who I met one day last summer as she was doing the Hakarimatas stretch of Te Araroa trail.
Red is an all-round beautiful person, TA trail walker 2016/17, and now trail angel extraordinare. She thoroughly spoilt Anouck and I. What a wonderful day!
We ate breakfast at Takapuna beach cafe, and were joined by our trail buddy Bruce who I met on 90 mile beach- it was awesome to...
This morning we got up at 4.15am to cross the Okura river estuary at the low tide at 6am. Anja, Markus and Danny crossed at the first crossing point.. which was waist deep in slow flowing water.
As Anouck and I can't lift our 15kg packs above our heads for any length of time (especially in a soft, muddy footing in cold flowing water) we opted for plan b and crossed 1 km upstream in only knee deep...
I had a lovely sleep and great brekkie at John & Diane's. It didn't quite surpass the all-timefavourite breakfast Nanekoti Homestay (home made goats cheese was the clincer for that one) but it was close :-)
As I wasn't starting the trail until midday, due to a rain storm, I joined John (who is in his 70's) for a pump class at the gym. It was a great warm-up for the trail. I got a lift back to Orewa, and I started today's...
I had a very cruisy rest day today, and and I was thoroughly spoiled. I woke up at a leisurely hour and joined the others on the sunny balconyof the Puhoi pub for tea and a slice of superb apple and rhubarb tarts which I bought from the Puhoi general store yesterday.
John arrived at 10am. He is a family friend who lives not far away. He gave us a little tour and a lift to Orewa. Anja, Markus and Anouck camped in Orewa and...
Denise at the Nanekoti Homestay' gets the award for best brekkie thus far on Te Araroa trail - held until now by Ros at Tidesong.
This morning's superb effort included raw creamy goats milk and 2 types of goat cheese, which was the clincher. It'll be very hard to beat!
It was difficult to leave, but once we prised ourselves away from the table we got going to yet another beautiful sunny day. We welcomed a new crew member Yali (Israeli, section...