Te Araroa Trail Auckland to Mercer
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.
Purist or Non Purist?
I am not a Te Araroa trail ‘purist’. The thought of road walking a significant number of kilometres from Auckland airport to Manukau (through the industrial zone that I have driven many times) then out to Clevdon filled me with dread.
I read many unfavourable stories about the road walk to Clevedon. Quite honestly I didn’t need to walk on the shoulder of a number of main roads with large trucks thundering past. Added to that a section of the Hunua mountain ranges is also currently closed, which means more road walking as a detour, so I decided to give it a miss.
Instead I got the bus to the Waikato and took the weekend to rest, catch up with friends and visit my physio about my niggling injury.
It turned out not to be a hamstring, but a problem with the plantaris muscle behind my knee. A bit of knee and calf manipulation later and it felt much better. I bought a compression sleeve for my calf to help loosen up the muscles and increase blood flow in that area when walking, and some compression leggings to help my muscles recover in the evenings (as recommended by Red and now my physio).