Day 30 / 31 / 32 The Orewa Trilogy (Re - Enginered)
Distance Walked: 00km
Date 03, 04 & 5 Nov 2022
Hitched 25Km
End of day Trail Marker: 589.8
Weather: Bright and Sunny
Note: Some creative thinking was required to avoid Auckland’s horrific Accomodation Cost which started going up on Friday.
-Let me see if I can explain how this re - engineered trilogy works.
Step 1 - We needed a reasonably priced base camp (Orewa)
Step 2 - We then needed to understand the break up of the next three days.
Orewa - Long Bay by Public Transport and walk back (25Km), this included timing a water crossing that was chest height at low tide.
Orewa - Takapuna by Bus and walk back to Long Bay (14.5km) and then Bus it back to
Orewa - Takapuna by Bus and then walk forward to Davenport (9km) to take a Ferry to Auckland CBD
The first 2 days were about 8hrs long when I include both walking and Public Transport.
Day 1 - The Hand got in early asking for an Ice Cream at 07:50, the answer was no!
After the Hand’s Ice Cream saga I turned around and got my first picture of a Kiwi, it was of the Ornamental Breed. These Breed of Kiwi can commonly be found in Tourist Shops across both islands.
Here we go on Step one, we were privileged to be on one of Auckland Transports Double Decker Buses.
On our return journey to Orewa we came across this great effort to save a very large and old tree that had fallen cross the path.
A good part of the walk was on manicured pathways under the canopy.
So the Water Crossing, unfortunately as I am vertically challenged I tend to keep very close to the tall guy. Jeromes shorts are a light grey. The water did get up around my chest and then we had to walk the mud flats to the far side.
It was at this sign that our day went to crap. What do we want to do the Coast or Inland Route. For some obscure reason we took the Inland Route, whilst the sign does indicate that the time to complete this route was 10 minutes longer what it does not say is that approximately 500mtrs into the walk we arrived at a car park and the rest of the route was on Tarmac yes Roads again. We didn’t even get to see Stillwater.
Once we were off the Freeway the remainder of the trip was through the burbs, we did come across this tree. It looks like each time it looses its Bark it comes away like Hair.
Day 2
4th Nov 2022
Weather was fine
We were up and ready to go by 07:19, the Hand was checking out our weight for today, because we were coming back to Orewa later today we were slack Packing (We only carried a Snack and Water).
Not exactly camping in the wild but we were very close to the facilities.
Just one of the Buses we caught to get back to todays start point.
The Coastal Walkway, notice the Volcanic Rock. Literally rock hoping.
A really handy stair case if we were at low tide.
In WWll New Zealand, like Australia, built a number of Coastal Gun Batteries, this is just one of the larger Gun Emplacements.
Some more information about this particular site.
Todays 11 o’clock picture was taken at Campbells Bay Beach, we love our soft sand walking.
Day 3
5 Nov 2022
Weather was great
The Hand was at it early today checking out the Bus Time Tables
As today was a short one as far as distance was concerned we decided to have a morning Coffee and this little fella decided to join us, I was in the chair next to this one.
After the Coffee we worked our way through some very nice suburban streets to this beach to find these you sailers doing their thing.
This Pill Box was used to protect the approach to the North Head Battery and it was also the 11:00 o’clock picture for today.
We have been within the Auckland boundaries for 3 days now and this is the first glimpse of the CBD. I hope to find a Barber tomorrow. .
The view from the Ferry as we left Devonport heading towards the CBD.
Once I arrived I quickly caught up with Matthew Gordon, Matthew Blogged his adventure on the TA a couple of years ago now. I thought the picture above would be interesting to those of you who enjoy a lung buster from time to time because each table in the outdoor area had an ashtray on it.
So the trilogy was a success, thanks Jerome.
Apart from hosting me for 2 nights Matthew spent some time with me planning out my assault on the Auckland section of the trail and well as fixing the “Find Me” button on each web page.
Please remember the the “Find Me” button will only work when I have my Garmin switched on, to save power I normally turn it off at night.
Tomorrow is a zero day, I hope to resupply and maybe get a hair cut.
Good Night