Day 34 Auckland CBD to Auckland Airport
Distance Walked: 31km
Date 08 Nov 2022
Hitched 25Km
End of day Trail Marker: 625
Weather: Bright and Sunny
Note: An Adventure put on hold
Matthew joined me for the climb up Mt Eden as it was almost at his front door, it was good to have some company.
Very handy to have someone with you to get into the action shots, Auckland at 0640 in the morning.
Off in the distance is One Tree Hill, the One Tree was cut down by protesters, it did take several attempts over a number of years..
Today The Trail goes through a number of different suburbs and parklands but first it was through a small Educational Campus.
Here’s one for you Matthew, not quite an empty Carpark but close.
Within a minute of leaving the Campus I bumped into Sarin, he had been Stealth / Cowboy Camping and was having his cold soaked Oats. As quick as I met him he was gone, a quick trip into PAC ‘N’ Save and I didn’t see him again.
From the suburbs and into the Parklands
This is the Largest, easily identified, number of Kauri trees I have seen thus far, note these are even roped off for protection.
One Tree Hill, unfortunately the trail didn’t take me to the top and I wasn’t looking for any extra steps at this point.
A WWI Arch of Remembrance at Jellicoe Park
Of in the distance is the Mangre Domain, whilst the trail does’t go to the top I do have to walk through The Ambury Park which is around the Bottom..
The TA Management have found so many clever ways to link the Trail, this is sort of an easement between 2 suburban properties, I don’t think I would walk it at night.
And you do come across the Freeways that link the non Trail spaces together, unfortunately it’s not all about the Trail.
I did think this was interesting, this person was taking her dog for a walk and just could’ve get all the way across the sidewalk a police car had just gone by not even stopping to check it out.
I had reached what was my original goal for the day by 10:15, contained within the park is a learning farm, schools take the kids here to see what happens on a farm.
If you zoom in you can still see One Tree Hill in the background. How cool the trail goes through the paddocks that contain the farm animals, no Bulls though.
Today’s 11:00 o’clock picture, these 2 horses just living the dream on Ambury Farm..
Because I had reached my goal for today so early I decided to push on to the Airport, yes the trail goes through the Industrial zone that surrounds the Airport.
OK, they are no Bulls in a farm paddock, however I still had to give these Geese a wide berth as they were very protective of their chicks.
From the Watercare space it was into the Otuataua Stonefields, this site is of importance to the local Iwi.
It was a big effort to stop the development of 480 housing blocks it started in 2019.
It is at this point that the Trail goes back to Road walking and whilst some of it was on paths a lot of it was on the road verge and a small verge at that.
By the time I reached the Airport I was limping quit severely, the small toe on my left foot was swollen again. I had issues with this toe since day 3 and was treating it with ibuprofen however when the distance each day is way above 15km this did not help.
At this point the Trail goes right be the front door of the Airport Doctors, now I had been resisting this however the daily distance becomes rather crucial at this point so I thought I would drop in and see what they could do for me. Unfortunately without an X-ray of my foot, no facilities available at the time, all the Doctor would say is take 2 - 3 weeks off.
Weighing up all of the possibilities coming home was the easy decision a flight for $350 or 2-3 weeks of time and the associated expenses without any certainty that I would be able to continue so here I am back in Adelaide.
I did go to the local Doctor this morning who again would not make any decision except to say I needed to go to a Podiatrist, the one that is associated with the local practice could not get me in until 5th January, I continue to try to get in earlier.
In the short term it looks like this adventure is over, I will wait until I see a Podiatrist before I plan anything further.
Before I sign off for now, I would like to say thank you to a few people:
Firstly, my Wife and Family as this project has been all consuming for at least 2.5 years and without their support it would have never got off the ground
Hikers:
Astrid, you were such good company in those first couple of weeks.
Jerome, what an awesome hiking companion
Mathew Gordon & Michelle (LWG) for your inspiration and support.
To all of the other people Trail Angels, Hikers and Strangers that I met and received support from and sometimes just a conversation Thank you and Happy Travels :-(