Such A Beach

Seems this is turning into quite a bit of a walking holiday first to the Whangarei fall then off to the Haruru falls and now the coast to coast walk. Although it didn’t involve a waterfall it’s a pretty nice walk across Auckland. After a bit of a leisurely morning we decided to get our act in gear a set off for the walk, we started at the Queens wharf where one such English player has been told he’s a naughty boy for jumping off a ferry into the sea. From here we walked up through the central business district and then through Auckland university campus, where we momentarily misplaced ourselves. I think it must just be a design feature of universities that they need to be hard to navigate. But never mind we soon found ourselves on the right track and head through the Domain, Auckland’s version of Hyde Park I guess. A large green area filled with gardens, playing fields and pretty walks through some pink tree that the Japanese seem to have an obsession with. From here we made our way up to mount Eden, the highest point in the city with some great views from the very peak, as well as a sacred Mario sight. From here we ran like a river runs into the sea, (not really we just walked) to Cromwell park and One Tree Hill. Once a sacred sight but now the tree had been replaced with a monument to some white guy who though he was all that. So that was a bit of a letdown but the surrounding park was very nice so it wasn’t all bad. From here the route went through some more minor park until 16km from the start found its way to the Tasman Sea. We decide to take the train back which was fine apart from not knowing where the station was and a lack of sign post, but after some ‘marvellous’ wondering we found the station got our cheap tickets and made our way home. The following day Ms Parbery-Clark had the day off so we had decided to hire a car. For all you car fans we got ourselves a classic, the 2004, automatic, 1. Something or other, Nissan S……unny, in white, oh yer it doesn’t get much better than that (well at least not on my budget). Anyway I digress; we had chosen to drive to Coromandel and the Hot Water Beach. On the way the weather was bliss. However 5km from the beach fog descended and the rain started to fall, but we’d come this far so onwards we went. When we arrived we found a packed beach full of Spaniard and Germans and not very hot water. The idea was to dig a hole and let if fill with hot water form the volcano below. What we didn’t know was that there was only 2 exit points that by the time we arrived had already been surrounded by. So after digging a few unsuccessful holes we managed to steal one. It was kind of hot but the Germans in the one over had proper hot water. So doing my best trench war impersonation I sneakily dug a connecting trench between the two and retrieved some of that all important hot water. After a while though we met a bigger force know as the sea, high tide was approaching and the beach was being reclaimed so we decide to make good our escape and head for Coromandel. Due to the unexpected rain my shirt had become slightly wet so I was with out a top, but determined not to be beaten I fashioned a toga out of my towel and proceeded to walk round the car park shouting ‘TOGA ,TOAG’ not to the amusement of the car park.  To get to the township we decide it would be more interesting to take the back roads, so we did. It was more interesting but they were more gravel tracks than roads and not too well maintained in parts, but we made it through the pass and arrived safely on the other side. Once there it turned out there wasn’t really much to do there so after a little stole, game of poo sticks and a cuppa chia we headed for home, for which I had the honour of driving. Once back in Auckland we had been invited out to a pub quiz at the local Irish bar, so how could you say no? It was a pretty good quiz with Davey getting 10 out of 10 on the 27club round, and a good amount of heckling in the direction of the quiz master and even better we came 3^rd which resulted in $20 to be spent at the bar. So a rather good end to a rather good day.

mt eden

jap trap

TOGA TOGA

one tree hill