Te Araroa : Auckland to Manukau

KM this section : 45
KM completed : 639

On the summit of Mount Eden.

It may seem a bit odd for a long distance trail to pass through a country's largest city, but there's no other option as NZ is only a few kilometres across here, and Auckland stretches from coast to coast.  Indeed, the path through it is named the Coast to Coast Walkway.  First though, I have a lazy day, it was only eight kilometres to the university so plenty of time to relax, shop, check out the Christmas displays in the main shopping area, and of course get to a pub.

Auckland, complete with numerous volcanoes.

In fact, hold the walking for a minute, let us talk of pubs, because NZ, you have a problem here.  In two nights in your biggest city I've now been to three of TripAdvisor's 'top ten bars', and frankly they weren't up to much.  I get the feeling the early settlers here were clean living types who really didn't want to bring pub culture from the old country.  And more recently the powers that be here haven't been encouraging drinking - I suspect out of concern for the noble Maori, corrupted by the demon drink.  But anyway, in the present the NZ pub industry seems dead on it's feet... many establishments survive only by also serving as a betting shop, hardly a good way to attract a younger, family crowd - two of those I visit in Auckland are like this.  There are some micro breweries, and some 'English style' places, and the occasional gastropub - the Shakespeare, my pick in the city, ticks the first two of these boxes.  But often I've ended up going to liquor stores, odd places that mainly sell horrid alcopops, with the beer in a cold room at the back.

The walking?  Is nice, a pleasant stroll through the parks, cricket pitches and suburbs of Auckland, including a climb up Mount Eden, one of fifty or so extinct (probably) volcanoes the city is built around.  Then some easy, flat kilometres along various lagoons and estuaries, a bit of road walking including a visit to the airport, and I'm at Manukau for 7pm - forty-five kilometres done in eleven hours, not bad.

Ambury regional park.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.