A Dangerous Business

Dates: 25th-27th November 2023

Yessir, you’re getting a special edition of my journey over the next few days, thanks in large part at how I’ve planned how I’m going to walk through Auckland’s suburbs. If you haven’t read about my plan in my previous posts, here’s the rundown. On the 24th of November, I arrived in Browns Bay, a small community on Auckland’s North Shore. Places for TA hikers to stay up here are few and far between (that is, places that aren’t priced stupidly high, we’ve got 4-5 months of travel to budget for!). So what I planned is that at the end of that day’s walk, I’d take a bus into Auckland city where I’d booked a hostel to use as a base of operations. Then for the next 3 days, I’d go back to Browns Bay and walk to Auckland (and possibly further if I was feeling good), rest for a day, and then attempt to walk all the way to Papakura and Drury in a day, catching a train back to the city before leaving Auckland properly on the 28th. There are some big distances in there, but the big benefit of tacking these sections like I’m doing is that I can leave my main pack in the hostel and just carry my small foldable day pack. Less weight = less demand on my body = able to go further. Without any further ado, let’s see how I got on.

Day 1: Browns Bay (km 570.8) to One Tree Hill (km 600) (Distance: 29.2 km)

A lengthy bus ride including two connections brought be right back to where I left off the day before. The main difference was the wind and temperature. Some strong southwesterlies were blowing in from Antarctica, making for a very cold morning (at least by a Brisbanite’s standards). Only putting on a day pack containing water and snacks was a very nice feeling. I felt fast leaving Browns Bay, these 20 km to Auckland should fly by. I expected to be walking mainly on footpaths next to roads for the whole way down to Devonport, but to my surprise it was mostly off-road paths and even a few beach sections.

The trail also got very busy as I travelled south. I doubt there were many who knew about Te Araroa and the fact that they were on part of it, most were locals out for some morning exercise with their dog. Ignoring the winds, it’s a lovely place to walk along. Very easy to walk too, I was going very quickly, still making time to stop and admire the view over the bays.

There were also a few places along the way where evidence of WWII-era military installations could be viewed. JF Kennedy Park (yes, that JFK) had a couple gun emplacements still in position, albeit without the actual guns. It’s crazy today to think that New Zealand would ever be considered a military target. As far as I’m aware it doesn’t have that many natural resources that would be of use to an invading force. I might be wrong there, maybe a Kiwi can fill me in on this?

Back to the walk – which was going by a lot faster than I anticipated – I found myself on Milford Beach which looked to be the most popular of the beaches I saw on my journey today. It was packed with families, dogs, and everyone in between, enjoying the very un-Kiwi weather on display. I think it’ll take a few years of me living here to get acclimatised to the cooler temperatures before I’d be game to go for a dip. I’d much prefer a nice warm Queensland beach. The path then skirts along the coast, which importantly is owned by the landowners around here. From my understanding, they have given permission for the path to be built and used by everyone. Unfortunately, there’s been a dispute between Auckland Council and one of the residents, so the latter has blocked the path through their place. Seems a bit petty if you ask me, but I don’t know the context of the dispute so I can’t really make a fair judgement. All it means is I have to detour around it on some roads for a kilometre. On the other side, the path doesn’t exist, as I’m greeted by a bunch of rocks I have to hop over.

After more clifftop views I made it to Takapuna – where Melly stayed the night – and North Head, where I saw even more gun emplacements, this time with guns still attached (but not operable, sadly).

The big green gun is what’s known as a disappearing gun. Underneath is a circular trench where the gun is loaded, which rises up and fires, with the recoil forcing the gun back into the trench. Interesting idea, not so great in practice due to the low rate of fire.

One coffee at Torpedo Bay later and I was at Devonport ferry wharf. Unfortunately the TA Trust hasn’t figured out how hikers can walk across Auckland Harbour so we’ve got to take a ferry. Once across I headed back to my hostel as I had to finish my check-in process. Their office hours are only from 10-3 for some reason. All I had to do was give them my passport and contact details, but I figured a rest here would be good as well.

I got going again just before 4pm and attempted to take a bus down Queen Street to the ferry terminal. However, I happened to leave at the same time as a pro-Palestine march was taking place on Queen Street. I only got about 400 m down before we all had to leave the bus and walk. It didn’t really bother me, I’ve never been particularly politically active, it’s just one of those things that sadly has become far too divisive and I’d rather people make opinions of me and my character based off of how I interact with them and not my political leanings.

From Customs Road, the trail heads up through the University of Auckland, over SH1 and into the Auckland Domain, following a splendid path through the park and past a great number of grade cricket matches.

Following some local streets for a while brought me to the bottom of Mount Eden, one of the many volcanoes littering the Auckland landscape. Without my big pack it was a simple climb to the summit and the grass-lined crater, offering 360 degree views all over the city.

It may be located on a narrow isthmus (that’s a fun word), but it seems to go on forever in all directions. Until now I thought most of Auckland was south of the CBD, but from the top I could see suburbs radiating in all directions. As it was only 5pm when I got there, I spent some time soaking it in before continuing on my journey, which took me through more suburban streets until I arrived at Cornwall Park. There’s a big statue of the guy who used to own the land the park is located on who generously gave it to the public. From my initial impressions, the park seemed awfully small for such a big statue, an opinion that rapidly changed once I started walking through the park.

It was quite large. I guess that statue does make sense after all. By this stage, my goal was to reach the 600 km mark which from the looks of things would be somewhere on One Tree Hill. The rest of the way there was on the same pleasant path I entered the park on, and after passing through a gate I checked Far Out as it ticked over to 600 km.

Sadly I didn’t have anything to mark it with, but this is where I’ll pick up from on Monday. From here I headed back down to Greenlane station, picked up some supplies from Newmarket and went back to the hostel for dinner.

Day 2: rest day

Ironically I got up to a lot on my rest day. The first order of business was breakfast at Denny’s, joined by Tom who I happened to walk by as he exited his hostel. By no means do they do the best brekkie in the world, but it’s good enough for me. New Zealand seems to have a lot more of these American chains than we do over in Australia, so if I get the chance to try them out I want to. Plus they provide unlimited coffee.

Being a Sunday, it seemed fitting to attend church in the morning. It being Auckland, I had more than a few options to choose from, but I decided to go for a classic Wesleyan church up in Greenhithe. The reason for this one in particular is that its pastor – Mike Yates – used to attend my church in Brisbane back when my parents first started going there, so they haven’t seen me since I was a toddler. It took a couple buses to get there, entering just as the service began. Mike, I don’t know how, seemed to recognise me immediately after I said my name. I had a lovely time talking with the other attendees about what I was up to. I felt right at home there, probably because it’s the same denomination as my church back home, even though I had never met anyone at this church prior to today.

Mike and I caught up over lunch after the service, sadly his wife Michelle had already made plans so she couldn’t join us. Afterwards he took me on a tour of Greenhithe, dropping me off at Rosedale Park which unbeknownst to me had a disc golf course! I was intending to make the trek all the way out to Henderson, but here was a course only a few minutes away.

…of course I then made the trek out to Henderson afterwards to play the course there. Also I wanted to go on the train again. Yes, I am a strange child.

I hindsight I don’t think I should’ve bothered. The park was packed with families and other players, so my “quick” round really wasn’t all that quick. Oh well, it was still good to play a round. I think my next chance will be in Taumarunui. I grabbed a few supplies from Countdown and then headed back for the hostel. In classic Jono fashion, I then stayed up far later than I should’ve despite knowing I had an early start the following day.

Day 3: One Tree Hill (km 600) to Drury (km 651.8) (Distance: 51.8 km)

Why is my phone yelling at me at 5 in the morning? It is far too early to be doing anything of value, and yet here I am trying vainly to slip out of my top bunk and get my stuff without waking anyone up. I’m out the door by 5:50, hopping on the first bus of the day to take me back to One Tree Hill.

I arrived at the summit at 6:45, very much dreading what was to come today. I knew it was possible, the route was flat and I’m carrying very little, but 50+ km is a ridiculous distance to do in a day under any circumstances.

On the plus side, I was feeling fast. I stopped after 2.5 km for breakfast, but after that I was zooming through the trail, soon reaching Onehunga and Manukau Harbour.

The trail follows a meandering pathway around the southern shore of the harbour, giving a much needed break from the noise of the numerous highways branching out from central Auckland. The unfortunate side effect of this is that the walked distance becomes far longer than if you were to draw a straight line between two points. It’s a big reason why there’s so much trail in south Auckland. Just gotta take what’s given to you, frankly it beats walking on a busy road any day of the week (looking at you, Silverdale). Busy Auckland roads also typically don’t have flocks of sheep right next to them.

After passing around the coast some more, I sadly came to one such busy Auckland road. What’s more, it was a very industrial area so most of the traffic was trucks. On a road with no shoulder to safely walk on. Anytime a truck came by, I darted into the long grass to wait for it to pass.

Whether good or bad, nothing lasts forever on Earth, and I soon turned onto a pathway towards the airport. Nearing noon by now, I was still a few kilometres short of halfway. Doubts started to roll in that perhaps I had bitten off more than I could chew. Speaking of chew, I made a quick pit stop at Taco Bell to give my feet a little rest before heading through the airport grounds and out towards Manukau. There’s a viewing area on a hill east of the airport which a few planespotters were using to record the take-offs and landings, myself included for a few minutes.

A nice new pathway has been built alongside the highway here which took me most of the way to Puhinui Stream. A short stint on a proper bush track then followed, the key word there being short, with it depositing me in an industrial estate. I managed to endure walking alongside it for 4 km, reaching Manukau just after 2pm.

Here’s where things get interesting. Firstly, I took my lunch break here, getting some chicken wings at a place close to the station. That last part is important, because I then had to catch a train back up north to Newmarket to buy some supplies at one of the outdoor stores there, specifically my adored Hikers Wool. The reason for the detour is because the shops close at 5:30pm, which I would never be able to make without this trip. It’s annoying because it’s quite the delay and means I’ll be finishing later than I kgutb otherwise, but I tried to find some positives; my feet would be getting a big break.

I bumped into Vicki and – can you believe it – Sonja in Newmarket, but with only 6 minutes until my return train I sadly couldn’t say to chat. All in all, I was back on trail at 4:10pm, walking through a lovely park alongside Puhinui Stream with 18 km to go.

A jaunt through the Auckland Botanical Gardens followed this, but once that was done it was all footpaths alongside roads all the way to the end. It was incredibly taxing. I was running Strava – mostly so I could flex on people once I finished – which was guzzling my battery so I couldn’t play and music or podcasts. All I could listen to were my own thoughts, which by this stage were stugllign to think of anything beside how my poor feet felt. I got so desperate I pulled into a dairy with 8 km to go and bought an energy drink. It didn’t help.

I reached Papakura at 6pm. Let me tell you, trying to cross roads in a semi-delirious state isn’t easy. But we got through it, making our way to the Great South Road. Not knowing the streets around these parts, I feared that this road would be a busy rural highway through to the small town of Drury. As I soon discovered, Auckland has spread so far south that Drury is basically a suburb of the city now. No wonder Auckland Transport is building a railway station here…

Along the road I was tossing up whether to get the first bus I could back to Papakura or if I should have dinner at the Irish pub. I went for the latter, arriving at 7:15pm, capping off a 12.5 hour day on trail. And I knew exactly what this called for.

Along with the Guinness were some fish and chips, although surprisingly I wasn’t that hungry. As the sun began setting, I made my way to the bus stop, taking me back to Papakura, then on a train all the way back to Britomart. It was on this train that my body just crashed. Up until then I’d been feeling alright, but now I was completely knackered. My plan was to reach Mercer tomorrow, but the thought of immediately turning around and doing 39 km after what I’d just done made me slightly ill. As such, I made the decision to take it easy in the morning and only go as far as Bombay. I hate that I’m losing more days to my intended schedule, but going to Mercer on little rest would be stupid.

With that, I’ve made my way through the entirety of greater Auckland. To my surprise there were some good moments in there, particularly along the North Shore. At the same time, I am keen to get back into some bush.

Total Distance through Auckland: 81 km

Total Distance Completed: 651.8 km