We got away from Sally and Brian after a yummy breakfast - around 0800. Belinda had rung her friend Lynda who, coincidentally, lives very close to S & B. We arranged to catch up with Lynda and Martin after lunch sometime, depending on progress. Brian dropped us back out on Okura River Rd where he had picked us up the night before - thanks again Brian (and Sal) for the assistance - it was great to catch up. Today's walk through to Takapuna is here. It was nice to have done the last 2.5km or so last night as it involved an almost 100m vertical elevation - would have been harder to do this climb this morning!!! So we only had 20m vertical metres to reach the high point for the day! Then it was downhill to nearer sea level to join back with the TA trail on Long Bay Regional Park. Then it was down the North shore Coastal Walk. Much of this went through the suburbs near to the coast, with some of it on the beach/rocks. As you can see from the gps track, there was a series of ups and downs all day, but not too taxing. We stopped at Browns Bay for a break around lunch - had a gelato and listened to a fantastic busker playing mainly Neil Young (and some James Taylor). We made a donation before heading off to meet up with Lynda and Martin further down into Browns Bay. From there it was a mixture of beach, rocks, clifftop walks and roads walking through to the Takapuna Beach Holiday Park. The is some controversy over the site with some wanting to turn it into a yachting academy and others wanting to retain the beachfront site as is. Its a lovely spot but is certainly somewhat rundown in reality. We met a lovely couple going around the rocks to Takapuna Beach (she was Swedish, he a kiwi). Had a long chat as we walked. They kindly offered us accommodation, but we had already made arrangements, so politely declined. We decided to have a rest day so hired a "deluxe" caravan for two nights. Suffice to say, it was not up to the standard of Pete and Ju's new caravan (!) but did the job OK for us - kept the rain out.
2 Comments
DCH
19/2/2016 10:02:31
Great to hear about your progress. Obviously your knee is holding up OK Ant. Good news. All OK here. Keep up the good walk!
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A B H
23/2/2016 07:31:24
Thanks! Missed the comment in amongst all the other stuff going on. Knee seems OK although still not 100% so hopefully more walking will continue to improve it!
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AuthorBelinda and Anthony (aka Tony) Hadfield made a decision, in their late 50's, to do something a "bit different" and walk New Zealand's 3000km Te Araroa Trail over summer 2015/16 - although updates will now tell you that this plan will take longer now!!. As the old saying goes - "don't leave home 'til you've seen the country"!! Archives
January 2018
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