Day 24 | Auckland Central
6 November 2022 | 20°C
Another day where the tide determines a hikers‘ schedule with the last big challenge before Auckland coming up: the crossing of the Okura river. Only doable with low tide which is around midday today. Angus and Phil still head out at 9am while the rest of us are having a relaxed morning with an extended breakfast.
It’s just a 40 minutes walk to the estuary. When getting to the location that was indicated in the trail notes as the best crossing spot, we see Angus waiting there. Apparently the water is still too high. “Where’s Phil?” Bruce asks. „Oh, he blew up his air mattress, put his pack on top and swam over“ Angus replies. I start laughing as he had been talking about trying this while we were walking together the previous days. We all try at different spots but the water is still more than hip high.
While Angus decides to walk through with the pack over his head, I spontaneously blow up my air mattress, put my pack on it and swim over in my underwear. Too curious to try that out. Works like a breeze!
I was expecting the walk towards Auckland to be a boring one but I walking along the coast again passing by lovely houses is very enjoyable actually. No need to carry food as there’s enough of shops along the way. At lunchtime I stop and listen to a awesome young band playing in the street while having a falafel kebab (the shop does not accept card so I literally unpack everything in front of the counter to get to that 50 dollar bill I keep as a reserve at the bottom of my pack). 🤪
I meet other hikers on and off during the day. I am not sure where to stay yet. Jens and Connor are staying at the (last) holiday park approx 15 km before the ferry crossing which seems a bit to early for me. I am not too exited about staying in Auckland as I have been there before and would prefer to stay in Devonport but there are only pretty expensive accommodation options left there. After stopping at a small shop in Takapuna where I talk with the owner about Potsdam, Heidelberg and the Oktoberfest, I have my favorite energy dose (liquid breakfast with protein, vanilla flavor) to get ready for the last push of roughly 10km to the ferry terminal. Time flies and suddenly after a nice stroll through lovely Devonport the Auckland skyline comes into sight.
Once I get to the terminal, a ferry has just left but it’s just a 30 minute wait for the next one at 8.15pm. Kinda fascinating to approach the city from the water this time with the skyline being illuminated. What a day!