The Coast to Coast Walk

Yesterday I did the Coast to Coast Walk so now I can say I have walked across New Zealand from the Tasman Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Of course Auckland is on an isthmus so that is a16 km walk. It's not quite the same as walking coast to coast in almost an other part of the country let alone any other country! However this is rated one of the top ten urban walks in the world.

I started by heading back to Onehunga with Pene and Atawhai. They were teaching again and I stopped for food and then walked off to find the beginning of the walk about 1 km away. I found out in the process that Onehunga voted in the first woman mayor in the British Empire in 1893 - another thing I like about Onehunga. My kind of place!  The starting point was a bit disappointing. The shore line was actually an inlet rather than a beach, and there was a bridge from headland to headland so I couldn't even see the Tasman.

So off I went and of course the route immediately headed uphill. Curses.

I had no real idea of where I was going as I struggled to download the map at a useful size.  Consequently I had a map but it was to small for me to be confident that it showed all the details. There is no current published map available either but I am determined and this is an urban walk with lots of people available to ask and my experience is that people always do want to help.  Still the route is particularly well sign posted.  There are little blue square signs with arrows pointing the way. More resonances with the Camino.    In fact it is so signposted in some places there are three signs to make sure you cross the road at exactly the right spot. Truly - the sign says cross here!  My Camino habit of scanning the environment for arrows unconsciously kicked in as I suddenly saw an arrow sign down a side street. I could hardly believe my eyes when the route had been so well sign-posted to this point. But I thought I would go check it out and, sure enough, that was the right way.

So now I was in Royal Oak. It occurred to me that once again I was travelling from the suburbs to the inner city, the outer to the inner, the edge to the heart.  I had a chuckle to myself thinking of some of my friends and the comments they would make about symbolism and how this would fit with the conversation I had had with Pene about walking being meditation in action. I wondered if something special would happen today and then I thought, yes, I would get to do the walk and that is pretty special, so stay in the present and be mindful.

Then I came to One Tree Hill, and of course, I had to walk to the summit. Curses again. At this point it is inevitable that I start wondering why countries have to have hills and mountains and why they can't get some decent bulldozers?

One Tree Hill is in a domain; a green, grassy, treed space in the city. Pene told me that once there was a single tree but it was chopped down by a Maori activist protesting Pakeha (white European) oppression. That wasn't in the brochure.  I bet there was a terrible furor. Even for me the name One Tree Hill resonates with Lone Pine from Gallipoli and ANZAC Cove, so it's hard not to sympathize with both sides.  And the site is dominated by a hill topped by a spire that certainly looks like it will be a memorial.

Another thing that wasn't in the brochure was that they graze sheep on the land around the summit. I'm amazed. I can hear cows mooing as well. I wonder why they are here but I can't see any signs they might explain it, only the signs to the Observatory.  Another mystery is a set of stones laid out so that it can be seen/read from the summit. Why do people do that? What kind of commitment does that take? And what do they want us to know? Whatever it is I obviously didn't get it.

Getting to the top there is a memorial but it is meant to be to the Maori people. According to the plaque, the site was donated by Sir John Logan Campbell who left instructions in his will for an acknowledgement of his respect and admiration for the Maori people. Instead the dominant culture turned it into a memorial to him and the British.

One Tree Hill is also Maungakieke, the largest volcanic cone fortress in the southern hemisphere. I'm spending a fair bit of time around volcanoes lately.

I leave the summit and have to approach a woman and check that I am going the right way. She said you're heading to Olive Way. I said I don't know about that and told her the name of the street on the map. She said"Oh you're going that far! " which is quite disconcerting when you know you are only about a third of the way along the walk. I wondered if I turned back could I get back to Pene before she left Onehunga and would anyone notice if I didn't finish. Then I started walking again,  because that's what you do.

The road went through Cornwell Park.  This too is part of the gift to the nation by Sir John during a tour by the then Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. It's a pretty park. I stopped in at the Information Centre to find out where the public toilets were along the way. Why does it not occur to walking tour map drawers that this is essential information,  especially if you are not in favor of men urinating in public, which I, emphatically, am not.

Walking through this Park was a man in a rain jacket. Even I was sleeveless so it was a pretty warm day and I was thinking lucky for him that the 9/11 scare was over or he'd be arrested (I was reading Salmon Rushdie). He was a stocky Asian man at least in his sixties who was motoring along and not raising a sweat that I could see. Depressing, when I was just starting to realize that I was developing a blister on the outside of my left heel, exactly where I had got my first blister on the Camino. Such an odd spot too - it must mean I have a problem either with that for our my gait. I'll have to investigate when I get home. At least all this area is flat. I'm loving it. Lots of beautiful trees too, some of which are starting to yellow with autumn in spite of the warm days.

I wonder through some more suburban streets to Melville Park and across the cricket fields to sit in the shade outside the University of Auckland and have a lunch break with my feet up. I get to read my book and people-watch uni students for a while.  Nice. This is a no rush walk. Also the Information Centre woman told me that the uni is one of the two places people routinely get lost so I'm guiding my loins.  Not that I'm particularly concerned - I can always find the library, have a browse, and get the librarian to help. They always do. And I'm a student too, even if in a different country.

As it happens I don't have any problems with either of the two tricky spots, finding them quite par for the course for urban walking trails and quite well sign-posted. I manage to get lost in entirely different spots.

 Through the uni I go and then on to the domain at Mt Eden, another hill.  At 196m, is the tallest volcano in Auckland. It doesn't feel that way walking it though. One Tree Hill was harder to climb. One thing I really noticed on the way up, as I had a quiet moment in the bush, was how little New Zealand birds are bothered by people. I had noticed on Rangitoto that the birds are the ground scavengers, and once again this was the case.  I don't know what kind of bird it was but it let me within 2-3 feet (60-90cm) before it flew off. They must have been decimated by the introduction of predators.

On the way down from the summit and I met another Good Samaritan who saw that I was looking bewildered by the arrow that pointed back the way I came and he pointed me in the right direction. I also met a young guy, 30ish with a big backpack, who was walking it the other way but it turned out he started just down the road rather than at the other end.  We wished each other well and off I went through increasing well off suburbs. I passed the Auckland Grammer School, which looked like the Empire replanted from Singapore, crossed over the motorway, wondering if I was going in the right direction, and saw signs for the Museum. I thought that if I was lost I could always go to the Museum instead,  or maybe even come back when I'd finished the walk (how impractical was that? )

Just ahead was the Auckland Domain, exactly what I was looking for, and the sign that I had reached the CBD and was nearly finished. A very helpful women eating lunch in the cricket grandstand looked at my map, agreed it was no use at this point and told me if I followed the path to the right I'd find the kiosk (the one recognizable thing on the map and the place where the toilets are) just past the duck pond. Funny advice as it turned out because you can see the kiosk before the duck pond.

What neither the map or woman had mentioned is that the kiosk and toilets are accessories to the Auckland Wintergardens, a tourist attraction on the Hop on Hop off bus tour. I love gardens and happily spent an unknown period of time in the Victorian buildings which house the Cool house, the Hothouse and the Fernery all situated around a Roman style portico surrounding an atrium style formal pond with mosaic fountains at each end. The hothouse had an hypocaust to heat it too, which was a Roman central heating invention.  Quite gorgeous.

Then I checked out the duck pond before leaving and getting lost.  It wasn't until I saw the War Museum, sitting in isolated splendour on top of the hill,  that I was sure I was going the wrong way. I did get a good picture of it though. Sadly I later realised it was from the back.

So then I had to trudge back and head into the city proper. Once again I passed Auckland Uni, but the city campus this time. They have a lovely Gaudi-esque clock tower.  Once again I got lost but this time it took me outside a Northface shop with a 50% off sale on backpacks. Seeing mine was fraying that was great. Then I worked out where I was and headed down to the Wharf. I wandered along and was wondering how I would know when I'd got to the end when I came to a sign that said Coat to Coast Finish! I'd done it!  I promptly took a picture of the sign. Later Atawhai asked if I'd got someone to take a picture of me with it and I confessed it had never occurred to me.

So I took myself off to Britomart and stepped straight into a train. I imagine it must have been unpleasant to sit next to me but everyone was polite. It was a busier peak hour too with about six people standing!