COAST TO COAST WALK

    Well on Friday morning, we got to sleep in! Well by sleep in I mean we woke up around eight! It felt so good! I loved it! Anyway Janet (photo above) Diana, and I decided that we wanted to do the coast to coast walk. Let me tell you about this walk. Everywhere we have read said it's a nice walk, following a path. See the best sites in Auckland and end up at the other coast. Sounds very good right, well just notice our feet in this picture, yes we are in flip flops. Little did we know, it was really a hike for most of the time! It was really funny! Now I will tell you about the hike! 

      So first we rode a bus to Britomart! We even got on the right bus, at the right time, and it took us to the right place. We may just be figuring out the bus system yet! I am very proud of us! Anyway, we got to Britomart, and went to the coast! This is where it all began! They told us we were suppose to follow the yellow arrow signs so we did!

   It started out, and we walked up Queenstreet. This was somewhere I am familiar with. Several of the things you do are on Queenstreet, or at least that's where the bus drops you off from Henderson, and then you have to go from there. So I am familiar with this street! After this we followed it down a little road. It was a street just a short ways down from Queenstreet, but it took you through the little apartment area of downtown Auckland. It was actually really cute! This street was a big hill though, this is about where I remembered that no where in New Zealand is flat, and what was I thinking to wear flip-flops. Anyway, at the middle of the hill, it came to a park that had a tree growing all over it. It was absolutely gorgeous! We got to walk under the trees, and see a statue! It was really cool!

    After we had gone through the park, we continued walking up the hill (The arrows told us to), and when we got to the top of the hill we were able to Albert Park. This was such a great time to see Albert Park. This is a park where there are several festivals that are held, and this particular day was the Chinese Lantern Festival. It was really neat! They have hundreds of lanterns! Some were in the trees, others were in the shapes of everything, and it was incredible! 

    As we continued on our trek across the coast following the arrows, it took us through part of Auckland University! This campus made me think of Harvard. Or at least how the movies portray Harvard. It was a very pretty campus. 

     After we had finished the little tour of the campus it took us up to the Winter gardens and the Auckland Museum. The grounds were gorgeous. When we went up to the Museum we didn't really stop in any of the grounds so this was incredible to see.

    After we saw the grounds, it took us over to this HUGE cricket field! This is when it got a little bit scary...the arrows were no longer on the street corners, and were far apart. We were smart, and didn't bring a map, and we were playing who could spot the little yellow sign first! ha ha! I'll be honest they were pretty hard to spot sometimes.

    After we went through the cricket field, we walked along some other roads in Auckland, and walked by Eden Park (Rugby Stadium). This was really cool. I'm going to be honest here and say Rugby is growing on. I am learning so much about it! After Eden Park, we got to go up to One Tree Hill. I think this is what I thought New Zealand would look like before I came over here! It was absolutely gorgeous! First we had to hike up the mountain. Seriously, and not only that while we were hiking we'd have to back track because we would miss the yellow sign or something like that, we were feeling so tired when we got to the top, but when we got their it was completely worth it! One Tree Hill has a huge crater at the top. All the way down, the crater is just filled with trees. then when you get to the top, you can see all the other crater mountains! It was absolutely gorgeous! It also gave the most spectacular view of the city! I think now at this point in my photo's I probably have every angle of the sky tower you can get! It was amazing!

 

   Once we had taken in the beauty of One Tree Hill we kept on following our yellow signs! This time they took us down the back side of it. It was a major bush walk! Good thing Carol and Chuck sent the bug spray with me, because it was a big help for today. Anyway, we got to the bottom of the Mountain, and we were able to keep following the signs. We passed several schools, and a few other parks! It was really pretty. the next part was so random! It took us through another campus of Auckland University. It took you right down the middle of it. We get there, and there is a huge staff lunch/Morning Tea going on. We were so embarrassed to be going through it. We didn't know what to do, we couldn't leave our arrows, or we would be completely lost, but we didn't want to interrupt. We decided it was best to just walk quickly through, and try not to be notice. We all speed up and we are going extra quick, then Diana thinks she hears her name, but doesn't turn around, who would know her? Then, I hear my name, this is when we think we are going crazy. We are in the middle of Auckland, have no idea where we are, and no hardly anyone here, especially downtown, and we think we hear our names. We turn around and guess who we see! We see Alexis Stiene! She was the professor who taught us our social studies class! It was so random! She comes up and hugs and and chats with us for a while, then she tells us to come have Morning tea with her! So the three of us, went and had morning tea with our professor! We got to see where she works, her office, and meet her staff! It was so random, but so much fun! 

     After our random run in with one of the four people we know in Auckland, we continued on our way, the next park was Cornwall Park! This Park is huge! We hiked up to the top of it, then walked along under all of the trees, and then there was just tons of open sheep! You could walk right up to the sheep. There were no fences or anything! Just heaps of sheep! This was really neat! After the sheep there was a statue, and a fountain, this is where we decided to eat our lunch. We were starving, we had been going for a long time!

    After the little lunch break we kept on walking. We now were in a different suburb outside of Auckland, getting closer to the coast! We continued following our yellow signs...and then all of a sudden they stop! Don't worry our signs had now turned into little arrows on the ground! They went from BIG signs at the first to little signs up high, now to an arrow on the ground, that was easily missed! No worries, we missed a few, but then back tracked and found it again, and got back on course! 

    We continued walking, and this was the biggest success of the day!!! We no longer look like tourists! Two people asked us for directions. First that's a big accomplishment that they asked us, but second of all, WE COULD ANSWER THEM! We knew our way around Auckland!!! We were so proud of ourselves! As we continued on our way, as we got close to the end, the arrows were completely gone! We had no idea where we were going...but guess what!!! 5 hours of walking...16 kilometers later...and being exhausted...

 

WE MADE IT!!!! Yes, I am hugging the sign! That is how happy I was to see it! I made it coast to coast in one day! It was so much fun! It was so worth it! I would definitely do it again in a heartbeat! So much fun!