Walk 06 - Hammond Park, Hamilton

It's such a nice feeling when all your plans fall in to place as they're meant to, as they did yesterday. Drop Mum off in Hamilton, dash to Hammond Park for one of the quicker walks in the book, dash back to pick up Mum and make it back home to Auckland with enough time to watch NZ beat Australia in the cricket. Check, check and check!!

Hammond Park is a bit of a tease. Described as a little gem that not many locals know about, you have to drive past Hamilton Gardens in all it's well clipped glory and down some twisty little suburban side streets to find it. As you wonder the path you can't help feel that the locals do know about it...they're just all at the park next door with it's shiny kiosks and public facilities.

Not that the trail isn't nice. It's short (40mins), pretty with it's view of the river and easy. It was just a little underwhelming.

The walk is mostly over a well designed boardwalk that weaves its way through the trees and along the river, which you don't get to see very often (because of the afore mentioned trees) but you know it's there and that knowledge alone is quite nice. There are a couple of lookout points along the way where I managed to spot the Waitomo Caves tourist boat meandering past.

 

 

The boardwalk comes to an abrupt end and you find yourself in a small field at the back of some industrial buildings which was slightly unnerving for this solo-adventurer so I decided to double back along the trail rather than finish the loop along the streets as the book had suggested. Safety first kids!

There is a sweet little bench that you pass before you reach the car-park but it's view is just a corner of the river and a wall of trees. Perhaps if it overlooked the park next door, it wouldn't have looked so unused.

 

So for a quick walk it did the job, but I don't know that you'd want to go too far out of your way for it.

Walk 05 - Tawharanui Regional Park

Apologies for the delay in this blog but the inevitable happened....I was left too tired to type on Sunday! And then, feeling like I had fully recovered on Monday night, sat down and.....fell asleep. Tawharanui Peninsula officially got me. But it wasn't just the hike, but the slightly misleading description of an "easy, rolling walk" that left me ill prepared for the mornings adventure.

In an effort to not go through all my Auckland based walks at once, I decided a little trip up North was in order over the weekend, so I picked Tawharanui which is a lovely 1 1/12 drive..well mostly lovely as the last 20 minutes is a very narrow, windy gravel road which my little city car struggled with, as did the little city driver. I'm still not sure what the proper response is when you approach a blind corner and a helpful, dented road sign indicates the lanes are about to become one, but I'm sure my sailors curse was incorrect, though it made me feel braver for but a moment.

My company was my very brave Mum who only 11 days earlier had been in hospital having surgery, but the idea of an "easy, rolling walk" had appealed and she was suffering a little cabin fever. So over the hills we zoomed, towards the park - a predator free sanctuary once again. Brown ducks and Pukeko poke about amongst the grazing sheep and the silence envelopes you and helps to erase the memory of the gravel lane you'd just barley survived.

 

It's a short drive to the car park by the beach where a bus from the surf school was leaking half dressed, tanned, athletic types which we politely nodded to before scurrying past before we blinded them with our paleness. I could write a whole blog on the toilet facilities at the beach, but I need to leave something to talk to my therapist about. All I shall say is that I never would have imagined that soap and a 'flush' function on the loo were luxury items.

Now I shall be very honest and confess that the reason our walk took such a dramatic turn and would, on reflection NOT be described as easy, is that I may have, by mistake and without meaning to, lead us the wrong way round the track. Though in my defence, a white marker looks an awful lot like an 'off' white marker and so with my trusting mother at my side we headed out and immediately encountered our first hill which took us up and out away from the beach and across the farmland.

With the memories of the toilet and the drive fading with each step we started to enjoy the surrounding views and the lovely noises chirping out of the trees. They were similar views to those from the walk around Shakespear Park - rolling hills and seascape but still enjoyable and the breeze along the hilltops were a relief.

 

 

The main challenge of the day were the hills...oh the hills! Four crazy, mean spirited hills. The first one as we set out was tough as we hadn't really warmed up, but the other three were super steep and the loose gravel under foot on the last two added an extra degree of difficulty which under the weight of the guilt I was carrying at subjecting Mum to them, made for a lung busting effort.

I tried to capture the degree of the climb, but without the sound effect of my tears it doesn't have as much impact..

Mum did exceptionally well and lead the way (though i was carrying all that guilt remember) and most of the complaining was coming from me, which may have also stemmed from the knowledge that I had taken us the wrong way (extra guilt anybody??) but at the top of the hills were some spectacular sights, I especially enjoyed the canopy of trees which seemed to have purple plants dotted through it.

As we came down off the final hill we were treated to a gorgeous bush walk where Bellbirds, Saddlebacks, Tuis and Wood Pigeons flew around us and the pain of the climbs were quickly forgotten. The paths were lined with beautiful old trees who's roots snuck out across the path. A stream wound it's way along beside us and the "easy, rolling walk" we were expecting, suddenly appeared.

 

The path finally looped back to where we had started at the beach, which was much busier than when we had left it. Families out enjoying the sunshine, blankets laid out under trees and surfers still enjoying the waves.

Definitely the toughest walk so far, but I know there will be tougher...much tougher...and yet as we sat under a tree at the end, enjoying our lunch, we felt good about what we'd achieved and being able to enjoy the bush at the end made it all worthwhile.

Now which "easy" walk shall I do next??

Walk 4 - Muriwai Gannet Colony

Not a long post today as this walk is quite a small one - about 45mins return if you don't stop to photograph baby Gannets.

Muriwai beach is about 40mins North of Auckland and famous for it's black sandy beach. We used to live there so I'm very familiar with the area and it's resident Gannets. The walk today was from the upper carpark where, if you go on a sunny Sunday morning when the waves are good, you will do battle with the surfers for a car park. In the first photo you can see the number of surfers that had already made a start.

 

 
It's an easy hike to the first viewing platform where you can look down and out over the lower beach and make your way to the first platform over the Gannet Colony where at this time of year babies can be spotted (insert excited squeal here).

 

 

 

 

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 There are three main areas where the birds have settled. High above the sea which they dive down into for their food. If you linger at the lookouts, the smell of fish becomes quite overwhelming.

 

The turnaround point for the walk was Flat Rock which lies at the bottom of the cliff and despite the danger of being swept into the sea with one wayward wave, is a popular spot for photos and fishing. Though the council do their best to deter you from venturing out.

 

 

 

Though it takes more than a sketchy set of stairs, danger sign and possible death to deter this adventurer ;) I stayed out on the rock for approximately 6.2 minutes before starting the journey back.

The track back is (of course) steeper, but it's not a long journey and the views are just lovely.  And it does give you another opportunity to go Baby Gannet spotting....they're SO fluffy!!

And just like that we're four walks down.

Walks 2 and 3 over the long weekend

It was a long weekend here in NZ with Waitangi Day on Friday which is a day held to remember/celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.

With the extra day off and the upcoming week being quite a busy one, it was my goal to tick off two walks over the three day period. With the day between being a zoo day as well, the weekend became Operation 'Knackered Eileen'.

As had happened with the week before, I awoke to the sweet, sweet sound of....rain! I'm not sure what I've done to anger Mother Nature but if someone could let me know the correct number of goats I need to sacrifice in order to appease her that would be great. Now rain in general doesn't bother me, but for walk #2 around Shakespear Park (not named after the Bard) I was being joined by a group of friends, some of whom were bringing their small children and the thought of them getting wet and cold didn't sit well with me. So after much messaging back and forth and with the skies getting greyer I headed out of Auckland resigned to the fact that I would probably be hiking alone. But it seems I need to have a little bit more faith in people as every one of them arrived, with their kids wrapped up against the elements, all happy and ready for an adventure. I was quite overwhelmed and very grateful, for as with the Tiri hike, having company is far far better than walking alone. So our group of 11 adults and 9 children headed into the park.

Shakespear Park is another predator free sanctuary about an hour North of Auckland. You enter through a very Jurassic-Parky fence and along the walk there are many gate stations where you scrub down your shoes with a special formula to help reduce Kauri dieback which is a fungus killing off the Kauri trees.

The hike starts as a gentle stroll through the bush with a lovely little waterfall about 15 minutes in. It's very peaceful and you cross some small streams as you continue along.

The majority of the walk though takes you across paddocks and up across the cliffs over Te Haruhi Bay. At one point we were amongst a friendly group of sheep, but mostly we were just amongst their poop.

 

We got very lucky with the weather (again) but once we reached the top of the hill we were hit by a fierce wind which was an interesting extra obstacle. Hills are hard enough without a gale force hitting you in the face thank you very much.

 

Wind is a tricky thing to photograph but you can see the grass in the shot above whipping back and this was on our way down and our of it! I'm pretty sure we had the same number of little legs we started with....

The walk was shorter than last weeks though it felt much tougher. The hills and the wind were a struggle (I'm talking of course for myself, not my experienced and much fitter gang of friends) and I felt a different sense of accomplishment at the end of it. With the different terrains and challenges it felt like a more complete hike and it was really good to tick it off the list. My friends are all rock stars for making such an effort and coming along with me. We ended the day with a lovely picnic by the beach watching the wind surfers enjoy the elements.

 

One souvenir I wish I hadn't taken away with me is a very painful sunburn across my forehead. Kids if you're going to turn your cap backwards to combat the wind, make sure there's suntan lotion on there because otherwise you too will end up with the nickname Stripey.

This morning's walk was much shorter and easier. A quick little city walk which promised flat paths and shore birds, neither of which was true. I have to accept that not all these walks are going to have breathtaking vistas or much of a sense of adventure and the Te Atatu Peninsula was one of these...I don't want to say boring...but boring ones. My mum Maree joined me, mainly because I'd promised flat paths and shore birds and as we hit the first hill I avoided eye contact. To be honest the hills are small and hardly steep but I did have some guilt.

We had envisioned a coastal path with ample views of the city and an abundance of bird life. Not that I'm saying the four ducks we spotted weren't lovely but not quite the experience we had hoped for.

The view of the city from the car park was nice, but from there you head inland and 90% of the walk is behind marsh and trees separating you from the coastline. We did pass a couple of storm-water ponds which is where we saw all those ducks.

 

 

For history fans you pass the site of  ' McCormick Cottage' which was originally built in 1880. There is now a platform where the cottage used to stand to give you an idea of the floor plan and size. Of course the view would have been a little different back then....who knows there may have even been shore birds ;)

 

Although there weren't many birds on display and to be fair there's no requirement that any animals be on display for me, we did see some lovely butterfly's and a few webs from the Nursery Web Spider which I'm glad I Googled after our walk because otherwise all the photos from today would have been taken from inside the car.

 

Once we returned to the car we were treated to the DC3 doing a loop of the city and we grabbed a quick selfie (which I'm useless at) before heading home. Note the lovely white stripe...my souvenir from Friday.

Don't forget your sunscreen folks! Stripey out.

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