I must have left a positive impression as Karin is keen to get more hikers to come and stay. I gave her the contact details of the Trust and agreed to email them as well, recommending she get included in the trail notes (the pricier motel is in there already after all). Karin and Hanna insisted on taking photos of me outside the front gate before I headed off down the street, bound for the ferry.
$6.10 gets you a one-way ticket to Queens Wharf on the Fullers Ferry. I sat and waited the ten minutes or so til the ferry came scouting out the crowd to see if any other hikers were present; some young teenager/twenty something's should up with backpacks but I guessed from their oversized sleeping bags try weren't TA walkers...then a guy cam along at the end with two enormous fold-up mattresses, one slung over each shoulder. Definitely not doing the TA.
Shortly the ferry arrived: a my metrical catamaran that apparently drives front ways and back ways without needing to turn around. I boarded and went straight out to the front deck to take in Auckland as it drifted closer and closer. In ten minutes or so we had docked, completely dwarfed by the enormous cruiseship two berths over. I disembarked and headed out into the morning sunshine. While I was making a few adjustments to my packing an Australian couple struck up conversation with me. They were going to visit friends in Waihi. I explained about the trail (like most people they assumed I was backpacking round NZ, which I guess I sort of am...just in a straight line). Ready to go, I bid them safe travels and headed off along the trail through Auckland.
The TA skirts the CBD and passes through a small park before diverting through the Auckland University Campus. On through the Auckland Domain and the odd cricket ground you end up climbing Mt Eden/Maungawhau before heading down the eastern side and heading south to One Tree Hill/Maungakiekie. There are great views over Auckland from the top of both hills, and happily the climbs aren't as arduous as they look! (Or you can just drive).
I ended up walking up Mt Eden with a Chinese guy here on holiday with his parents. He was keen to get my take on all the best places to see in NZ--always a difficult question to answer especially when tourists are on a tight schedule. Up One Tree Hill a pair of American woofers asked me where I was backpacking; they were intrigued by the trail but more interested in the Great Walks.
Heading south to Onehunga I discovered that the new footbridge over the motorway had newly opened--today! Until now TA hikers had to take a detour around the highway, reconnecting with the trail as it crosses Mangere Bridge. I set off through the new waterside parkland and up over the decorative wood and steel bridge. One guy stopped and asked me about carrying the big pack across--apparently I'm the first person to take a big pack across the new bridge. If that's true I'm the first ever TA hiker to walk this section of trail! I can't help but feel a little bit special :)
Over the Onehunga footbridge and around the point you come to Mangere bridge, an old vehicle bridge now pedestrians and cyclists only, and a popular fishing spot (complete with boat ramp). Heading west the trails then snakes around the coastline along a footpath popular with joggers, dog walkers and families cycling (someone needs to tell the cyclists to use bells like they do in Australia, to warn walkers you are coming up behind them!).
The trail then passes into Ambury Regional Park, a scant few hundred meters from the entrance to the camping ground, but I first diligently walked the track around the coast to complete the track and enter the campground from the other side. It's fairy simple: drinking water and long drop loos, but that all you need. There were a bunch of car campers and one tent already pitched (weirdly, hard up against a bushy fence...). An expat-UK guy walking with a tot picked I was doing the TA and we chatted about hiking and long walk options in the UK. He was part of a group of two families from Auckland overnight camping in the park/farm (which is more like a giant petting zoo)--a huge adventure for their gaggle of young kids. They invited me to hang out with then and even offered me a wine, but by the time I'd had dinner I was ready for bed and politely declined. It was sleepy time for this tired hiker!
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